[Jeff76]

It depends [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

First off, how the rest of your game is will inform a little of how you play these situations. If you are double barreling a lot, then you'll want to double barrel when you have big hands.

Also, the type of opponent you are against will say a lot about what you should do. If I am up against an obvious set miner (someone with a super low VPIP) and we've managed to get the flop HU, I'll actually sometimes even check the flop. That is, even a set miner will sometimes look you up for a bet on the turn, "putting you on AK". If you can trick underpairs into calling/betting who did not intend to put any more money in without hitting a set, it's more money in your pocket (and it feels good to extract money from set miners).

Of course, pulling that with players in the pot who could be drawing or will pay off with weak hands misses value, so you really need to pay attention to who you are up against.

Another play I'll make against obvious set miners is to just keep raising their limps with semi trash hands in position (stuff like KT, Q9, etc.) Since they aren't planning on putting any more in without a set, you end up taking a lot of money from them with these types of hands because they'll almost never get payed off when they hit. Of course you have to be careful where you are and who is left to act. Nothing like raising with semi-trash and getting called by someone behind you.

As for playing against garden variety players who might have sets and who might have other hands, you have to look at the texture of the board, figure out what hands you are trying to get value from, what hands you are behind, and how those hands fit into your opponents ranges. As you get more information, you have to narrow those ranges. It's not easy to know when and how much to bet- this is not a game of standard pat answers. That is, the voice of experience will not be able to tell you, "check the turn with overpairs so you don't get stacked" or "you must bet here or you will miss value." In the end, you need to assess your opponents range hands and then make plays that maximize your earnings vs. that range. This means you'll get stacked sometimes. It also means you might fold the winning hand from time to time. But the better you get at hand reading and the more you understand your opponents, the better you'll get at putting your opponents on a range and making the correct decisions.