If you have a fantastic hand on a coordinated flop (assuming you have flopped the straight, flush, or full house), check and hope someone bets into you. If no one bets on the flop, put in a half-pot bet on the turn.
If you have a fantastic hand on a semi-coordinated flop, bet the size of the pot. In this example, the likelihood that your opponent is on a draw increases, so you want to bet large enough that it is mathematically incorrect for them to call. We will cover this more in the player profiling section, but for now, you will still get players that incorrectly call with straight draws and flush draws, but in the long term they will lose money and you will profit. So make the bet large and make them pay to chase their draw. The one exception is when you flop the best hand, like a straight with no flush cards on board, or an ace high flush (or even a better hand!), you want to encourage action, so bet half the pot and hope for a call. Many players will check in this situation in the hopes that someone will bluff at the pot. Generally speaking just bet your hand for value. If you start checking your big hands and betting your draws, an observant player will pick up on this and respond accordingly. If you always bet, it is much harder for them to put you on a hand. We will cover the situations in which to deviate from this in the player profiling section.
If you have a fantastic hand on an uncoordinated flop, bet about half the pot. An important point here is that many play too aggressively in this situation because they fear someone will draw out on them. You want to encourage your opponents to draw to a weaker hand. Betting larger amounts might scare them out of the pot.
If you have an interesting hand on a coordinated flop, bet about half the pot to try to win it right there. If you get resistance (someone calls or raises), check and fold further streets unless your hand improves.
If you have an interesting hand on a semi-coordinated flop and you are first to act after the flop (nobody has placed a bet yet), you should usually bet for value. If you have top pair or two pair, you probably have the best hand but your hand is at risk. You do not want to let your opponents get a free look at the next card. Do the same thing in the case of a drawing hand. For example, if you flop 4 cards to a flush, bet out half the pot if you are first to act. Why? If the flop is such that you would call a half pot bet to draw to your hand, it is better for you to put in the bet first--by doing so your opponents might fold the hand. If they call the bet and you miss your draw on the turn, it is probably better to check and see what you opponent does next. We will cover what to do when someone bets into you on the flop or turn shortly.
If you have an interesting hand on an uncoordinated flop, simply bet half the pot for value. If your hand improves on the turn, great--keep betting for value. If the board coordinates on the turn but your hand doesn't improve, follow the steps above for interesting/coordinated. (Note, if the board doesn't pair on the turn, watch for straight draws. On an unpaired board, there is always the possibility of someone holding 4 cards to a straight!).
For titanic hands, regardless of coordinated or uncoordinated flop, generally speaking just check and fold to any betting action. You want to wait until you have a strong hand to get your chips in. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, single table sit n' go's are about survival. Wait for a better opportunity. Again, there will be situations when you deviate from this strategy, but generally speaking, let the hand go. If the flop is checked around and your hand improves on the turn, great. Follow the guidelines above that matches the situation.
Hopefully you have seen a common thread in the guidelines above. You want to be aggressive after the flop by putting bets in when you have a good hand. The tight starting hand requirements that we covered in the pre-flop section in combination with the aggressive post-flop strategy outline here will make you a winning player. Now, we still have one more topic to cover--calling bets.
Next: Calling Post-Flop Bets
