DECISION POINT: In a Tournament, you flop trips after raising preflop and getting called by both the Small blind and Big blind. The Small Blind leads out and the Big Blind calls. Do you slowplay your hand or raise on the flop?

PRO ANSWER: When considering whether or not to raise with a big hand on the flop, you should take into account the number of opponents, the board texture, stack sizes, your position, and opponent hand ranges.

In this case we are multiway with a somewhat coordinated board. On coordinated boards it’s better to get action now on the flop. This is not simply because turn cards can give our opponents the best hand, but because turn cards will often kill our action. Many turn cards will scare hands that we would like to get further action from.

Hands such as an overpair or trips with a worse kicker will often slow down on a heart turn. This significantly devalues slowplaying as an option.

With multiple opponents putting more chips into the pot on the flop, we are likely to get action from at least one player when we raise. Therefore raising will likely build us the biggest pot in the long run.

In addition, given these stack sizes, we will likely need to put in a raise at some point to get entire stacks into the pot. This makes raising the flop a far more attractive option than simply calling.

Raising this flop for value is the best play.