Kasanova King
Visionary
Silver Level
When I first started playing poker, (20+ years ago) and up until a few years ago I was what you can call a "trap artist". (This is mostly live) I would slow play my monster flops, hoping villain would catch something on the turn and river, wait until villain was committed, then bang - shove for the rest of his chips. This has been very profitable in the past - especially live.
Recently, within the last 2 years or so, with the growing trend of aggression, I found myself losing more than I've been making by slow playing. (More so online). It seems the more I slow play either 2 things would happen more often that not:
1. Villain never catches anything good enough, will make a small bluff bet to try to steal, if I counter with a big raise or re raise, villain folds and I only end up profiting a few bb in the hand.
2. Villain ends up catching the nuts and I end up slow playing myself into oblivion. lol
So I rarely slow play at all anymore. Now, I will only slow play if I am out of position and catch say something like the nut/2nd nut flush on the flop or better. This still seems to work to an extent.
With the new trend of aggression, slow play is rarely necessary, imo. There are a many factors that are relevant, of course, like: board texture, villain's style/numbers, how many people are still in the hand, position, size of the pot, etc. But overall, I would say that slow playing (in micro stakes anyway) is unnecessary in the vast majority of cases. C betting is not even considered a bluff anymore online, it is standard, so even when flopping a monster, I have found that I am being called more often than not after the flop.
What are your thoughts/opinions on slow playing in 2010 and beyond?
Recently, within the last 2 years or so, with the growing trend of aggression, I found myself losing more than I've been making by slow playing. (More so online). It seems the more I slow play either 2 things would happen more often that not:
1. Villain never catches anything good enough, will make a small bluff bet to try to steal, if I counter with a big raise or re raise, villain folds and I only end up profiting a few bb in the hand.
2. Villain ends up catching the nuts and I end up slow playing myself into oblivion. lol
So I rarely slow play at all anymore. Now, I will only slow play if I am out of position and catch say something like the nut/2nd nut flush on the flop or better. This still seems to work to an extent.
With the new trend of aggression, slow play is rarely necessary, imo. There are a many factors that are relevant, of course, like: board texture, villain's style/numbers, how many people are still in the hand, position, size of the pot, etc. But overall, I would say that slow playing (in micro stakes anyway) is unnecessary in the vast majority of cases. C betting is not even considered a bluff anymore online, it is standard, so even when flopping a monster, I have found that I am being called more often than not after the flop.
What are your thoughts/opinions on slow playing in 2010 and beyond?