I'm reading many threads in the LLSNL sticky. The main theme to making money is "Make a hand and bet the living crap out of them!"
Where I'm getting it confused is, how do we know when we have the nuts?

For example, here's a hand I lost to yesterday:

I had A4suited
Opponent A6

Flop:
A64 rainbow

We got it in on the flop.

Now obviously I'm trying to bloat the pot here to get value from AK, AQ, etc etc but I'm doomed and I don't even know it. Is this just a spot where we go broke and try again, or can you honestly tell me you guys will find a fold.

Now reading some of these LLSNL threads It's all confusing to me.
This thread for example:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...t-dew-1339655/

If I'm holding the J8 in that hand, and the board has a flush draw, I'm basically trying to pump that pot so big, or even get it in on that flop.
According to him though, "THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE MONEY AT LOW STAKES" by crushing nits that hold 2 pair on flops like that.
How are you going to tell me that it could of easily been reversed roles and you'd still be getting it in with the J8 on that flop.. You're ahead of so many hands.
If we're not getting it in there, and are only waiting for sets flushes and straights then how are we not the nits?

Maybe after typing this out, I'm feeling like I possibly am creating too much value for 2 pair hands... I'd like to hear some advice.

The nuts are really easy to figure out. In your example, the flopped nuts are AA, then 66, then 44, then A6/A4/64. You block AA, and it's basically impossible given pre, so you have the effective 4th nuts.

As for where the 4th nuts exists on a value scale, it is all Villain (and board) dependent. Sometimes it is so far ahead of their stack off range, it is ridiculous, and other times it's a sigh/fold.

Stack. Sizes.

To elaborate, you go broke everytime up to a certain stack size, such as 100bb. Above that, you are dependant on different factors for a while, until you reach something like 400bb when you begin to never go broke here because its too....deep....

You forgot about stack sizes. Thats why youre confused. Also, reads.

How big are stacks in this situation? If stacks are 50BB or less you should not be in many hand with A4 unless it's a limped pot and you are a big blind and then it's just a cooler. If you are 100B BB+ then there are not a lot of situations where you should be getting all in on the flop with two pair. In that situation you should often be worried about sets and not always going broke with two pair.

It is the nature of poker that sometimes you will play your hand correctly and villain will show up with a better hand. If you never get all in without the best possible hand then your playing too tight. The trick to long term profitability is knowing when you are ahead more often then behind against villain's entire range, not that you are ahead in this specific hand or not.

In game theory this is why you need a bankroll. Not just because villain's will sometimes suck out on you but sometimes the best you can do is say you are ahead of villain more often then behind and pot odds force you to go with your hand.

Poker is a game of relative hand strength, not absolute hand strength.

- A4 on an A64 flop against a fish is an easy stack off. They'll pay you off with all Ax hands.
- A4 on an A64 flop against a nit that's raising you is a sigh fold. Nits don't raise flops without 2 pairs or better, and nits don't call preflop with 64s, so you're chopping at best, way behind at worst.

You can't just say "but I have 2 pairs!" You need to consider the strength of your hand relative to your opponent and relative to what they're representing.

In most cases, 2 pairs is a stacking off hand for 100bbs, but there are definitely times when you need to be folding 2 pairs. It depends upon the SPR, the player and the action.

As for 2-pair in general, it is literally never the nuts. OTOH, it is a pretty good holding that is often worth taking to showdown. I remember reading an article back in the Limit days that said the average winning hand at showdown was two pair, but that so was the average losing hand at showdown. IDK if that was completely accurate, but it illustrates an important point.

If you look up a hand ranking chart, two pair ranks just above one pair. It's not a monster, but it's not crap either, but it is a real in-between hand. Overall, I play two pair very cautiously, and how fast/slow I play it depends on SPR (the smaller the SPR, the more happy we should be playing for stacks, the larger the SPR, the more we should not be happy playing for stacks), and our opponent and what he likely has (the more he's an idiot who'll stack off with just TP on a drawy board, the more I work towards stacking off, but the less of an idiot he is, the more cautious I am). And of course, all two pair ain't the same (ex. JT in a raised pot on QJT could easily be useless).

It's a tricky hand, and I almost never feel good about them after I play them (often feeling I lost too much value when I ended up being best, and payed too much off when I ended up being worst). Such is the nature of the hand, imo.

GgoodluckG

The "nuts" is an unbeatable possible hand (may change from street to street).
If your hand can be beat, you do not have the nut hand (nuts).

Ranging.

If I have J8 in the thread that you have linked to, and my villain is a mouth breather that will stack off with any draw, and over pair, and two pair, and any QJ+, then J8 is the nuts there.

But if I'm playing against a solid tag who will only gii with sets+ for 150bb then I'm not going to try and gii with him as we are behind his gii range. So while the absolute nuts may only be one hand, the effective nuts can either be a few hands, or can be a wide range of hands that we would be happy to take to the felt vs certain villains.

Ranging.