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	BACCARAT BLACKJACK CRAPS KENO POKER ROULETTE SLOTS FEATURES How to Play Three-Card Poker Secrets of the Stars' Home Game "How I Won the World Series of Poker" Nicole Sullivan: "How I Won Celeb Poker" Beating the New Slot Machines Play "Sexy Showgirls" Slots COLUMNS Travels with Dick The latest in tours and specials Hot Bets Tips from our SportsBook expert Club Queen Celeb-hopping the sizzling night scene Poker Hand How would you play it?	The Bitter Part of Valor It's relatively easy to play well when things are going your way. If you make big hands like sets and flushes, usually all you must do is bet or raise and collect your winnings. (Though, of course, these situations can sometimes be more complicated than that.) When things aren't going your way, however, poker becomes trickier. No one makes money on weak hands, but some people play them far better than others. To be a long-term winner, you must learn to make accurate decisions with strong and weak hands alike. You just sat down 30 minutes ago in a nine-handed $15-$30 game at your local card room. You know most of the players--almost all of them play too many hands, and most of them also play too passively. They might put in an extra raise or two on the flop, but once the big turn and river bets come, their actions faithfully represent the strength of their holdings. Since you sat down, you have played three big pots and lost them all. In two of them, you flopped a big draw, jammed the pot on the flop and missed. In the other, you flopped a set, but someone made a straight on the river. You are down about $600, but you quickly bought two more racks ($1,000), so you will still look like a winner to any new players. Of course, the people now at the table know you are stuck. On this hand, you are in middle position, three positions off the button. The player under the gun--an elderly gentleman who never says a word but plays tighter than most of your opponents--raises. Everyone folds to you. You have AJ. What should you do? A. Fold. Ace-jack is not a strong hand in middle position. B. Fold. Ace-jack is a fairly strong hand, but you should fold because the old man could have a stronger hand. C. Call. Ace-jack is strong enough to play here, but not strong enough to re-raise. D. Raise. Ace-jack is a fairly strong hand, but it is not unbeatable. You should re-raise to thin the field. E. Raise. Ace-jack is a great hand, and you should happily re-raise to get more money in the pot. Ed Miller is a professional Hold 'Em player in Las Vegas. His new book, Small Stakes Hold 'Em: Winning Big with Expert Play, co-authored with David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth, is available from Two Plus Two Press. You can contact him on the forums at http://www.twoplustwo.com/.
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