|
Slow playing is one of the most misunderstood and misused strategies in the game of poker. The idea is to represent the kind of hand that your opponent wants you to have (a weak one) and get him to bet into you, building the pot for you, so that you can get more money from him when you finally reveal your monster. While this is an admirable strategy, and one that works very well under the right circumstances, the majority of poker players don't understand exactly how to use it. By slow playing the wrong way, they leave themselves open to either getting outdrawn and losing the hand, or winning a hand but getting underpaid for it.
Slow playing is tricky, and has many faces and many applications. Checking your pocket aces from the big blind is slow playing, for example, but so might be calling a huge bet on the turn while holding the nut flush. The idea is to disguise your monster hand by playing it as if it was a drawing hand, or a second best hand. Unfortunately, some players will slow play hands that actually are drawing or second best hands, and end up getting cut off before they can collect the pot when their opponent makes the hand. In other circumstances a player will check to an opponent who is known for calling down hands, rather than betting something up front and getting more money into the pot.
So when should you slow play? If you are early and you know you have a live one to your left, let him bet into the pot. If you have a large field, just check. And by all means, slow play only the best hands with the smallest chances of getting drawn out on, because a good size pot on the flop looks better in your chip stack than a monster pot on the river looks in your opponent's one.
|
