Getting value from great made hands

Originally posted by CepeRFect94
I have been struggling getting max value from my good hands lately.

Hi, CepeRFect94,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com!

Every one of us can give you a host of hands where we have top set, nut straight and so on, and get no action.

The problem is that sometimes opponents have diddley-squat to play back at us with.

Think of all those times you enter a pot with 7♣:8♣: and the flop comes A♥:J♥:Q♥: or similar.
Villain holds K♥:T♥: (just sayin') and bets out 1/2 pot, heart pounding and sitting on the edge of his seat hoping against hope that someone will call.

There are some things that you can do to get more action.
I'm not saying you *should* do them.

First, play more hands. If you know that people at your table fold way too much, give them the opportunity. Bet until they get sick of it and start playing back more often, then scale back.
Second, be more aggressive, not less. In your A♣:T♣: hand, for example, you could semi-bluff by raising the flop. This is the time to build a pot -- while villain still has top pair or whatever, or some draw. Once the 3rd hits you're not likely to get much action. Even weaker flushes aren't going to stack off often.

All the best in 2015,
VS

VorpalF2F,

Thank you very much, really appreciate you taking the time to react to my post.

I do agree with you that I could have raised the flop as a semi-bluff, but then again I didn't want to stack off on the flop and had I raised him, he could have reraised again and I personally did not want to take that risk.

I have gone through my hand history and I do think I should play my draws a bit more aggressively, I often checked and gave up after not getting the right odds to call instead of betting and generating a big pot or picking it up without having to hit.

Good point you raise about my image, I generally play a tag game (I believe I'm 19/17) and I do get more respect than I would have gotten had I played more loosely. I don't think I will be playing much looser as I am a big believer in the chips you win are worth less than the ones you risk to win them, so I feel I have to play tightly in the early stages. I will pay attention to playing too tight though, I have noticed sometimes I don't play the first 20 hands or something, not that that is necessary bad, but for instance if I have KJs in mid position I normally would not open, but if I have folded the first 15 hands, I could decide to do so as I will get the respect so I will get enough folds to a cbet or just pick up the blinds pre, you don't want to just do nothing and go down to 1000 off course.

Once again, thank you very much, really appreciate it.

Hello all,

In the first hand we got mandatory c-bet for value. We are giving villains free cards to outdraw us. Bet to ~1/2 of the pot is fine..

As played, again we should bet the turn. We should bet bigger for value. Bet to ~60% of the pot is OK.

In the second hand I prefer just to call on the turn. We got the position. We got the nuts. No need to scare villain away. Raise is also an option but if we raise we should make it bigger. Raise to ~370 chips looks fine.

Guys if you have any questions, do not hesitate to write in this thread by clicking the button or

Best regards,
Antoan