mhendo: I feel for you. I played in a freeroll myself today. Had AA under the gun, raised, got called by Q9o. Flop was K96. I bet, he raised. I re-raised. He called. Turn was a 2. I bet, he raised again. I called. River was another 9…Sam’s out of the tournament. C’est la vie. He’ll do that about one time in nine, and the rest of the time I’ll collect the chips. But it sure is annoying when it happens!
In loose games, very rarely. They’ll call anyway, so why not bet? In a tight, short-handed game, it depends. Against good players, deception becomes important. If you always bet your good hands and check your weak ones, you’ll soon find that you don’t get paid off on your good hands, and you get run over when you’d like a free card. So occasionally you have to be willing to check a good hand. But you should also be check-raising in these games, and sometimes you’ll miss a checkraise when it gets checked around, and it will look like a slow-play. That limits the amount of honest-to-god slowplays you need to do.
Let’s talk about a generic, full ring game that’s moderately loose. Let’s say there are four callers in the hand. What should you slow play, and when?
First, there are few hands that are strong enough for a real slow play. Certainly not AA, or generally even two pair. A set, maybe. It depends on the flop. If there is any kind of a draw, I would bet for two reasons - one is that other players may put YOU on the draw and call with very little. The other is that other players may have that draw, and it’s a major error to give them a free card if they would pay for it.
Let’s say I had AcAs, and the flop was Ah7c2s. This is a flop I might consider a slow-play. No one else is likely to have an Ace, and there are no draws, so who’s going to call? On the other hand, if I had JcJs, and the flop was Jh9h2s, there is no way I’m slow playing this. A bet here will get called by people with two overcards, a gutshot with an overcard, a heart draw, etc. If I’m
in early position with this hand, I’d strongly consider a check-raise, because this is the type of flop that’s likely to hit late position callers or at least give them a draw that they’ll try to bet with. So a bet from someone is pretty likely. If I’m in late position and there’s a bet in front of me, I’ll raise. If it’s re-raised, I *might consider just calling with the idea of raising again on the turn, but more likely I’ll just put the chips in.
A couple of notes on slow-playing: First, the pot has to be small. If the pot is large, your job is to win it as soon as possible. Don’t give people free cards to pick up draws that can beat you. If I’m in a pot with 20 bets in it, the only hand I’m likely to slowplay is quads or a straight flush. Second, don’t bother slow-playing weak players. Your primary source of profit against them is the money they spend on weak draws. So don’t give them free cards. They’ll call you anyway, so you have nothing to gain.
