Bet your hand

I think this is one of the best tips that can be given to poker players who flops a monster out of position. First of all betting your hand will in the instance where your opponents also connected with the flop make sure that the pot is being built as big as possible. Second of all players should consider what happens if they check raise the flop instead of betting. A check raise out of position in poker is kind of one of the strongest messages you can send an opponent. Rarely the out of position player will be check raising with any kind of draw as all the money might have to go in the middle if the other player hold a decent hand and by check raising the flop the pot might by now have grown to a significant size which pot commit the out of position player.

The flop situation

The only real market/money lost by check calling the flop is a 60-70% continuation bet from the player in position. Check calling will simply make him slow down on the turn or even worse he might get a fairly cheap card to outdraw you. Check calling also makes the turn decision a bit more difficult as checking once more gives your opponent the possibility to check behind and thus the pot remain very small. Checking the turn is only a real option against a known hyper aggressive player where you know he will fire the second and third barrel on the turn and river. As it is now determined that the correct decision in most instances is to bet your hand on the turn then it is evident that betting the hand already on the flop is a must.

Flopping a set of 8s when you are in the big blind on a K87 or AJ8 board is great because the initial raiser might have flopped top pair top kicker (TPTK) if he holds AK. Betting in to that hand certainly will create some action and a big pot developing. Even on boards like 873 or T84 it is correct to fire a bet as your opponent might hold an over pair or even try to bluff raise with over cards.

The best chance of winning a big pot when flopping a monster is by betting your hand and only a very few situations warrant slow playing. One of the situations where slow playing can be advocated for is when flopping quads. On a J88 board it is fairly impossible for any opponents to have hit anything on the flop and check raising might be the correct decision whereas a 988 board with 2 diamonds or similar should be bet in the hopes someone picked up a big draw.

Another benefit

Another benefit achieved by betting strong hands are that your observant opponents now will be more apt to muck when you try and steal pots. Having shown a few monsters will give them respect for any betting coming from you when out of position which will be very valuable in regards of stealing smallish pots.