[Jezza]

Aight komp,


The thing is here that many bad players routinely check when they have a great hand and bet when they have nothing/a marginal hand. Good players know this and thus can escape from a good hand when a bad player check raises them. That is not to say it is not correct to slowplay a very good hand sometimes (as in check it etc), it IS - you just have to work out which is best in the context of the situation.

In the example above the key thing is the stack sizes. We both have 400 dollars and the big blind is only 4 dollars. We want to get his WHOLE stack when he have a great hand like 333 so our play has to centre around getting him committed to the pot. If we check/call then CR the turn, he has a definate chance to escape. The same goes for CR on the flop, infact even more so probably. However if we LEAD at this hand on the flop, then he is going to probably raise if he has AA in the hole. This commits more of his chips, and more importantly he is going to think we probably have a king and not a hand as good as we have (if we really did have 333 he would think, we would have checked it to him for sure).

However checking in this situation can be right as well, like I said its all about the stacks in play. If he only had 80 dollars left then I Check it everytime. He commits himself (which is what our play centres around) with any bet to the pot, and he is going to bet this flop after raising preflop with anything he has. Late on in tournaments stack sizes become so shallow in relation to the big blind that a check would usually be best there as well, unless you were the two chip leaders or something.

By leading at this flop you are taking a gamble he raised preflop with AK or AA, or he is aggressive enough to bluff raise you. You miss out on the times he raised with AQ and QQ JJ etc, and only win a small pot then. However the huge pot you will win when you come up against AK more than makes up for the times you got it wrong.

Jez