Slow playing is very situational specific. Consider your villain's tendancies, their range, and the showdown of your hand. I have slowplayed one hand in the past year. Goes something like this.
Villain covers, is chip leader at the table, we're nearing the bubble of a $200+30+5 buy-in tournament, and he's just barreling to induce folds because everybody wants to make the bubble with as many chips as possible.
I have KJo from MP, haven't played a hand in a few orbits, and decide to go for a super out of position steal, mostly playing my table image as tight, as I haven't played in orbits.
I raise to 3 BBs, and I'd be happy to take down the blinds and antes.
Loose Aggro villain calls from the button(-ish, his exact position was probably more like CO, but it was so long ago, all I remember is he was seated 3-4 seats to my left and had position on me, so my raise might have been from UTG+2)
Flop comes JJK. I'm only beat by KK at this venue, and just about everything else is drawing dead. KK would have most likely 3-bet me preflop at this level, to try and get me to stack off with an inferior hand. I check, villain bets super tiny amount, which is odd, I figure him for the lest J or maybe a big K. I start Meryl Streepin' it up. I **** my head sideways, as if "am I walking into a trap?" After much deliberation, I call.
The turn comes a 7. I think for a few seconds, then check. Villain bets a more appropriate amount this time, approximately half the pot. I pretend I'm trying to ponder his range, and at this point in time commit to the Johnny Chan. I call.
The river hits a big sexy Q. Now I'm beat by two hands, KK, and QQ, both of which I would have expected a 3-bet from this style of play. I think for a few seconds, then check again. Villain stacks up an assortment of chips that I'm pretty sure is more than my stack. "How much, dealer?" I ask. He
tells me. Yup, got me covered. In a burst of adrenaline, I call, flip over my cards, and tell the dealer to send the pot.
What villain actually held will forever be a mystery to me. I'm sure the other cards in the muck know, but not me. Not that I really cared.
(FWIW, I took that player out at the final table the following night. Was a good player with a stack, but too predictable. When he was short stack he just waited for the first coinflip hand he could get and jammed. I can't blame him. That's a solid play.)
That was back on March first. I haven't played a lot of poker since then, maybe 2-3k hands. But that was the last time I slowplayed.
So in the interest of making this post even longer, here's a quick checklist:
1. How many villains are in the pot?
This is important. Slowplaying against a lot of villains is a bad idea in general, unless you flop a monster, and the board is dry.
2. What are my villain's tendancies?
Also important. If your villains are likely to check their draws and second pairs, then you're not likely to get any money in when you're ahead. When your villains bet any pair, or any draw from position, it might be time to drop the hammer w/ TpTk or so, or an overpaiir.
3.
What is the showdown value of my hand unimproved? This is a big one. A lot of players decide to slowplay hands like AA or KK. Consider the following: Preflop, AA are 75-80% to win against the hands most likely to beat them. Postflop, against two pair, you have only 5 outs on the turn and 8 on the river to bring you to a hand better than two pair, so you've gone from being huge favorite to a 27% underdog or so. If you have A9s on a rainbow board of A94, okay, I can see the slow play, which brings me to my next point.
4. What is the board texture? In the interest of keeping pots small, you may desire to slowplay weaker hands on dry boards. And by weaker, I mean overpair, TpTk and overpairs, hands that don't have a lot of showdown value unimproved. Consider this pot control and not slow-playing. Slow-playing should only be done when you're so far ahead in the hand that you have little to worry about. AND, you think somebody's going to bet into you. And it won't kill you if the don't.
In summary, it's a very simple play, but very seldom is it the best play. Even in my example, all I ended up winning was my stack x2+ and some table respect for facing the dragon and emerging unscathed. Had I played it differently, he still probably would have payed me off with the case J, but I don't know that.