My argument is simple. If I lead out on the flop, I will almost definitely lose one or more of the callers. AK will likely hang out, but the chances of A4 sticking are slimmer, and UTG, whatever he had, was folding anyway.

People will not likely just call a raise with AKs. They will with KQ, right?

Theory of Poker is a great book, but I think you fall too much in love with the letter of the book and the great Sklansky.

I'm a pre-flop raiser who got a large number of callers. Do you really think they're thinking on the level we are here? No chance. The flop comes K-high, and the original raiser leads out. That means either I'm defending an AQ or AJ that whiffed, an AK that hit, sniffing one out on a middle or small pocket pair, or I hit a set. Period.

If I lead and they fold, I lose out on their turn bets.

This way, I flat call, knowing the following--

1) A diamond WILL scare me (hindsight tells me nobody had them, but without being results-oriented). Despite that, I still have top set, and I will have at least 9 outs even IF someone hits a flush, assuming the flush card doesn't pair the board.

2) I have to assume I'm WAY ahead here, and rightfully so.

3) There is no way they are considering their odds here. Anybody with the case K is going to think that he can just run over the table here. This is exactly what I want him to think. The flat call (perusing the 3rd layer of poker knowledge--what he thinks I have) tells him that I missed the flop.

On the turn, I'm still ahead of everything but 42 and AA. He doesn't have AA, and he damn sure doesn't have 42. I lead the turn--4th layer of poker knowledge (what I do about what he thinks I have)--begging for him to have AK and to have just hit his 2 pair. A4 guy calls one bet, he raises, and I 3-bet. Now, A4 guy is just about pot-committed, so he calls with 4 outs, one of which could be tainted, and AK guy is WAY committed, but drawing to the case Ace in the deck--WITHOUT me having the boat yet.

The river pairs the board, giving me a full house, and now I'm behind only 55 and AA. If somebody played those hands to here, great for them. Again, my read is not AA on MP2, and it surely isn't 55.

I don't think I could've played it any better.

My idea is that leading the flop as a pre-flop raiser could lose me some customers.

Something Tibs mentioned earlier about his image... the majority of players don't pay any attention to your image.

. AK will likely hang out, but the chances of A4 sticking are slimmer, and UTG, whatever he had, was folding anyway.

Don't be so results-oriented now. No matter what happened in this specific hand, it was a large pot, the bettor was on your left, there were straight and flush draws (even if only backdoor), so the right play was to RAISE.

I mean, if you really want to be results-oriented, AK would have likely 3-bet the flop, called the cap, and then check-raised the turn. You would have gained more bets from a hand you are MILES ahead of! He can only beat you by getting runner-runner aces!

And since it's a large pot, people will make looser calls than usual. Raise and let them make their loose calls. By calling you potentially gain 1.5 BBs, but also potentially lose the entire pot by giving someone odds to continue with a weak draw. In big pots, this is NEVER worth it! To claim differently is to misunderstand how to play hands in large pots.

Golden - you've never read a poker book? Are you serious? Playing by feel is a sure loser in the long run.

Haha its not playing by feel, its playing by whatever makes sense. I've read things here a bunch and they help, and I also have watched friends play, but I think the key is play play play yourself and looking if you've done things wrong afterwards, that's why I'm a big fan of pokertracker. And I'm definitely not a loser in the long term, I'm 2 bb/100 right now at 5/10 after 10,000 hands so I have a good idea about what I'm doing.

I'm taking a calculated risk, and regardless of how it makes sense to raise, what do you do if you raise the flop and everybody folds? THAT is the wild card in the equation. How much is lost there?

You potentially lose a couple bets that one time. The amount of times that you get callers or raisers here more than make up for that. Plus, when it's a big pot, it's better to lose a couple bets than to lose an entire pot. In that link I posted when I raised EVERYONE folded except the lead bettor (and he folded on turn). Do I think I made the wrong play? No. In the long run that raise will be the better play.

The raise on the flop wouldn't knock out a regular flush draw. I'm only referring to raising on the flop to knock out weak draws like gutshots and backdoor draws. If a backdoor flush or straight completes on the river, you lose. You do not have outs to draw to 6th street obviously.

That makes no sense. You can't knock out the dogs, but you want to knock out the BIGGER dogs? If you can get extra bets out of someone by giving up 4-8% in pot equity, I say go for it every time.

You can simultaneously increase your pot equity by "4-8%" (sometimes more) and gain extra bets from the lesser dogs. And many times people drawing thin will still call flop raises. Either way, you're making more money from every bet.

In a small pot, I agree, the call would be fine on the flop. Not here in this big pot. Not even close.

You're not guaranteed to make any more bets from waiting for the turn. The call on the flop and raise on the turn in this situation (with the bettor on your direct left) rarely would gain more than 1 extra BB. That's not worth it in large pots.

Yes, I know in this specific hand the turn card was perfect. There were only two aces left in the deck, so only 4% of the time the turn's results would have been so favorable.