Playing The Nuts

[sjay2k]

Post your tips for playing the nuts here.

One of my favourites in real-life games is when I flop the nut straight with an aggressive player to my left. I'll check it and when they bet, I'll say "let me just check how much is in the pot" and then I'll count the pot, feign some mental calculations and then say "ok I call". Then when the turn blanks off, I'll check quietly and the other player will almost always go all-in. Not only do you totally bust the other player, you bust out laughing and your buddy will be on power tilt (which sounds something like "oh you ----ing ----").

Another one I like is when I flop the nut full house. I'll check/call the flop and make a small bet on the turn. Then on the river I'll look at them and say "honestly, I don't think you can beat ace high" and push all my chips in. This will also cause extreme tilt.

I can only use these strategies so many times. Any other ideas?

[eddo31]

i have a feeling that you play with a bunch of complete donkeys, and that i would like to be in that game.

the one problem with playing the nut straight the way that you do there is that a straight is a fairly vulnerable hand on the flop. yeah, it is good, but you dont want to see flush draws or the board pairing, then you dont really know what to do.

i think that lee jones' low limit book gives good advice when playing the nuts on the flop (especially when it is a straight). play it fast, and keep putting bets in.

[2Tone]

The exception here is low-limit online, in which case the best strategy with the nuts is almost always to bet it, because you can be pretty confident that even with a possible flush or full house on the board, you are more than likely to get called if not raised.

[Baseballa19]

Also online, if you don't bet it, the turn or the river usually improves the straight to give someone else the nuts.

[jdiana86]

check when no draws, bet when draws

[nutbag]

Table/player personality and position seem much more important. If you have somebody who tries to push people around after you, you always want to check, but if there's two of a suit on the board, and more than one opponent, then betting, raising is obviously necessary. Personally in early position, especially under the gun I usually bet. For some reason, people don't like to believe utg has a good hand. I usually play at a six person table so betting the nuts correctly is really important to get the most out of the hand as possible.

[Kidd7138]

I have to agree with nutbag, the type of people you're playing with and what your position is is probably one of the more important aspects of correctly playing the nuts. If you're at a very loose/aggressive table and in early position you can check and see how many people are in the pot, and for how much, if theres 6 people in the hand and they're all betting/calling big bets then you can just let the pot build.

If you're at a fairly tight/conservative table you probably want to bet, but nothing too big that will scare people with decent/good hands off, unless of course there are better draws on the board, in which case you want to bet big enough to get people off their draws.