[SoBeDude]

[ QUOTE ]
The way I prevent from making the initial mistake of checking the flop is to not even think of it as an option. If I raise TWICE before the flop with KK, and no ace flops, and it's my option on the flop to check or bet, it is impossible for me to check.

As to the rest of the hand, I have no idea what you should have done or when or why. You were in mysterious unchartered waters. The biggest reason I would always bet in that spot on the flop is because the information stream must remain intact to be later useful. Once I make any bet that is exactly the same as what someone would do if they did not have KK, all is lost. It's like guessing all over from scratch, as to what they have, compared to simply betting out on the flop, because now I have to think about what they now now think I have, having checked, when before, all I had to do was assume that they thought I probably had a big pair, and proceed reasonably and predictably to attain maximum profit and/or savings.

The situations yet to unfold, on the flop and turn, are always too diverse in number to anticipate any of them individually, so I anticipate all of them collectively, from a position of maximum information and leverage. Bet the flop.


Tommy



[/ QUOTE ]

This advice is so powerful, that I'm sure it was lost on many of the people who've read it.

In fact, if we each printed it out and read it out loud before every session we played, it wouldn't be too often.

When you consider the high percentage of holdem profits that come from big pairs, I'd go so far as to say this is the single most critical piece of post flop thinking I've ever read on this forum.

Thanks Tommy,

-Scott