“Nope. He is not that strong. And neither am I,” I say to this guy.

I am heads up with a player that insists on playing back at me. My read on him is he must think we are using play chips and not real ones with how aggressive he is in this hand.

My opponent value bet $25 on the river into a $350 pot. I made it $75 to go. He came over the top to $125.

At that point, I re-raised him to $375. My opponent then went all-in for about $500.

Now, I am contemplating the call with a board of 8s-7-s-5d-6s-5h.

This is a fairly complex board because of the 3 possible straight flushes, quads, 6 full houses, any flush, and 4 straights that can beat me.

The way my opponent is playing, he is trying to represent any one of those hands. Hell, any one of those hands beats me.

In fact, a pocket pair 9s or better beats me.

Any 9 or any 4 beats me.

“Big Ace,” I tell the on-looker.

“You got a big Ace?”

“No. He has a big Ace,” I whisper before I call the all-in shove on the river by my opponent.

My read on this guy is he has a hand like A-K, A-Q, A-J.

In other words, think I am up against Ace high.

Knowing where you are at in the hand is the difference between getting chips from a player and getting chips from the cashier.

I call the all-in.

My opponent shows A-J.

I turn over 10-8c and take down a monster pot with top pair.

Where many fall short is they think they can take a marginal hand and outplay weaker players that are calling stations.

It won’t work.

You need to have the stone cold nuts against these types of players.

That said, it is HOW you play the nuts against the players that makes the difference.

I was in two hands with two different players yesterday where I flopped the nuts.

The first hand, I just sat down in the big blind with J-10 hearts.

A player in middle position had the look of a cocky “let me give you poker lessons” type guy.

He raises pre-flop and gets several callers, including me.

The flop comes 9-8-7 rainbow.

I could tell from his tells that he flopped either two pair or a set.

He starts stacking up chips.

I decide that check raising him may lose him as a customer.

So, I bet half the pot.

He plays back at me with a min raise.

Everyone folds around to me.

I also know that if I jaw at him, he will go on insta-tilt and give me all his money.

“I am not used to people playing back at me Sir,” I say. “Frankly, it pisses me off. I re-raise $100.”

He glares at me for a brief moment and shoves $200 in the pot.

I push the rest of my stack into the pot and he insta-calls.

“You have Jack Ten?” he asks after he is all-in.

“The stone cold nuts, Sir.”

“Pair the board,” he says to the dealer sheepishly.

I knew before he turned over his hand that he had flopped top set.

The board never paired and I doubled up.

Second hand: My big game broke and I was sent to another table at a smaller game.

My first hand under the gun was A-A.

I raise to $25 and get two callers: One to my left and one to my right.

The player to my left gives me the impression that he could care less what I am holding. He is playing his hand against the board.

The player to my right gives me the impression that he will go away if he does not hit a flop.

The flop comes A-4-4.

Just what I was hoping for. My A-A is easy to play now. But how to play it?

If it was the player in the first example, I would bet it hard knowing he will come over the top if he had an Ace, a 4, a straight draw, a flush draw, or any pocket pair.

But, I am dealing with a different animal now.

I check the nuts.

The player to my left bets the pot.

The player to my right folds.

I need to tell a story of weakness and uncertainty to my opponent.

This is kind of hard because there is roughly $2000 on the table and I have $800 of it in front of me.

But, I give a performance that could earn an Oscar.

I finally call.

I never looked at the board again so I have no clue what came on the turn and river.

I studied my opponent.

My opponent never looked at me. His eyes were focused on the board the entire hand.

I check both streets.

He bet off all his chips to me.

All I had to do is hesitate and call.

Boy, was he pissed when I showed him Aces full.

I spared him the Teddy KGB “Aces foolah” showdown re-enactment from the opening scene of Rounders.

He never showed. I suspect he had either a 4 or an Ace, or maybe A-4. It is hard to say if he had the case Ace or not, but I knew I was good all the way the moment the flop hit the felt.

After the session, he told me he had A-K. It is nearly impossible to put someone on A-A when you have an Ace and the case Ace is on the board. This is one of the reasons why I rarely play A-K.

Play the player. But have the nuts to back it up.

This solid player approaches me, shakes my hand, and says, “I just want to shake your hand, Sir. The way you gutted that player was just beautiful. You made it an art. I really enjoyed watching you work.”

I simply smiled and said thank you. How gratifying is that?!?

I am in the big blind when everyone limps in.

The flop comes 10-8-8. I bet out $15 into the $20 pot, hoping to represent the 10.

Everyone folds around to the button, who calls.

The player on the button has played every pot for three hours.

His chips are in the rack. This is his last hand.

For three hours, I watched him play rags and generally get lucky on the river.

The turn is a 5.

I bet $50.

He calls.

At this point, I put him on either a 10 or a hand like K-8 or J-8.

The river card is a 3.

I bet $50.

My opponent raises me to $100.

I don’t put him on pocket 3s for a full house. It is possible, but I don’t think he would chase the small pair down to the river.

