Middle and top hand play

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I have been playing a lot on the app over the weekend, and have played against a lot of styles.  Today I am going to discuss the importance of the middle and top hand play.  It seems that people tend to focus on the back hand more because of the potential for royalties.  Although it is easiest to get royalties on the back hand, they still don't happen often enough to ignore middle and top hand play.  This is especially true if you are playing where only the top royalty gets paid.  Once you have most likely lost the back hand, you need to concentrate on minimizing damage.

For example, lets say you have four cards to the flush, but your opponent just made a full house.  Unless you are playing where you still get your royalty points for a flush, don't worry about making the flush.  Concentrate on what is best for your top two hands in order to avoid a scoop or win both middle and top hands.  So to continue with our example, assume your flush cards are hearts AQ94, middle hand has 87, and top has a 2.  Your opponent has a full house on bottom, 55 in the middle and  J on top.  Currently, you are in danger of a scoop, plus the royalty.  Your next card is the 8 of hearts. Most people would fill in their flush here, but I would put it in the middle to give you a pair of 88.  Your middle hand is now ahead and you still have any heart, A, Q, or 9 to improve your back hand and avoid the miss set.

Check back in tomorrow for some posting of actual hands I am playing against real people for $$$