CASH:
this one is the easiest answer.....CHECK/CALL if you hit your set and you didn't see a raise the whole time POT Bet the river and if you have the HIGH set call any raise. If the table is beating your pockets continue to call behind and hope that the person is drawing or middle pairs and if they go all in on the river and its more than you can afford to lose fold and wait for better cards. A split ace can whoop middle pockets in like five seconds. If someone leads out strong with the Ace or King or Queen, especially if you gain a possible running straight out call at least the turn, if you hit the turn check/call and hope the stupid person goes all in after hitting two pair on the river or something. LEAVE CASH TABLE IMMEDIATELY afterwards as they are the kiss of death for all Bankrolls. BEWARE of the check/raise with middle pockets!
SNG:
I usually prefer to triple the blind with a hand in SNG's. You are either in or out no middle ground draw betting, calling for draws, and calling just to see flops since its the quickest way to bleed a stack in sprint tourneys. so if BB was 200 I would bet 650 pre-flop. then follow the same rules as CASH, this avoids short stack raising the extra 50 above 3xBB and pissing everyone off after they called 600 and have to throw in 50 more.(this may result in a pre-flop all in with crap cards, which can deceivingly beat your high pair JACKS or TENS
TOURNEY:
This is the hardest situation of the 3. If you are going to bet you are most likely all in. Since you are not BB I would not recommend betting any more than you need to to see if you hit a set or not, so call the BB. Most likely BB will raise you all in. If he does fold immediately and wait for better cards. Now that he thinks its easy to get you to fold he will continue to do so until you have ACES or maybe Kings or King Queen Suited and can afford to call him. If he calls follow same rules as cash, except BET STRONG even if you don't hit your set on the flop. This will most likely avoid him going all in on a draw but, given his luck might get a call. Then if you do hit your set on the turn, Bet small with a trap. If the experienced players are in at this point they will either fold or call, but likely BB hit something like an ace or tripped on his low kicker or something and he will raise all in and then you are set.
The best Play in a tourney is always FOLD. tourneys are about outlasting others not outscoring others. If you aren't happy to just consistently slide into the money and then attempt a big move then you should find something else to do with your time
Discipline is key as I didn't listen to my own advice last night. I had Pocket JACKS with 11 left and only 5 were In the Money and I was in 7th. I 6x blinded it and someone re-raised all in with more money than me. I knew they had split cards and so I called without taking time to think. The guy hit an ace with BIG SLICK. I was ahead 8-1 and lost miserably. The thing is people are always willing to risk it big in poker and if you can lose a few or a bunch of small pots and give up blinds and win a small amount of large pots when you set middle cards or flop straights or stuff like that, then other poeple's poor betting will always fail in the end.
