Ive said before, the goal in NL is to double up. Its going to be a lot harder to double up if you slow play your monsters. You have to bet every street in order to build the pot high enough to get all the chips in before the hand ends. You cant check the flop and then try to bet half your stack at the turn. The bet will be too big.

Example:
$100NL at Stars. I have $120 and the opponent in the hand has $110
MP limps. Im in the cutoff with [Ts] and I raise to $4. The SB calls. BB and limper fold.
Pot is $10. The flop comes [Kh][5s]. Alot of players I play with will slow play this by checking the flop. Theres 2 problems with that
1) The SB may have something like AQ and you give him a free shot at hitting his gutshot.
2) This is the kind of hand you can double up with if the SB has a king (especially AK or KT), but you have to start building the pot NOW. If he has something like 99 youre not going to get anything out of him anyway so bet the flop.

I bet $8 and the SB called.
Pot is $26. The turn is the . SB checks and I bet $20 which he also calls. He obviously has a king.
Pot is $66. The river is the . Now the SB leads out for $20. Im not sure if this was a blocking bet or if he thought I had AA and that I would check behind him fearing he had a king, but I raised all in and he called with [Qc].

When I raised all in the bet was about $55 to him with a pot of $160
If I had checked the flop, it wouldve gone like this.
Flop....Pot $10..Check / check
Turn... Pot $10..SB check / I bet $8..he calls
River ....Pot $26...He leads for $10, I raise to $30..He calls.
Unless hes dumb enough to reraise the river, I win a total of $44

My way, I won a total of $112. This is one of the many differences between a good player and a great player. Everyone gets the same cards. The great players know how to make more money off the good hands and lose less on the bad hands.

Do you adjust your aggression against people who don't pay off? Here are a couple hands I had last Tuesday against the same guy ($40NL, we both had about $40 in our stacks):

Limp in LP with 44, see the flop with 4 players. Flop is something like [4d][3d]. BB bets out $3, folds to me, I raise to $10, everyone folds.

Limp in MP with 66, see the flop with 4 players. Flop comes K96 rainbow. I check it and it checks to LP who bets out $4. I call and one other calls. Turn is a Q. We check to LP, who bets $10. I raise it to $25 and the other two fold.

So I managed to get a little extra out of him in the second hand, but I was really hoping for his stack. Do you just satisfy yourself with the smaller pots against these players, or is there a strategy you employ to get them all in?

The first hand is much trickier because the pot is unraised and there are multiple draws. You have to get aggressive immediately. Better to win the pot now than lose a big pot later

The second one is a great flop for you. I suspect he had nothing. With those short stacks, you get people all in easily if they have a good hand. You can slow play a little more with short stacks because you can still get them all in with one less betting round.

Another good example of this concept. I've emptied all my online BR as a result of my Christmas playing break, but I do have $150 or so on empire, and had half an hour to kill before dinner today so decided to play a bit of $25NL for fun. Forgot how bad those players were, lol!

Anyways, EP i get 77. I call, we see a flop 5 handed. It brings T74 rainbow. I decide that against loose weak players, I stand the best chance of winning a big pot by building it right away. Anyone with a ten is likely to fish in all the way, and I wouldn't bet against someone having a straight draw or something here. Anyways, I bet out $2, a dreadful fish calls, and another unknown LP player. Turn brings an offsuit 5, looking good. I bet out the pot AGAIN, or just under, around $8 I think. The fish calls, the unknown player moves all in. This is about the easiest call I think I'll ever make, fish comes along for the ride too and the river brings an 8. The Fish had T8 for top pair no kicker, the unknown player had JJ and commented that he thought I had a pair of tens. Yep, they played it dreadfully but another indication of why it's usually correct to bet out on a set as you would with TPTK.

Anyways, off to play volleyball. See yas.

Monk
xxxx