Crawl Before You Walk

Hello All:

I figured since you learn something knew everyday, that i'd spread some love to others. Also this maybe new for some an refresher for other's, however still could be added to your resume if you need it or lost it.



Slow Play’ the right way

‘Slow Play’ the right way So you think you’re holding a definite winner, but how do you boost the pot so you can take a stack of cash with your killer hand?

‘Slow play’ is a tactic used by many skilled players when they know they have an almost unbeatable hand early on, for example, a Full House on the Flop.
Sometimes it’s best to play subtly before launching a full scale betting and raising attack at the Turn or even the River. You don’t want to scare off your opponents too soon with massive bets as you’ll want them to bet into the hand as much as possible, boosting the pot that you’re sure is yours.
Then stake your claim by making a bet that will scare the opposition out of the water, and hopefully bring the pot home to you.
Good Luck and have fun!

P.S. Mike Herea is the Author of this info.


SHERMSTICK

lol, thats like saying only smoke when nobody is watching - but remember smoking could kill you!!!

Slow playing is a tactic that should really only be used in situations where you know money can be made, like betting into an aggressive player. I have seen players try to slow play their pocket aces preflop before by just calling preflop with 4 callers in behind them, very big mistake.

I would only recommend slow playing a premium hand preflop if you are in late position with no moves in behind, like if you are on the button with only the SB and BB to act, calling here can look weak and may allow the other players to go over the top on you.

Slow playing the flop is a much better tactic and can be used more affectively, as this could allow a player to catch middle pair, or some kind of draw and commits him to putting chips into the pot

See TB's thread a few weeks back when a guy tried to slow play AA with a suited flop on how NOT to slow play a premium hand

THX C147:

Again thanks for the sharing of info, its good to see player's can also come to you sense you have some knowledge of increasing your skill's by using these tactic's. As stated before im still learning new thing's about the game of poker, my intent is to win whenever possible.


SHERMSTICK

You are more than welcome Sherm.

We are all still looking to make improvements to our game. Threads like this can help us all

Good luck m8

One thing I have learned is that slow-playing monster hands pre-flop is dangerous. When you do that, there will likely be more callers, and it leaves a lot more possibilities that your hand will be busted.

The problem lies in knowing how to bet to draw the right amount of action. Most newbies will blow their wad prematurely and push all-in with a premium hand. This gets little value for your money. Not betting enough and your likely to get more draw hands in the flop that could break you. Finding that balance is the key, and it's something I'm working on improving in my game.

The value of slow-playing depends on position and the flop.
If you have, say, trips, but there are cards towards a flush or straight, you don't really want to slow-play. You want to hit it. If you hit quads or nut full, then perhaps slow-play.
Against a tight player, slow-playing will just risk a lucky draw without getting many more chips from them, and you'd be better off placing a relatively weak bet if you are looking for value and are happy with the risk.
If you're against an aggressive player, then slow-playing may work well enough.
If you're in late position, then you have more opportunity to evaluate the strength of your opponents hands. You want to bet when they have made a reasonable (but dominated) hand.

Also, against fish, you'll often get more action earlier on, when they want to stay in on the off-chance of hitting a card (not understanding their poor chances) - later on in the hand they'll be likely to have missed and less likely to pay you off, not more, so slow-playing may well not work there either.

slowplaying in limit games, ESPECIALLY LOW LIMIT games, is down right detrimental to the ammount of money you can make on your made hands or monster draws because you're going to be called 80% of the time by anyone who hit anything on the flop. Moreover, if we look at what a raise does as opposed to a check-call we can see more money in the pot even if 1 person folds in a full ring game...

You in the small blind with 4d5d 2 folds rest limpers, you complete bb checks.

flop comes Ad5c5s You check, bb bets 2 folds rest calls you call hoping to slowplay the fact you have just made trip 5 (3Big bets). Instead, a raise here will have almost certainly get every person who is in for 1sb to call your raise and it will make 6bb. On the turn is a Qd. Now if you check your trips, it will likely check around. you missed out on at least 1 extra big bet from the guy with the aces over, but in low limit, its probably going to come to 4 more big bets. Its by far the best to bet and raise in limit games NEARLY always. Only exceptions i can see are:

You hold AsKs and the flop comes Qs7s2s giving you the nut flush (or some variation thereof) or the flop comes AKK or AAK or some variation giving you the nut fullhouse. In limit its best to get value for your hands rather than play tricky.