A part of my game Im not sure about.

[AC-Cobra]

Ive posted this in SSNL but I have the same problem in MTT's and know different principles apply.

Im hoping you guys can just help or reassure me with something.

I hit a flop hard, eg. a set and the board has clear drawing potential. When acting first, or sometimes when not, I often take these pots down by simply not giving my opponents the odds to draw out on me.

While this is all well and good, I find more often than not that I may have been able to make a lot more on the hand as my opponent(s) were not drawing, but had just hit the flop slightly weaker than me.

Is what Im doing perfectly ok or is there a way I can improve my play to maximise my profit in this situation?

Thanks in advance

[Foucault]

You need to work on hand reading and knowing your opponents. If based on pre-flop action you think there is a fair chance someone has an overpair, you can go ahead and play fast so that he can pay you off the times that your read is correct. Or if the board is such that it probably did his someone hard (7KA and you have 77), you can play fast and hope to get action from people who came in pre-flop with two big cards.

Conversely, when you think your opponents may have draws, your objective should not be to get them to fold, but rather to get them to call when they do not have proper odds to call. Realize that a flush draw does not have the same equity against a set that it has against an overpair (since sometimes the draw gets there and the player loses his ass anyway to your full house), so you can actually give your opponent 'proper' odds to chase, since in actuality some of his outs are dirty. You should be most inclined to do this when you are in position (so that you can take a free/cheap card on the turn if necessary) and when there is only one likely draw on the board (so that you don't have to worry about guessing whether or not Villain hit when a scare card falls).

You also should know how your opponent will play when you are out of position. If Villain was the pre-flop raiser, will he automatically bet if checked to or raise if you lead into him weakly? If so, you can try to 3-bet or check-raise him instead of just blowing him out of the hand with a big lead.

[mornelth]

I will usually bet 2/3 - 3/4 of the pot on any "drawy" board, whether I have a set or a complete air. Having a set behind that bet will make your bluffs more profitable.

Having said that - in a tourney it's frequently a lot more important to take the pot down than to make your opponent call without odds (unless you're really deep and can afford to let him draw out on you a couple of times). In a ring game - just bet the biggest amount you think he will call with a draw, and don't pay off on his implied odds if you have a good read...