Have you ever found yourself in the situation I’m about to describe to you? You are sitting at your game and you are holding the absolute nuts. You are heads up, all the cards are on the table and there is just no way you can lose. So you think to yourself that you want to maximize the amount of money you are going to win. After all, that is the point. You have a monster, you need to maximize its full value. So you’re mentally talking to yourself and debating and asking yourself, “how much can I bet so that my opponent will call without scaring him off?” Believe it or not, in my experience, you are more likely to get paid off if you throw out a suspiciously large bet. A small bet will look like a value bet and a player will likely fold to it.

On that note, here comes this week’s hand of the week. I was playing online at a $2-$4 no limit hold em game. The table was filled with large stacks and loose, aggressive players. I was in middle position and looked down to see pocket Jacks. I made a standard raise of 4 times the Big Blind to $16. The only caller was the button. There was $38 in the pot and 2 players.

The Flop was absolutely horrendous. It was the As-Ac-9d. How bad can it get? I checked and the player checked behind me. I immediately put him on a Big Ace that he was trying to slowplay. I resolved right then and there that he wouldn’t get another penny out of me. Then it all changed rather quickly with the turn of the next card.

The Turn was the beautiful Jack of diamonds giving me Jacks full. I led out this time betting $16, half the size of the pot. My opponent quickly called. Now my fear was that he already had a full house with either Aces full of nines or Aces full of Jacks, definitely possibilities. So we were still heads up and there was $70 in the pot.

Then it happened, an incredible river to say the least. It was the one, the only Jack of hearts. It was now irrelevant what my opponent had. Unless he happened to have Quad Aces, which I seriously doubted, I had this hand all bagged up. But how do I make money here. If I try for a check raise, I risk myopponent checking behind me. That was out of the question. If I make a smallish bet, he may just call. So I decided to do something unorthodox. I bet out $150, double the size of the pot. Incredibly, he-reraised me all in for $300 more. Of course I called and the cards were flipped over. Poor guy had Ace King and thought we may be splitting the pot. Instead I raked in a $900+ pot.

It turned out to be the best move. Next time you have a monster, go against conventional wisdom and go or it.

Until next time, may the chips fall your way.

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