September 2015 Poker Thinking Contest!

When you do get your good hands - AK, AQ, AJ, A10, any 2 face cards and just about any pocket pair - is when you want to throw out a hefty raise pre-flop. Even if your needed card or cards do not flop, you need to bet again, representing the best hand. If your opponent calls your flop bet and the turn still doesn't help you, it is now time to decide if your hole cards are better than their cards and whether or not they flopped something on you.

At this point I go to my "firing 3 times" strategy - keep betting and keep representing the best hand. You may fire once, twice and miss but that 3rd bet may win you the pot. In this situation, you would think that if your opponent had some kind of a hand they would have raised you on the flop. Firing bets at your opponent is ok, but do not put your whole stack into this procedure, just in case they actually have a better hand than you.

Going all-in when heads up can make or break a good hand. Say you are in a heads up tournament and the blinds are very small when you pull pocket aces. Betting all-in pre-flop is just going to scare your opponent out of the pot. You must raise small and milk your good hand .All-ins are most effective when the blinds are very big because your opponent may feel that he has to protect his blind and call your all in bet.

When heads up you must always take into consideration that it is just 2 of you at the table - 2 sets of hole cards rather than the normal 9. It is ok to limp in on almost any 2 cards because, after all, you are trying to outplay the person sitting across from you, and you don't necessarily need good cards to do so.

Everyone posting their thoughts will be in a random draw for 2 x $3 in prizes.