When You Have the Best Hand
When you have what you believe to be the best hand, you usually will either bet or raise, except possibly on the flop.
You sometimes should wait for fourth street to see whether a scare card or a counterfeit card comes to knock you off. For example, suppose you hold and the flop comes
If the pot is multiway poker pot, it is likely for there to be nut straights out for the high, as well as other lows, meaning that this could be a jammed hand.
Since all you have is low, you want to be extremely careful before you put much money in or start the jamming, even though you currently have a cinch for low.
It is easy for an ace or a deuce to come, which will now counterfeit your hand, causing you to lose everything.
If it is already jammed, a fold is in order. You are playing for a quarter (or perhaps less) of the pot, and your cinch low may cost you money even if it does not get counterfeited.
This is certainly a time to slow down the action and then gamble later in the hand. With this type of playing on the flop, you are going to get action since people will pay anyway.
Consequently, there is no sense in putting a lot of money in on the flop when you may need to throw away your hand later.
Investing too much too soon is a mistake that many intermediate players make.
This brings up a related point. When cautious players do not have redraws, they almost never raise with an ace-deuce until all the cards are out.
If you are playing against a tight players, there is a possible nut low out, and he is in there calling, he usually has it.
You often can put this type of player on the cinch with no redraws and no draws at the high.
If you are against him in a short-handed pot and an ace or a deuce hits, which counterfeits your hand, you may be able to bluff him out since his hand also will be ruined.
This conservative approach makes money at the smaller limits and in the loose games at the higher stakes.
But in tight games, it doesn’t work, because good players just won’t give the tight players action.
When the experts are in the pot no limit texas holdem with cautious tight players, the experts usually have them quartered or will check it along with them so the pots stay small, and they won’t pay off on the end.
Introduction / General Concepts / Position / Low Hands / High Hands / Your Starting Hand / Starting With Big Pairs / When You Are First In / How To Play Your Hand / Play on the Flop / When Your Have the Best Hand / Afterthought
