R
richiecski
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Hi,
I wanted to see how some people here feel about slow playing in NL Holdem in certain situations online. I think slowplaying is either incredibly risky or incredibly smart play considering the situation you are in.Obviously,you can slow play a monster and have an opponent hang themselves by continually bet at you while you simply call them all the way down to the river and show them the bad news. This kind of play can either bring a mountain of chips your way or for the most part I think, usually not too many. If your opponent is a timid player, and you check to him and he has garbage too, i would say 80% of the time he will just check back and then muck his cards when he either doesnt pick anything up on the turn or river or when you bet even just the minimum amount of chips. This causes you to lose your pot equity on a made hand drastically. I think slowplaying in this sense is only effective against 3+ timid/passive players at the least. Some one has got to be a complete fish to not take a stab at the pot if 3 people in front of them fold, no matter how timid they might be, but when facing these kinds of players heads up, bet at them and chances are you will stand to gain the same amount of chips either way.
Now this type of slowplay can be incredibly beneficial when you play against those maniacs/jackals/hyperagressors in either multi-way or heads up situations, if you pay attention to small details when playing back at them. The great thing about this situation against a heads-up hyperaggressor is that you can either be in position or out of position and stand to gain the same amount of chips from them by slowplaying. If you check out of position with a flopped full house, they will protect their aggressive image and play at you by betting a decent sized bet. Now, here is where I think you have tread lightly in order to pull this off the entire way to the river:
Most of the time in online games I have played in, when someone bets big, people with hands that usually arent too great or they are unsure of, usually take more time than usual before they either call or usually fold. And im sure as many people would agree, when these people do call, they usually lose. This is the exact image that works so well in slowplaying.
If you flop a stone cold nuts full house out of position, check to the maniac. If they bet, obiviously you cant wait to call here or raise, but give yourself anywhere from 5-10 extra seconds before calling only. By doing this, any kind of player sees it as having doubt or speculation with your hand, so if the turn comes a blank, they will contune to bet at you. Now if you sprung at this opportunity to call their bet on the flop, most aggressors will slow down on the turn or river if they dont improve their hands and check if you keep jumping at the chance to call them after checking each time. So basically what im getting at is wait as long as possible to call after checking each time, it will make your check to them seem much more believable in my opinion.
Now of course slowplaying can always back fire. Say you have pocket queens and hit a set on the flop. You check and your opponent checks. Turn comes, you bet the minimum just to keep him in the hand and not scare him off. He calls. The river comes and you check, he bets and you cant wait to raise him all-in. He calls that and turns over the flush that you let him draw out on for a small price. So I guess the point is to pay attention to the texture of the board on the flop and turn especially because if you dont it could cost you. Even if you have a strong hand like that set, you got to be wary of what can beat you still and pay attention, but if there is no doubt in your mind that you have the nuts, I really think that the slowplay I talked about with simply waiting 5-10 extra seconds before calling bets will render a huge amount of sucess.
So here are the two opposing viewpoints and positive and negatives with this kind of play. What does anyone else think? I would love to hear because this is a situation that can get pretty tricky for me.
Thanks for reading my rambling.
Richie
I wanted to see how some people here feel about slow playing in NL Holdem in certain situations online. I think slowplaying is either incredibly risky or incredibly smart play considering the situation you are in.Obviously,you can slow play a monster and have an opponent hang themselves by continually bet at you while you simply call them all the way down to the river and show them the bad news. This kind of play can either bring a mountain of chips your way or for the most part I think, usually not too many. If your opponent is a timid player, and you check to him and he has garbage too, i would say 80% of the time he will just check back and then muck his cards when he either doesnt pick anything up on the turn or river or when you bet even just the minimum amount of chips. This causes you to lose your pot equity on a made hand drastically. I think slowplaying in this sense is only effective against 3+ timid/passive players at the least. Some one has got to be a complete fish to not take a stab at the pot if 3 people in front of them fold, no matter how timid they might be, but when facing these kinds of players heads up, bet at them and chances are you will stand to gain the same amount of chips either way.
Now this type of slowplay can be incredibly beneficial when you play against those maniacs/jackals/hyperagressors in either multi-way or heads up situations, if you pay attention to small details when playing back at them. The great thing about this situation against a heads-up hyperaggressor is that you can either be in position or out of position and stand to gain the same amount of chips from them by slowplaying. If you check out of position with a flopped full house, they will protect their aggressive image and play at you by betting a decent sized bet. Now, here is where I think you have tread lightly in order to pull this off the entire way to the river:
Most of the time in online games I have played in, when someone bets big, people with hands that usually arent too great or they are unsure of, usually take more time than usual before they either call or usually fold. And im sure as many people would agree, when these people do call, they usually lose. This is the exact image that works so well in slowplaying.
If you flop a stone cold nuts full house out of position, check to the maniac. If they bet, obiviously you cant wait to call here or raise, but give yourself anywhere from 5-10 extra seconds before calling only. By doing this, any kind of player sees it as having doubt or speculation with your hand, so if the turn comes a blank, they will contune to bet at you. Now if you sprung at this opportunity to call their bet on the flop, most aggressors will slow down on the turn or river if they dont improve their hands and check if you keep jumping at the chance to call them after checking each time. So basically what im getting at is wait as long as possible to call after checking each time, it will make your check to them seem much more believable in my opinion.
Now of course slowplaying can always back fire. Say you have pocket queens and hit a set on the flop. You check and your opponent checks. Turn comes, you bet the minimum just to keep him in the hand and not scare him off. He calls. The river comes and you check, he bets and you cant wait to raise him all-in. He calls that and turns over the flush that you let him draw out on for a small price. So I guess the point is to pay attention to the texture of the board on the flop and turn especially because if you dont it could cost you. Even if you have a strong hand like that set, you got to be wary of what can beat you still and pay attention, but if there is no doubt in your mind that you have the nuts, I really think that the slowplay I talked about with simply waiting 5-10 extra seconds before calling bets will render a huge amount of sucess.
So here are the two opposing viewpoints and positive and negatives with this kind of play. What does anyone else think? I would love to hear because this is a situation that can get pretty tricky for me.
Thanks for reading my rambling.
Richie
