During the early 2000’s when online poker really started taking off, slow-playing was one of the most preached bits of advice to beginning players. Slow-playing supposedly seeks to extract the maximum amount of value from a hand by only checking and calling with monster hands. But when slow-playing, one has to ask them self if they are definitely getting the maximum value from a monster hand this way.
Sure the idea of the slow-play is that you’re fooling others into thinking your hand is second-rate so you can trap them in the end, and make them commit even more chips. However, slow-playing doesn’t build the pot along each street and players are less likely to fall into a trap when they’ve got to commit most of their stack at the end; folding becomes the better option here.
But if you would make small raises on the flop, turn, and river then you’d be slowly building the pot while making an opponent(s) commit more of their stack. If an opponent bets enough of their stack along the way, then they’re more likely to call your big raise on the river. For instance, if you slow-played a set of kings all the way to the river and tried to raise a $100 pot by $80, then it’s more unlikely that the other player will call this.
However, if you made raises all along the way and built the pot up to $200 (with the opponent contributing a good portion of this) then it’s more likely that they’ll call the $80 raise at the end. Plus you’d be taking down a $360 pot instead of a $260 pot in the end.
Of course you need to consider an opponent’s table image as well as your own when deciding whether slow-playing or betting out is the best option. An extremely tight player isn’t as likely to call all of your raises along the way so slow-playing is the better option when it comes to some situations.
Tags: Poker Hands, Tips
