I hate the flat. With stacks this deep, you want to protect your aces, and you have a tight player opening, meaning he may have one of the more premium hands that you want to play a big pot with preflop, like KK or QQ. I usually will make a standard raise here, something in the neighborhood of $45-$60. You’re decreasing variance by forcing your deep, tight opponent to play more straightfoward poker with you preflop, and by tightening his range against you, your post-flop decisions are easier. Remember; he has position on you from this point on. Make him pay for it. In this hand, however, Clarence chose to min-bet to $30. He was trying to be cute and build a small pot with his aces, but Chris can’t fold any hand he opened with for a min-bet, and he quickly flicked the $15 in the pot.

With $57 (less rake) in the pot, the flop was 2d 5d 10d. A player with black aces here has a real dilemma against a very tight player; he’s not likely to make any more money off of any hand that doesn’t contain at least one large (Q+) diamond in it! His situation has deteriorated quite a bit, so what’s the proper play here? Given Clarence’s action and the player he’s up against, I think a fair continuation bet of around $40 will defend us against hands like 8×8d or 9×9d without putting too much money in the pot if he does happen to have AdXd or KQd, two hands that are completely in our opponents range. Facing a $40 bet, our opponent is probably only calling with QQd+ or a flush, or top set (and he’s likely raising us with top set) and folding JJd or less, and maybe even hands like QQ no diamond. It keeps the pot under control and lets us reevaluate if he calls and we have to play the turn.

In this particular hand, however, Clarence chose to make a massive overbet of the pot, and fired $100 very quickly into the piot. Chris paused for about ten seconds before sliding a tower of red into the pot. Clarence has now put himself into a terribly awkward position by inflating a pot with a hand that has very little chance for improvement. Our incredibly tight opponent called our oversized bet into this pot with only a small amount of consideration. What’s his range here?

* Flopped flush: Fits the hand perfectly; AJd+ and KJd+ fit the hand. He may raise with the king high flush, to protect against the naked ace (Clarence’s hand could read for AxAd or AdKx) and he would certainly raise to protect with the QJd, so his flat looks very strongly of a flopped flush.

* Set of 10’s: Not as likely, but possible. He may be waiting to see if a diamond peels before protecting, but it’s not a good idea. Even a tight player could recognize the danger of this board, and would be inclined to make a good sized raise to protect their hand. However, the large initial bet Clarence made may actually hinder his ability to make a protective raise.

* JJ-KK with a diamond: Possible. I think our tight opponent may have the discipline to lay the JJ down, but I’m not so sure about QQ, and I don’t think you can lay KK with a diamond down on this type of flop for a bet, even as big as this is, given that Clarence’s range is bigger than simply AA. It’s clearly a calling hand, not a raising hand.

Those are about all of the hands that make sense to flat $100 with, and we’re crushed by two of the three, and only a favorite against the smaller pocket pairs, who still have a clean 11 outs to beat us. Our hand is pretty face up, but our opponents is now too, and the turn play in this now inflated pot is going to be hard to manuever. The turn was the 4 of clubs, giving us a board of 2d 5d 10d 4c. With $257 in the pot, and $550 left in each player’s stack, what are we going to do now? By inflating the pot to a point that we aren’t comfortable with, we’ve turned our hand into a bluff catcher and little else, and we’re up against a player that isn’t likely to be bluffing. I’m content to check and let our opponent tell us whether or not he has a big hand; a bet here is going to likely commit us to the hand.

In the actual hand, however, Clarence continued firing with a bet of $200, committing half of his stack to the hand with the bet. Clarence was intending to protect his “monster” hand with the big bet, but what can Chris call with on the turn now that he’s bet so much? He’s only getting called (or raised) by the set or the flush, and the range of hands that he beats will fold. The problem, however, is the range that beats him actually exceeds the range he beats! The inflated pot made him feel he had to protect his hand, and he made a bet in accordance with the size of the pot. Chris, after a thirty second tank, announced all-in for another $250, and Clarence quickly called, announcing himself as “pot-committed” as Chris happily turned over AQd for the nuts, having Clarence drawing completely dead.

Why did Clarence lose $600? Was this simply a bad beat, as he later lamented? Absolutely not! If Clarence makes it $50 preflop, Chris actually could’ve folded AQd (he’s tight enough to let hands of that caliber go to a 3-bet from another tight player) and we take the pot there. If not? Let’s look at the hand played with careful calculation after the $50 3-bet, if called.

