Taking down the pot early

[goopxx]

Say you raise preflop with AK. You get one or two callers and the flop comes K74 rainbow. You bet say a 2/3 to a full pot. Both calls.

Why did the villains called the preflop raise in the first place? Do they call every raise or only when they have something good?

Why did they call you on the flop? Do you almost always c-bet on the flop or do you only bet when you hit something?

What type of hands would the villains call the flop bet with? Would they raise with two pair or more, would they raise a draw? Would they fold if they have less than any of the above? Would they call down to the river with any two cards?

How big are the stacks?

What do they think you have, based on this play and earlier hands?

How are you going to continue on the turn and river when something that completes a draw comes. When a blank comes?

This things and much, much more should be constantly going through your mind every single hand you play.

It's not easy, but you really have to think about what you and the other players are doing and act accordingly. Then you have to decide if you are going to fold, call or raise. And if you decide to bet: bet the amount that accomplishes your goal for the given hand. No more, no less.



I am tired so I write way too much instead of trying to answer your question in a simple way :-)


Don't fall in love with your two cards! In my experience TPTK and similar hands, shouldn't be played as the nuts. I have lost a LOT of money on those hands, before I realized that people very rarely make big raises against the preflop raiser(me) on a board where it's obvious that I have TPTK or maybe even an overpair. If I meet too much resistance with a TPTK-kind of hand without much additional outs, and I have no specific reads that tells me that the villain is a complete idiot, I'll try to get out and wait for a better situation. This have saved me a lot of money.