Playing Very Strong Made Hands

When you’re holding a very strong made hand on the flop, you’re usually ahead of all opponents. But there are still two cards to come, the “turn” and the “river”. Your main concern is the possibility of another player hitting a draw. Typically, your strategy will be to bet aggressively to discourage other players from seeing more cards.

Bet Aggressively

Let’s look at an example of how to play a very strong made hand on the flop. If you’re holding [8c][9c] and the flop lands [Jc][6c][3c], then you have flopped a flush, but not the nut flush. Although you most likely have the best hand at the moment, another club falling on the turn or river could improve your opponent’s hand or kill the action altogether. Your best move is to play your hand aggressively on the flop.

How exactly to play it depends on your opponent’s betting patterns and starting hand range, but in most cases it would be wise to take a straightforward approach and bet big if the action is checked to you. If you’re in position and an opponent acting before you raises, you should almost certainly reraise.

Think about the range of hands an opponent would bet out with in this scenario - sets, overpairs with or without a flush draw, top pair hands with a higher flush draw like [Ac][Jd], [Kc][Jh] or [Qc][Js], and smaller flushes. You’re a strong favourite against all those hands, meaning their chance of eventually winning is low. Raise and make your opponents give up or pay a lot for their small chance of winning.

What if you raise, and are then reraised? In that case, you must consider the possibility you’ve run into a higher flopped flush (unlikely, but possible), and how loose/aggressive your opponent is. There are only three possible cards -- Ac, Kc and Qc --that your opponent can hold in order to have a higher flush draw. So you’re probably still in great shape.