General Thoughts on Flop-Play with Huge Hands
 

What influences your decisions on when to fastplay/slowplay flopped monsters (sets usually)? My thinking in this area is a little fuzzy and would be grateful for some input here. I have some general ideas - such as if the board is very drawy I fastplay with little regard to stack sizes in most situations. If we are deep then even if the board is dry I like to put in a raise early to bloat the pot. I think it's mainly in HU situations when Villians range is wide and esp. OOP that I have problems. For example the following hand I played earlier - Villian is this hand is a decent Tag regular and hero is Lag. Btw who thinks I should be 3-betting preflop here most of the time? Sometimes I do and other times I just call, influenced a lot by whether the BB is likely to squeeze.

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.50/$1
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $54.87
UTG+1: $210.61
CO: $153.43
Button: $80.63
Hero: $103.48
BB: $54.73

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is SB with 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
2 folds, <font color="#cc0000">CO raises to $4</font>, Button folds, Hero calls, BB folds.

Flop: K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] ($9, 2 players)
Hero checks, <font color="#cc0000">CO bets $6</font>, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises to $18</font>

Ok I flopped a set. The board is two-tone with a K and two rags. I will c/r c-bets with a range consisting of draws/TP/sets/occasionally air. If he has a K on this board he may not get away from it unless the board gets more dangerous. If he has a flush draw I want to charge him. And I want to bloat the pot with my set. So I c/r.

Another line might be to call, and then c/r the turn. This gets more value from air if he fires again and also more value from flush draws if he fires with that on the turn if he misses but wouldn't have called a follow-up to the c/r.

Some people b/3-bet the flop here with a set hoping to represent a draw and get him to commit with a K while he hopes to shut that out. Or just call the raise and go for the stack-a-donk on the turn.

Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine all the possible lines one could take so I don't have to go through them. Also, what about if you have position? Say I called in the hand above on the button instead and the flop came the same and he bet into me - are you more likely to fastplay or slowplay here than you are OOP?

I realise that this may be very situational but it would be nice to have some kind of theory instead of general feel. At the moment I think that any of the lines might be ok as long as they are consistent with your general play - such as I like to c/r the flop with air and TP etc. so I shouldn't b-3bet with sets. Any thoughts on this?

Re: General Thoughts on Flop-Play with Huge Hands
 

"Whether you are going to slowplay or not is not dependent on the strength of your hand, but the texture" (fimbulwinter)

I dont think its smart to slowplay unless the opponent is a maniac or the texture is harmless.

Donkbet? Unnless you know the opponent will raise you often, i think the c/r is better. If he dont cbet much, I think a donkbet is better (because of the freecard).

In position i think a bet/raise/3b/4b is best. Not a call. Dont get called too often? Bluff more. Remember that if you bet 50 to win 50, you need a folding equity of 50% to do it.

Re: General Thoughts on Flop-Play with Huge Hands
 

These are just situations where you have to play poker, based on image, reads, stacks, board texture, etc. You've covered many of the issues. No particular line is "standard" here.

Re: General Thoughts on Flop-Play with Huge Hands
 

That's what I thought - I suppose it was too much to ask to get a response like 'Don't c/r that flop! Go for the b/c, crai turn for these following very specific and obvious reasons - super-standard'.

Re: General Thoughts on Flop-Play with Huge Hands
 

See pineapple's reply for general.

As for situation above, I am 3betting pre generally depending on PFR tendancies. Only a 4bet is bad. As played I think u have to bet this flop, hope he has K and puts u on draw. Generally leading out is better.

If in pos, either 3bet or call, depending on tendencies of PFR and blinds (squeezes). bet/raise the flop is best.

if you had just called pre, sometimes just calling Cbet seems ok too but prolly best way to get the money in is raise and hope for same situation as above.