On the flop, we’re continuation betting, but a number more like $60-$70, a number that defends against the bare diamond while keeping us non-committed to the hand. Chris would very likely just call, as he did in our example. The turn, with about $240 in the pot, allows us to check and evaluate, as even though a very similar amount of money is in the pot, the larger preflop raise isolated his range, and we can see that we’re clearly either ahead and vulnerable or drawing completely dead, so there’s little need to defend. Chris would fire a bet here, in the neighborhood of $100-$150. I think this is where we give Chris some respect and simply let it go here, but even if we call, we can fold if a diamond peels on the river, or if he shows us strength again (which he would) and instead of losing the full $600, we lose a number in the range of $120-150 most of the time. (or even win $17 a small amount of the time)

By controlling and manipulating pot sizes, you allow yourself the ability to price people in and out of pots, but you also give yourself that “escape hatch” to get out of a particularly nasty situation without being handcuffed to it yourself. Be cautious of your bet sizing throughout the hand, and you just might thank yourself when that “should’ve been a thousand dollar pot” that your opponent wins is actually only two hundred.

However, one very important question that you must ask yourself when you make this raise is “how big do I want this pot to get”. In an ideal world you would like to have a huge pot with your AK and the board be something like A-A-K-9-10 and have someone lose their entire stack to you with something like a smaller boat, a flush or a straight.

But don’t hold your breathe waiting for huge hand over huge hand. You may wait ages and ages for a situation like this and then end up being the one on the receiving end. When you raise with big slick then the chances are that you will flop either nothing or one pair a very high percentage of the time. These are not hands in which you would like to play a big pot.

So in that case then why build one? I was playing in a NL100 game on Cake Poker the other day when the following hand came up (I was not active in this hand).

It was folded around to a player in middle position who open raised to $3.50 and it was called by the big blind. With $7.50 in the pot we saw a flop of Ac-9d-8c. Both players had over one hundred dollars in their stacks with the original raiser having $164 and the big blind having $189. The big blind checked and the raiser bet $5.50 into the pot and was called.

The pot stood at $18.50 and the turn card was the Qh and the big blind checked again. Our hero fired out a pot sized bet of $19 and was thus min raised to $38 and our hero called. The pot stood at $94.50 (almost an entire buy-in at this level). The river card was the 3d which made a final board of Ac-9d-8c-Qh-3d. The big blind thought for quite some time and eventually made a bet of $80. Our hero went into the tank but called and with a $254.50 pot we saw a showdown but it was obvious who the winner was.

The big blind showed the Jc-10c for a straight and our hero did not show. I checked the last hand history and found that he had the Ah-Kh for top pair and top kicker. Our hero ended up losing 127 big blinds in this pot with one lousy pair. He ended up committing one of the biggest sins in NLHE ring-games, allowing the pot to escalate with a hand that is too vulnerable and simply does not merit it.

Now let us go back to the start of the hand and look at an alternate way to play the A-K. So it has been folded to you and you hold the Ah-Kh in late middle position in a $0.50-$1.00 NLHE game. You have to remember here why you are raising. You are simply raising for value and that’s all, this is not a hand that you can take to the bank. In fact no hand is unless you have a hand that is so strong that the likelihood of it being beaten or behind at that stage is slim.

Your hand is likely best at this stage but notice that I said “at this stage”. You raise to get a weaker hand to call you and to hopefully extract a little money from what will be a small pot or to eliminate the field. Most of the time you will have no more than top pair and top kicker with this hand and if one measly pair is the boss hand then any pot that you win will be small anyway!

You have raised to get money into the pot from a weaker hand or to win the blinds uncontested. But the big blind calls you and we have a $7.50 pot and the flop comes Ac-9d-8c giving you a strong hand heads up. However we have now seen a flop and you hand is still only one pair. You are likely ahead but there are several draws out there, the big blind checks and you bet $5 and get called and the pot is now $17.50.

The turn card is the Qh and your opponent checks to you again. You eliminate the turn betting round by checking it back and the pot remains at $17.50. The river card is the 3d and the big blind bets out $8 and you call and they win with a straight. The pot is $33.50 and it has cost you a mere $16.50 instead of the $127 that you lost before.

Some people may argue against checking it back on the turn saying that you are increasing the chances of your opponent hitting their draw and that you are also losing value. Well this is true but you are also increasing the chances of your opponent bluffing into you as well as your turn check showed weakness. Another line of play would be to bet the turn as before and when you got min-raised to call and see the river. When they fire $80 on the end then you fold the hand.

Whichever line you choose, what you cannot do is let this pot escalate to a stage where you are risking 127BB with one pair. Remember the next time you are looking to become active in a poker hand to ask yourself a question….. “do I want the pot to be large or small?”

Carl “The Dean” Sampson is sponsored by Cake Poker and can be seen at www.cakepoker.com/thedean and at www.pokersharkpool.com

I had been playing for about an hour or so and had taken down two pots, once by showing down a strong hand and once by betting and having my opponent muck. My cards stopped cooperating, and when I picked up 57s in middle position, it looked suspiciously like aces. Everyone before me folded, and I raised to 20. The player directly to my left called, the button called and the small blind called.

The flop was gold, solid gold: 3c 6h 9s, giving me a double gutshot draw. The SB checked and I led out for $60. The two players behind me folded and the SB called. At this point, he had about $800 or so behind and I had him covered.

