Maintaining your "poker face" when you've got a monster hand isn't enough. You also must control your bet sizing to get paid off, as a Texas player recently learned. Here's his story.

Q: While playing no-limit hold 'em ($1-$2 blinds) at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Okla., there was a young "hotshot" at the table who kept trying to push everyone off their hands. I finally got A-K and flopped A-K-9. He had an ace and raised it to $17. I re-raised to $35, and he called. The turn was an ace, giving me aces full of kings. He bet $40, then folded when I moved all-in. Your thoughts? — Paul M. in Royce City, Texas.

A: Two thoughts, Paul: "Wow, what a hand!" and, "Ouch, not the best result!"

With a pocket ace, your opponent's only hope was if his side card was a king that would chop the pot with you. Without an ace in the hole and one card to come, you had him drawing dead unless he held exactly K-K or 9-9 with a chance to make quads, or needed one card for a straight flush.

None of those possible holdings should have concerned you. You were a huge favorite, and your main goal should have been to extract as many chips from him as possible.

So, what should you have done?

Well, how about just smooth-calling his $40 turn-card bet? He might have fired again on the river if you had done a little "hollywooding" — acting like you had a tough decision before calling. On the river, he might have hit a smaller full house and shipped you his stack!

Another option would have been to make a minimum raise to $80 rather than moving all-in. He would have been getting good pot odds to call and try to improve his hand on the river.

My guess is that he would have called the additional $40. If so, the pot may have been large enough to entice another call from him on the river.

Bet sizing and timing is a special skill in no-limit games. The general idea when you have a virtual lock on a pot is to make a bet — usually on the river — of a size that your opponent can't resist calling.

Sometimes, that's an all-in bet if your image is that of a loose player prone to occasional bluffs. More often, it's a "value bet" of one-third to one-half the size of the pot, giving your opponent strong reason to think he should call "just in case" he's holding a winner.

Almost certainly, moving all-in cost you money. With one card to come, you were an overwhelming favorite but you gave him the incentive to fold.

Your response to my hand breakdown shows you realize your mistake. You wrote: "In all honesty, I got a little excited. I know I got overzealous and should not have gone all-in. A lesson learned for my next trip!"

Speaking of Choctaw Casino, you said you plan to return there in January when it hosts the World Series Circuit Tour for the first time. "How does the tour work?" you asked.

The 2010-11 WSOP Circuit Tour opened in August at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and is breaking records for main-event attendance. Completed to date are five regular events plus one of four scheduled regional championships. Next up is a regional championship in Atlantic City, N.J., starting this weekend.

Including Choctaw, there are nine more regular and regional events remaining through May at locations in Tunica, Miss., Palm Beach, Fla., Atlantic City, San Diego, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Chester, Pa., and New Orleans.

Circuit players compete for one of 100 seats in the season-ending national championship May 27-29 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Choctaw's 51 events should attract big crowds and some top players, Paul, especially at the $1,600 main event on Jan. 22. Good luck, pardner!

For tour details, go to wsop.com.

E-mail your poker questions and comments to [email protected] for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit www.creators.com or www.luckydogpoker.com.