I made a pretty big laydown recently and was probably as proud of it as I was of any big pot I’ve won recently. Long ago, David Sklansky reminded us that a bet you don’t lose spends just as well as a bet you win. This happened in a regular home game of mine; my knowledge of the players certainly helped my decision and emphasized the importance of paying attention to your opponents and learning their habits. We were playing $1-$1 No Limit Hold’em, but that doesn’t really tell the story. As will happen in games without a buy-in cap, we had all ended up with stacks much bigger than the $100-ish that’s typical in online games with those blinds. I had over $400 and the stacks around me were of similar size or bigger. Rory limped in for $1. Rory likes to play pots and could have just about anything. In middle position, Ben raised to $6, a fairly standard raise in this game. I looked down at J-T suited. Ben doesn’t usually open very light and big pairs made up a meaningful percentage of his pre-flop raising range. Those were exactly the hands that I was hoping to beat if I ...