I was just looking over my stats, and it seems that the vast majority of the really big pots I've won were won with straights. Anybody else notice this?

THey're usually pretty well concealed. Along with pp sets and 2-pair. You don't usually put someone on a straight unless it's really obvious.

I would actually say that sets are the biggest money maker since they are almost impossible to spot, but straights are right on up there. This is the opposite for a flush where once the third suited card comes everyone is thinking flush. You could have 4 cards to a straight and some people still wont even see it coming. As an example, I just had a hand where the baord was 89JQ7. The betting was capped on the turn and river by me and 2 other players. Before the showdown, people not invovled in the hand were asking about the cap betting since it was obviously a split pot. Nope, I had KT for the nut straight, while the other two just had a Ten. Two players (including one of the guys in hand) both said they never thought of that. I thought it was obvious.

Sets are definately my biggest money makers, as they are for most. They're the most concealed hand you can have, and often improve to boats to beat big straights and full houses.

The interesting thing about flushes is that, while everyone notices a flopped two flush improving, few people notice the backdoor ones.

The backdoor flushes always get noticed. I don't know where you play, but in my games there is sure a lot of checking down and check calling or just calling on the river if there are 3 suited cards out there.

In general, I think drawing hands make the biggest pots, especially when someone else has made a hand that is good and gets outdrawn, and when there are multiple draws. You'd like to have your hand made every time the flop comes down just for security reasons, but you're going to win bigger pots when you are betting and raising and calling on 3rd, 4th, and 5th street and finally get there on the river.

Still, my favorite pots to win are set over set. Or set over set over set, which I've done too. It is especially fun when the board pairs goes runner runner with some random card to make everybody a full house.

Set over set are also the hands I hate to lose the most, because they're almost always pretty damn expensive.

My biggest pots are usually big pairs at loose tables, where everybody misses their draw. Sets are up there, too.

Straights... out of the last ten times I've flopped a straight, I've lost 8 (three to decent draws that hit, and five to various runner-runner hands). Lifetime I'm sure they're good, but it'll be a while before I'm happy to see one again.

In my games they are rarely noticed. The way you play dictates them being noticed, and I think there's a negative correlation between the liklihood of a flush being noticed and a player's skill.

A backdoor gets noticed when you check/call to the river, then raise a river bet. This is almost always poor, passive play.

A backdoor does not get noticed when playing aggressively. Consider: holding A:diamond:Q:diamond:, raising from the button; flop comes 9:diamond: 6:club: 2:spade:. You're checked to you, you bet, and are called. Turn comes 10:diamond:. Someone now bets, you raise, they call. RIver is a 3:diamond:. They check, you bet, they call. This play looks far more like you pushing a pocket pair hard than catching a flush on the river.

For me the biggest are flopping an open-ender, and hitting it on the turn. The all time biggest in terms of BBs was when I flopped an open-ender with Q-J suited out of the big blind and caught a K on the turn to make the straight, and ran into someone with the low side, and the other guy made trip Ks on the turn.

My all time biggest money loser was actually a straight. Held T8 in the BB, 8 callers to the flop. Came down QJ9. Capped flop between 5 people, turn cap had 3, river cap had 3. Some other shit held KT for the higher flopped straight.

low sides of straights suck donkey balls. thats why J-10 and Q-J make great straight drawing hands, if you hit a straight its the nut straight.