[Louie Landale]

You've got a much bigger problem then figuring out when to slow play... You have flopped real strong hands, yet remain "fearful", "fearful", "doubt", "see if a set was out", ...

Its a relative disaster to keep looking for ways you can lose these hands. For one thing, it really doesn't matter since you have every reason to believe you are going to show down the hand: your fearfullness does NOT affect your chances of winning. If you keep looking you will [1] lose lots of bets because you chickened out [2] lay down winners because it "looks" like you were beat.

When you flop big you will usually win, and "usually" is plenty of justification to build a big pot. Without counting and proving EV, isn't it intuitively obvious that you are better off "usually" winning a big pot and "sometimes" losing a big pot, then "usually" winning a medium pot and "sometimes" losing a medium pot?

Another aspect is this: when you flop big, nobody who is lagitimately drawing to beat you is going to fold. The only players that will fold are those who are NOT getting the right odds to call. Generally, then, you WANT these players to call a single bet or two; but you also do NOT want to give them a free card.

With a big hand, you generally want to give the opponents as many opportunities to incorrectly call single bets. Generally keep betting or raising on later rounds until its obvious you are beat, then pay it off.

With a big hand you WANT to maximize your opponent's investment. Yes, that means that sometimes you will bet and raise when beat, but so what.

Having said that, lets look at one aspect of these big hands. The aggressive opponent is on your right but you are in the blinds. Checking will usually mean HE will bet, and now if you raise you will drive out the callers. You should therefore be more inclined .. much more inclined to bet out (from the blinds) then if THIS player were on your left.

- Louie