I don’t put him on pocket 5s either. He surely would have raised me on the turn with a full house based on how he has played for three hours.

Pocket 10s is ruled out. He would have raised on the button with so many limpers in the pot.

I am confident I have the best hand. I don’t want to scare him off either with an all-in bet, so I re-raise $100.

He insta-raises me another $100.

I pause a few moments, then announce another $100 raise.

My opponent is confused. He studies the board and figures he is good before pushing his last $100 into the pot.

He quickly turns over K-8.

“Boat”, is all I say, then I show my 8-5 clubs.

My gut told me the full house on the turn was good.

My opponent just sat there in disbelief with an empty rack.

And I raked the biggest pot of the night.

Big slick is simply over-rated for cash games.

That said, I get A-K off while being one-off the button.

With a bunch of limpers in the pot, I raise pre-flop to $25.

I get three callers.

The flop comes As-Kc-10c.

Now what?

With a potential straight, flush draw, royal flush draw, $100 in the pot, and two players checking to me, I bet out $50.

The button calls and everyone folds.

I put him on either a flush draw or straight draw.

Why?

I have found that the casual player can’t help themselves but to raise the nuts. For whatever reason, they cannot simply smooth call anything.

If the button flopped the nuts, I know he would have raised me.

The turn is another club. Fortunately for me, it is the ace of clubs.

I just went from Big Slick to Big Boat.

First to act, I bet $50 into the $200 pot.

The button calls.

The river is a blank, so I bet $30 into the $300 pot.

The button folds my value bet and I take down the pot.

I am in the big blind. Someone in middle position makes it $7 to go. Four players called.

I pump it up to $27.

Everyone folds around to the original raiser and he calls. The four original callers fold.

We are now heads up.

I put the player on a hand like 10-10 or J-J or maybe A-K.

The flop comes 8-8-7.

I bet out $15.

My opponent raises me to $50.

I think my original read is good. I do not put my opponent on pocket 8s. Why would he raise me with a cinch hand?

I re-raise to $150.

He makes it $250.

Is he stuck on a big pocket pair? Is he stuck on A-K, or what Amarillo Slim calls Big Broke?

I cap it out at $350.

The turn card is a K.

I am pot committed, so I put the player all-in for another $100. He calls.

The river card is a 3.

My opponent proudly turns over J-J.

I have no idea what hand he put me on, if he was capable of putting me on a hand at all.

I re-raised him pre-flop and re-raised him after the flop. To me, this would signal strength better than J-J.

I flopped a full house with my pocket sevens.

I could have been beat on fourth or fifth street with an overcard based on my read that my opponent had a higher pocket pair. This is the reason I bet the boat hard once I was re-raised.

In retrospect, I had two things going in my favor: dodging a Jack and having someone in the hand that got suck on pocket Jacks.

I raise to $25.

The action folds around to a woman who moves all-in on me for another $50.

I insta-call.

She shows 9-9 and is dominated.

The flop comes K-Q-10.

I have top set and she has a gut shot straight draw.

It is not the money at stake. I probably spent $75 already in tips for dealers and wait staff.

I typically take two or three bad beats a session.

For me, it is the emotional rollercoaster. I hate to lose, especially when I have the money in good.

The turn is a Jack. She hit the gutter.

I went from an 80% favorite to an 80% underdog with one card.

The river … a 10.

Winning in this game is never easy.

Action folds around to the button, he calls. I have played with this player before. He is a 50-ish Asian gentleman that is known to aggressively play any two cards. We have done battle before with each of us beating the other roughly half the time. That said, I generally stay out of his pots unless I have the nuts.

The flop comes 8-3-10 rainbow. I bet out $50. The button raises me to $100. I put him on pocket 10s, but call anyway. My reads during this session were spot-on. At this point I am confident I was beat on the flop.

Of all the quads I have had, most have been quad 8’s. I want to see the turn card, hoping for the case 8.

Turn card is an ace. I bet $100. The button raises me to $200. I momentarily put him on A-10. Two pair to my set, and two over cards. I still have a nagging feeling he has a set of 10’s. The problem is I am now pot-committed. I call.

The table talk after the hand reveals that this gentleman put me on A-A preflop, so he thinks I have a set of aces on the turn.

The river is another 10. “He has quad 10’s,” I think to myself. Odds are he does not have quads, but anything is possible in a cash game. I check. This confuses the button, but he bets out $100 into a $650 pot. I can’t fold with the pot odds, but I can’t raise him all-in for another $200 if he has quad 10’s or 10’s full of aces.

I was so focused on him having one of those two hands, I thought he was making a small value bet of roughly 15% of the pot instead of pushing all in for what would have been about half the pot. Convinced I am beat and he made a value bet on the river, I call.

I immediately show 8’s full of 10’s. He stands up. Slams the cards face-up on the table with a loud “ahh!”. “He is celebrating taking down the biggest pot of the night,” I think to myself.

My eyes turn to his cards. He had pocket 3’s. Pocket 3’s for $100 on the flop with two over cards? My first bad read of the night basically doubled me up.

Time to leave the game … a winner.