Opponent Observing Tips: Playing With The Nuts

Observing Opponents, online poker, Multi Table Tournaments, Tournaments
April 23 2009

There's no better situation in poker than having the nut hand. For some reason the nut hand is often misplayed. Many players get overly excited when they hit the big hand, and either give off a tell that they've got a big hand or they don't get the proper value for it. These situations are extremely important because they account for a good percentage of the profit you'll make playing the game.

In every hand that we're in we must try to determine what our opponent is holding. We don't have the luxury of holding the nuts, so we put all our efforts into reading our opponents. But often when we get the nut hand we switch that attention to an effort in trying to conceal that we have the big hand. But these situations are even more dependant on hand reading. You have to determine what your opponents are holding because that information gives you the ability to make the biggest value bet that will get paid off.

If you have an opponent betting into you it's usually the best play to call and raise them when the pot is bigger. If the action is checked to you a small bet would be the best play. If it's small enough opponents will call and look to improve. If they all fold to a small bet you weren't going to get any action in that hand anyway. But by betting out, you camouflage what you're holding and increase your chances of getting paid off with it.

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