Trying to reconcile what seems contradictory advice from the experts, if I’m understanding things correctly. You are under the gun, brand new 9-handed table, deep-stacked. You make standard open-raise with Aces. Only button calls, also deep. Flop comes 7s 8s 9h. Would you check most of the time, as Daniel Negreanu recommends in his master class, because the button’s range is more likely to hit this than yours. Would you bet 2/3 pot most of the time, as Jonathan Little suggests in Tournament Poker Coach, because “with a strong over-pair, you should almost always make a continuation bet for value.” Or would you assume he probably hasn’t hit a straight yet, very possibly on a straight or flush draw, and bet slightly more to encourage him to make a mistake by paying too much to draw, as suggested by WPT Boot Camp? If it depends, what would it depend on?

Is Little’s advice particular to oop vs a BTN’s range? Basically btn likely has a higher concentration of nutty hands on this board in his range than you. So this is a clear range check situation in theory.

Ip is different though. BTNvsBB srp AA is likely bet as part of a more polar strat at some frequency. AA is stable though so can be often used as a check back.

Deep especially so. Not sure any pro would advocate building this pot too much OOPvsBTN with deep stacks.

Agree. Let's assume we would avoid a big pot. Would you check all the way down? Would you maybe bet the flop and then slow down if you don't get a fold?

On brick turns I think we get to value bet. Then again on brick rivers. Oop we can value bet thinner than ip but for small sizings. Villain should build the pot ip on the flop with his nutty hands at a high frequency.

If we check turn and river bricks we can definitely bet.

AA is clear x
TT/JJ could bet since they are a lot more vulnerable to overcards and block V's straights

Thanks much for the advice people. I should have answered Gabe's question. I cheated a little because all the examples they used aren't exactly the same. One example from Little is, he has KK, flop is Jc 9c 5h. Also, now that I review it, that one he is in position vs. small and big blind who check the flop. But he also drives home the point by saying the same thing again when he has 99, oop, with 853 rainbow flop.

I guess from your response position is the most important variable that determines the right response? Or is it the slight differences in flop texture?

Both bud.

Well also it looks like some of the advice is in regards to tournaments. I don’t play them.

But cash 100bb deep.

KK ip vs both blinds on J95fd should be bet often for equity denial reasons. If it were heads up it might be mixed or part of a range bet.

99 oop on 853 will be bet often since it’s vulnerable. AA will be mixed.

It’s important to understand range interactions with flops.

BTN shouldn’t have a calling range, but if it does it’ll be dominated by hands that slam dunk a flop like 789fd. So he should have a narrower range than us with a higher density of nuts than an utg opening range. We carry more air which dilutes our range.

It’d be a good exercise when looking at this stuff to enter your utg open range 9 handed and build a likely BTN flatting range. See who has a higher concentration of 2 pair + hands. Villain likely has the equity lead and range advantage even though we might share all the nuts. I guess if villain calls all JTo he has far more nuts than us but he shouldn’t call that.

There’s a huge contrast between that spot and say holding 99 in a srp BTNvsBB.

There just aren’t as many combinations of 2 pair + in villains range, and his range will carry much more air than BTN’s. We have equity and range advantage. The top part of villains range will be dominated by 8x hands that we beat.

The deeper we are the more nut advantage becomes important. So you can see why the oop spot becomes dicey very quickly?