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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?	Déjà Vu Some poker decisions are automatic. If you hold the nuts on the river, and everyone checks to you on the button, you should bet. There's nothing else to consider. Most decisions are not that simple, though. To play expertly, you usually must weigh a number of factors to come to the right conclusion. How big is the pot? How strong is your hand relative to those your opponents are likely to hold? What are the playing tendencies of your opponents? What is the board texture: Are any obvious straight or flush draws available? Is the board paired? How will your present action affect the rest of the action on this street? How will it affect the action on later streets? If you watch an expert play for a while, he may surprise you. He may play two hands that appear to be very similar in completely different ways. If you examine the situations more closely, however, you're likely to find that one or more of the important factors are subtly different between the hands. Be as thorough as possible before you act. If you are too hasty, you may miss the most crucial detail. You have two hours to kill while you wait for a friend, so you sit in a $6-$12 game in Las Vegas. You do not recognize anyone in the game. This does not surprise you, as poker's recent popularity has brought more and more tourists to the small stakes games here. Just as you sit down, the dealer pushes the last pot, and you are in line to take the big blind. You post your $6, and scarcely after you have received your second card, the player on your left tosses out $12. His facility with the chips and quickness of his action lead you to the conclusion that he is a regular player. This is in stark contrast to the three people behind him who call the raise: Two of them spend several seconds fumbling to find the red and blue chips necessary to call, and the last one (after intently watching the struggle of first two) asks, "How much is it to me?" The dealer says, "Twelve dollars to call, sir." He says, "Okay, I call." Everyone else folds to you, and you look down to see 44. What should you do? A. Fold. Pocket fours will not win often enough to justify calling. Save your money for a better hand. B. Call. Pocket fours is not a terrific hand, but it should show a profit for $6 more. C. Raise. Your pair is likely to be the best hand now, but it is vulnerable. Raise to thin the field. D. Raise. Any pair is better than ace-king, the hand the raiser is most likely to have. Raise now to make him pay to draw out on you. 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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