Betting with the Nuts
It is the clear tendency in a lot of poker players that when you’ve made a big hand, you want to check the hand to your opponent in the idea that you’ve feigned weakness, and that he will either then try to buy the pot from you or be given free reign in his mind that his medium value hand is actually much stronger than it is. While slowplaying does have its place, there are a variety of situations where the less obvious option, to bet right out with your huge hand, is more correct and more likely to win a big pot.
The main argument for betting with the nuts is that it disguises your hand even more than slowplaying, especially at a poker table of experience players. It has become so common among most texas hold em enthusiasts of less experience to slowplay, that when you come out say, betting your full house when the board has flopped a pair, that your opponent almost will decide for certain that you wouldn’t bet into a board with such a hand. While it is not valuable necessarily to bet into this kind of board against a tight opponent who isn’t willing to try to make a play, against a table where the players are more willing to attack, this kind of play can reap huge rewards.
The other major reason for betting straight into a pot with a big hand is that it gives your opponent who has made another strong hand that is less strong than yours the chance to apply the idea that you are weaker than him to the idea that he needs to protect his holding. The poker player then will often raise to ‘find out where he is at’ or in the idea that is keeping you from drawing against what he considers already the ‘best hand.’ This kind of betting often tends to end up in bigger pots more quickly, as opposed to hands getting checked down when the player would have gladly paid to draw.
