I have noticed that I don't win many large pots with KK... I play it a lot like I do any other hand I'm going to raise with but I never seem to get much action. I'm not one to slowplay many hands after being burnt too many times but I'm wondering if anyone here slows down a bit to get some extra value out of these strong hands.

Here are a few examples from last night...

$100 NL- $.5/$1 blinds

I just sit down at the table and get KK a few hands in. It's been a loose/passive table with some large pots and being in EP I don't want to have 5 people call. I open raise UTG+1 to $5 after UTG limps. I get one MP cold caller and UTG calls as well. The pot is $16 and the flop comes [ 2d 9d 4h ]. It's checked to me and I bet $14. Both fold.

Later on in the evening I have a large stack and have been playing real aggresive with it. I have KK in the SB and 3 players directly to my right limp. I make it $6 to go with the pot already at $5. Everyone folds except the button. The pot is $14 and the flop comes [ 8h 3c 4s ]. Again a very ugly flop for anyone to make a hand against me. I make a weak bet of $6 trying to get a call and he folds.

On these ragged flops with little chance that anyone has made a hand do you preffer to take down the small pot right then or do you get cute in an attempt to get more money from it? I personally don't mind making $10 on kings but given the total barf flops that came out am I playing too aggresive here and betting people out that I should try harder to suck in? The hands that are calling me on these flops are most likely drawing to 2 or 3 outs if not runner runner so I get the feeling I'm leaving too much money in thier stacks and not enough coming across the table. What advice do you have in this situation?

If you are playing me in those hands, you should be a little worried because if I call youre going to lose to my set.

In other words, those rag flops give the person 3 shots at hitting their set. I would much rather have a flop like 883 (they only have 2 chances of hitting something). Or a flop of Q73. I could get good action from AQ.

I think you played the hands perfectly. Aot of people will call your raises with junk, but if a good player calls and you get action on a ragged flop...you better keep the pot small because more than likely he has a set.

Keep putting those potsized bets in, you are charging a bad price for draws and you definitely don't want someone calling you with the 2nd best pocket pair on the flop. I do make this kind of play sometimes and would like to know what you think.

Ok heres the situation, actually we'll use the same one as he laid out above. In the first situation, pretend that I am the MP cold caller with 88 on the 294 flop. You then lead out for 10 (pretend we are heads up here after your 5 dollar raise). I try to set you up in two ways.
either
A) The delayed bluff. I put you on a hand like AK, AQ and put in a raise in the turn to try and represent a flopped set. This play I think is very tough though. You have to KNOW that a player is willing to lay down kings or queens when raised on the turn with a ragged board, "properly" putting you on a set and you successfully pulling off the bluff.

B) You call, spike your 8 on the turn (which he can never put you on), he leads out for a bet again, you put in the raise, he thinks his kings are good, then his stack is yours.

Anyone ever use this play?

Honestly, I don't like either one of those plays you mentioned with a hand like 88. I *might* make that play with AK to a preflop raiser because you more than likely have 3 or 6 outs to pull ahead and you very well could be playing against an overly aggresive AK in which case you split or steal the pot because he can't call.

The reason 88 isn't a hand to do it with is because there are only 2 outs max that get you ahead. If someone wants to call pot sized bets to hit a 2 outer to my overpair I will play with them all day long and pay them off everytime they hit with my stack... I will still come out ahead when I'm taking $15+ on each of the times you don't hit your 4% shot on any given street. Preflop the call is one I make, but I never pay the larger bets if I don't hit right there or flop an OESD. It destroys your +EV long term to chase any farther than the flop on an underpair.

The other point about making it look like a slowplayed set is that you need me to believe you. Since I bet AK or other hands the same way on a flop like that were I raised preflop I'm going to have a hard time thinking you're not just making a play on me to take the pot. Say you call my $10 flop bet, the pot now has $30 in it. I will probably lead out for $20 and then what? You will raise to $60-$70 on the bluff? I would have to say that against a normal player I will call that 4/5 times. I do pay off sets sometimes... but more often than not the person making that large bet isn't holding a set or AA and I win the pot with KK. You are right, you need me to think you have a set but I don't just autofold to a raise here because you might have a set. You would need to be a player I know and play very solid for that to be an easy laydown and more often than not you will see my money go with KK here.