Dangers of Slow Play

After playing some nolimit ring games earlier I thought this might be worth mentioning.

I have read in quite a few places that you should play sets fast (thats 3 of a kind where 2 of them are in your hand as opposed to trips which is where you hold one and 2 are on the board)

Now I called with 10Jo on the small blind, probably should have raised but never mind. I was up against just the big blind and UTG now.

Flop came JJx I checked it round and nothing another rag falls. Thought I would give it one more shot and checked it, still no bites. River was another rag, though turns out the big blind made runner runner straight and took a sizeable pot off me on the river.

Now if I had bet out on the flop I would have probably won the small pot, or if they had called a larger bet on the turn would have given me a bigger pot. However by slowplaying a big hand on a small pot I gave one of the other 2 a chance to get lucky and he did.

So instead of winning a small pot I lost a big one. Don't let this happen to you! I have a habit of missing straights on the board, soon learn to watch out for flushes, I got blinded by my hand and failed to read the board probably and lost the following raising war.

Also on that table I did the same with pocket aces, cept I didn't really slow play them after the flop, I just didn't bet them strongly enough (too used to limit play) dude called and flushed me on the river.

Another point which kinda ties in with this, is to not get tied to your hand. If your making big bets and someone is reraising you, chances are they have you beat. Try to learn to throw those hands away, specially in multiway pots.

Good post.

Slow play has its advantages and its pitfalls. Slowplaying that 3 of a kind is a rough one because you want somone to catch 2 pair and bet into you, but really have to be fearful of the straight and the flush.

slow play is a good idea only with the nuts.. protect your floped sets/trips , and protect those two pair. Those of you that have played with me know that I dont like to have to turn the hand over, but it going to be a flush or a straight a lot when its turned over at the river if someone lets me stay around cheap

Plus I like to draw out in low limit like the best of them .....

Flop Kindly,
HarringtonJ

I rarely slow play..if i got the hand..im aggressive. If any of you had played with me (im adiroit on PokerStars ? ) then youd know that i bet if i have a great hand..and very rarely bluff.. that may catch up to me someday because i dont bluff much..but yea i guess i just gotta practice more lol

great post, grumble, been burned numerous times by playing too slow, getting better though!

good advice grumble,better to win a small pot than lose a monster

I have a question on slow plays. When is the best time to slow play? The best time to be agressive? The only reason I ask is that there are times I could have won huge if I'd been more agressive with my hands. Also, best hands to be aggressive? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Melziemae

i really dont like to slow play a lot. in fact i dont think of it as slow playing, if i feel i have the best hand or i have the nuts, then ill play aggressively..but just not as aggressive as i normally would. slow playing is good if you have a strong hand and you want to keep more people in/build the pot, but the downfall is by keeping more people in you are giving more people a chance to hit that 1 card to beat you. if i can narrow the field down to 1 or 2 players, then im more like to slow play/play less aggresive on the turn and river because its easier to me to get an idea of what 1 or 2 other players are calling my best with then say 5 or 6. if i havent narrowed the field enough preflop and after the flop and ive hit a strong hand, ill play agressively and try and take the pot since i dont want anyone hitting.

Depends on the situation. If you flopped a miracle full house with rags, its a very vulnerable hand. Someone with a big pair could turn or river a bigger full house on you. Now, if you flopped a full house with AQ, (AAQ) thats something you WANT to slowplay, get someone holding JT or KJ to make a straight on the turn, and then you can trap them. Lets say you flopped the nut flush, in late position, and theres action. Would you want to slowplay here? Depends on what you put the bettor on. If you think the bettor flopped a set, you will need to pound on him right there... make him pay to draw to his 10 outs. If you think he flopped two pair or worse, you can definitely slowplay here. The odds of the turn and river hurting you are very slim. Again, slowplaying is very situational, and depends on where you're at. To the original poster, Checking your trip jacks on the flop is relatively safe, but letting two cards pass can potentially be dangerous. What if someone picked up a redraw on the turn card (as evidenced by the straight draw picked up by who won that pot) and got there for free on the river? You needed to bet that turn, and hard to have picked up what is a small pot. You'll know not to do that next time I suppose.

