I came to the conclusion that I've been playing my sets too fast on the flop and thus letting my opponents off the hook. Obviously there are times when this is necessary but I think I was doing it in some heads-up situations when I probably could have stacked my opponent if I had just been less worried about pricing out unlikely draws.

In light of all the discussion in iceman's thread about the min-raise, I thought I would post this to see what you all thought.

100NL FR
I have $143 and Villain has $200. I am new to the table, but I witnessed a hand that the villain was in where he flopped top set and seemed to play it smartly: betting it strong on the draw heavy flop and then pricing in the draws on the turn when he filled up.

Villain (25/5, but i only have 30 hands on him) raises to $4 on the button with two limpers.
I call in the BB w . Limpers fold.

Flop ($10) is . I check, Villain bets $7.40, I min-raise to $14.60. He calls.

Turn ($39) is . I bet $15. Villain min-raises to $30.

My action?

Call him down. He has AA or AQ with a very small chance of QQ.

If he made a big turn raise, I would push.

Here we go...
I used to always lead out on this flop. And I would win a small to medium size pot that would end either on the flop or the turn. Sometimes I think leading into the raiser is actually more obvious than the min-raise. It's says "please raise." I started to question the move when i led out into a fairly crappy player and he said "nice set" and folded.

I strongly disagree that most players will fold AK or AQ to a min-raise here. I just don't think they can resist taking one more card for such a cheap price. Which is why it works.

When I bet the turn my hope was that he had AQ and would not be able to resist raising my weak bet. So when he raised I decided to push. AA or QQ were possibilities but I think with the two limpers he would have raised more preflop if he had these hands.

He thought for a few seconds and then called.
He had .

I played with this guy for a few hours after this and he was a pretty solid player. His call of my all-in was pretty sketchy, but otherwise he seemed decent. And he couldn't fold to my check raise on the flop.

you do it against a good opponent, because like i said, the only way to really stack them is if you can convince them you're drawing on the flop. the other reasonable line against a good player is a stop and go. yes your opponents often fold and you win a $25 pot...but those arent good opponents. you don't use this line against them.

the majority of good players are folding AK/AQ to the minraise. what they aren't folding are draws, and you just gave them 3:1 plus a lot of implied odds to go ahead and draw.

yes, if he doesnt have the Ace you miss his CB...although i've seen a lot of people call flop bets on this board with KK/QQ. you have to ask yourself what's more important....winning $7 when he has QQ or winning his stack when he has AK.

jon

You guys are making too much out of this. When youre playing $100NL and you flop a set on this flop and the other guy has AK / AQ, hes getting stacked most of the time no matter what you do.

If you check / call the flop...hes going to bet the turn and river almost every time. he wont check behind

If you check raise, he will likely push all in

If you lead, he will probably raise and you can get him all in on the turn.

Hes getting stacked 90% of the time...period.

But if he doesnt have an ace, then leading is the absolute worst play. At these stakes, it doesnt matter much what you do in this spot. Higher stakes you really need to mix it up. Leading with a set every time is not mandatory but against an unknown its probably best.