AA in the BB

[ILOVEPOKER929]

“Actually, I also tend to play it like ILP929. I don't always check it, but on this kind of board with this many players I would go for the check-raise. If the bet came from my direct left, I usually call and then lead the turn. But the pot may be big enough at this point that players are getting an easy 10/11:1 for their gutshots, so perhaps the check-raise is better just for pot equity value.”

It depends. Say the flop comes out KJ3r, and you check and the player on your direct left bets and so many people call. If he’s the type of player who will raise the turn with a hand like KT or K8s if you call/donk, then that’s exactly what you should do. Passing up your equity advantage of the flop to make this play should easily be worth it since you’ll now be able to increase your chances of winning this big pot by a very large margin by indirectly forcing the whole field to face 2cold on the turn.

Now if this guy is just gonna call your turn donk with just one pair, then you’re better off check/raising the flop for value and hoping your hand holds up. You cant protect your hand so you go to plan B, build the pot with the probable best hand and take it from there.

“However, if the bet came from your left, then that meant the optimal play was probably to bet and get a likely raise out of that player, so look for those reads! :-)”

Yes, glancing to your left in a live game can be very valuable.

“Heck, I sometimes even check the flop IN POSITION in a large mulitway pot with lots of draws with the express intent to raise/3-bet the turn to eliminate as many players as possible!”

This is an exotic play designed for very large pots that Mason Malmuth and David Sklansky have talked about in many of their books. I have also deployed this strategy in some 20+ small bet pots in the past. For example: Lets say that somehow you end up with AA on the BTN in a 6 way capped pot, and the flop comes out Q93r. If everyone checks to you, checking behind may actually be the correct play. It all comes back to the same idea. When the pot gets very large some very unconventional strategies now come into play. Playing your hand in such a way that gives you the best chance of taking down that large pot will usually supercede any value extracting strategy.

[Burnsabre]

Must read again. Thanks for all the replies.
It's tough to switch from "valuebet relentlessly" to "must win pot" thinking especially at tables like these where you're basically valuebetting your strong hands all night.