Slowplaying is dangerrous, even to pro players, because of the possibilitys for the other players to get lucky. If they do i get really angy at myself, and just think, why didn't i just slam it all-in??

yea if u think u have the best hand before the flop bet on it U may have kings and it may be good to get rid of a lil pocket pair or even a low ace high

i like harringtons strategy. only slow play when you have the nuts. anything else, youd like to bet enough to get those draws to fold. ive seen so many people, including myself, who have lost with pocket aces to straights and flushes, all because they werent betting aggressively enough.

i think u should slowplay sometimes, because most times the other person will not get lucky. Slowplaying will usually pay u off and if no one seems to have hit the pot try 2 overbet and make others think ur bluffing and they might try and take a stab at u.

you slowplay only if you are pretty sure you have strongest hand in game and noting else can beat you...
if you have pocket pairs and flops goes out some shit... no flush/straith draw.. then you may slowplay ... ture you never know maybe some1 had 2 aces in hand and go another one...
but you should always make a raise before flop so you could take the pot after flop if you hit ur set...

Slowplay can obviously be great as long it's used to a point and not over used. I was playing a game tonight where a pot was raised preflop by a quarter. Me having 66 called for that raise. Flop was 446 so obviously slowplay would be wise here least you would think anyway. Knowing right now that unless someone has called with 44 I have this pot won. I check the flop, 6 players in no bets. Turn is a 5, the original raiser is in for 1.50 I am the only one to call. Pot is already some what decent, river is another 4. Well now there is no way I can lose this. The raiser would not hav raised with 4 something like they did preflop. He bets 6.05, I have to re-raise here and double the bet he calls and it turns out he was holding 99. All in all I won a 29 dollar pot.

Now for when you need to not slow play. If you have trips with draws on the baord, make people pay. Slowplay will kill you here more often than not. Just be smart and be aware. The best laid plans don't always work.

Slowplaying a set is the biggest mistake you can make I beleive. I have done it a lot and have lost a lot of monster pots by doing it. Thats why now i generally fast play them and just take down a small pot.

The best feeling is slow playing your set and catching quads on the turn and then just soft calling till the river! but don't hold your breath till it happens.

i can not remember a time slowplaying has worked for me, although i can remember many times i have gone broke from slowplaying. Slowplaying hurts you in the long wrong.

I only slow play for the most part, when I have a nut hand that can't be cracked.

this is huge problem for me because i have gotten screwed by this in such hands wen u hit like top 2 pair on the flop and u dont want to scare anybody away and u want to slow play it to make the maximum amount of money but 99% of the time i slow play a huge hand on the flop i get screwed by the river. Soo please help me with some advice.

great post1 It's hard for me to slow play until i am short stacked and then its too late!

Slow playing is very dangerous online. I don't recommend it. I get screwed doing it.

the slo play will alwyas get you in trouble most of the time. just remember the more poeple you are in against the hless you are going to win.

i hate slowplaying.period....ive bin burned so many times that ive realized you can only slowplay when you KNOW your opponenets hand and when you know that hes not slowplaying either. its better to take a little money from a pot then to lose a lot when you get caught slowplaying...anyways theres my two cents on that.....

oh yeah...slow playing online is the worst...i dont know what sites everyone plays on but where i play, the turn and river always give someone a better hand if you havnt bet them out yet...so beware of the bad beats online when you want to trap ..

Think about this, if you bet and win the small pot, it's better then losing a big pot. Thats how I see it.

i fight playing slow all the time in tourneys u need chips to be able to intimidate some players but u also get burned to many time i hate AA AK allwaysa seem to lose it even when i bet big someone calls and catches their 2 pair or flush or st8 i think im just have bad luck

slow play is usually good, but it can kill u if someone gets extraordinarily lucky, i look at the board and if it is not dangerous then i slowplay