The turn was even solid…er gold: a 4h, making me a pretty-hard-to-see variety of the nuts. To be perfectly honest, it was so hard to see that I didn’t even catch it at first; when I read the flop I thought I had just flopped one gutshot – that I needed an 8. When the four hit, I knew it was a good card, but I actually had to do a slight double-take before I realized how good of a card it was. While I was busy figuring out my hand, my opponent gave me a whole new situation to process by leading out for $125.

The pot at that point was right about $325; my opponent had underbet the pot [$125 into roughly $200] and put me in an interesting position – I was holding a strong, but well-disguised hand on a fairly safe board and now he was representing a strong hand as well. I wanted to get the rest of his stack into the middle. Let’s take a look at my options and hopefully by comparing and contrasting each, we’ll pick up a few ideas about how to handle similar situations in texas hold em games.

First we have to make a loose assessment of what kind of hand my opponent has. It’s possible he could have a set; the board would look safe enough on the flop to allow for a smooth call of my bet, but the turn is scary enough that he’d feel compelled to bet out to avoid giving me a free card. What’s even more likely is that he called my bet on the flop because he was fairly weak but had a decent chance to improve – a hand like 64 or 65, and the turn made him two pair or improved his draw.

I could call. This was my first thought. If I called the $125, we’d be playing for a $450 pot on the river, and my opponent would have about $600 left. If he makes any significant bet on the river, I have a good chance of getting him to commit to his stack. That’s the upside. The downside is, there’s a lot of cards that can hit the river that counterfeit / beat my hand or at least stop him from making that bet. If the board pairs, hearts hit, or a 5 or 7 hits, getting his stack in the middle loser is going to be a lot harder [that's just about half the remaining deck, by the way].

I could raise an outlandish amount. I considered this option for a second as well. My hand was so well-disguised that it would be tough for him to put me where I was, and if he did have a medium two pair or set, he might put me on an overpair like 10 10 or JJ and decide to play. If he had just a pair and a draw, however, he’d probably fold, and he might even fold a weak two – while he can’t put me an a straight easily, putting me on a set isn’t all that tough. I like the big overbet on the flop and the river a whole lot more than I like it on the turn.

I could raise a small amount. When I say small amount, I’m thinking something between the $125 minimum raise and $225. I’m not really a fan of the minimum raise – I think it’s usually pretty transparent and often gives your opponent a pretty profitable situation – but I like a smallish raise in this spot. It’s going to be hard for any average player holding two pair to fold if I bet about $175 more, and it accomplishes the critical task of building the pot to a size that’s going to commit my opponent for his stack. In a beautiful, magical world, he puts in the third bet with a weaker hand, but most people I play with at the boat tend to call, and not raise or fold, when faced with difficult situations. If I make the small raise and he calls, we’d be playing for a $800 pot on the river and he’d have about $400 left in front of him. If he makes any bet on the river, it’s pretty likely that his whole stack is going in, but my turn raise is probably going to result in him checking.

Now if you’re like me, you’re thinking that $400 is still a pretty big amount for my opponent to get in on the river. It’s possible that a scare card could hit the river, one that makes him feel comfortable laying down his hand. It’s possible that a perfect blank like a Q could hit the river and he could still have second thoughts about bottom two being good when I fire another $400 – I’ve now shown strength on every street and am likely to have a hand that beats most two pairs. If he’s a glass full type of person, he’ll see that he still has half of his stack left and live to fight another day.

I could raise a medium amount. I’m talking about a pot-sized raise here – somewhere in the neighborhood of $250-$300 on top of his bet. Now we’re in an area where we have to find the point between a number small enough to seem call-able, but large enough to build the pot to a point where your opponent is going to be basically committed for their stack on the river [ideally without them realizing that on the turn]. If I raise to $375 total, my opponent has to call $225 more for a pot of $700. If he calls, we’re playing for a $950 pot on the river and my opponent has about $325 left. Notice the difference a small adjustment in my raise amount makes – I’m only talking about raising $75 more, but it presents my opponent with a wildly different situation. When I raise to $300, my opponent is looking at a 2-1 pot to stack ratio – he’ll have $400 on the river and the pot will be 800. When I raise to $375, my opponent is looking at almost a 3-1 pot to stack ratio – he’ll have about $325 and the pot will be about $950.

I ended up raising to $400 total, and my opponent folded. In retrospect, I probably gave my opponent too much credit when he bet out – I wanted him to have a set or two pair badly enough that I got optimistic. After walking the hand through, I still like the medium amount, but I probably would have been better off making the bet about $350.

Regardless of how the hand worked out, the interesting point, to me at least, is how the betting on the turn sets up the course of action your opponent will likely have to follow. There’s a basic truth that the greater the ratio between the pot and a player’s stack on the river, the more likely they are to call with a marginal hand. Working to manipulate that ratio on the turn is a critical part of texas holdem strategy, because it aids you in forcing players to make the best kind of mistakes – the kind where you get all their chips.