Art-ology

Please be aware, it is extremely important to all poker players to be able to use effective slow playing strategy, whether they are playing Online Poker or live. This approach traps overly aggressive players into betting or calling you when you are holding a monster hand, allowing you to extract the maximum amount of chips from your monster hand. I will tell you in this article exactly how I slow play big hands.

The skill of slow play in poker is a important skill that once learned is a formidable play that can destroy an opponent’s chip stacks. Simply put, slow playing is displaying weakness with a strong hand pre-flop and then playing passively according to what flops. For example, you have pocket fives and the flop comes 7-5-Q all off suit. This is a beautiful flop to slow play because there are no flush draws and remote straight draws that are unlikely.

To slow play in this situation you merely check when its your turn to act and let your opponent(s) do the betting for you. Slow playing is most effective against aggressive and super-aggressive players that will bet if no one else does almost every time. If they take the bait, don’t jump the gun and go all-in just discipline yourself and simply call. Your call will be a huge red light for a more experienced player but because poker is a game of “well timed aggression” most less experienced aggressive players will over do it. On the turn there’s not really a card that can come out that will scare you too much so check-call again. On the river when your opponent bets this is when you raise or check-raise if you want to try to extract some more chips.

Keep in mind that slow playing is not the viable option every time a favorable flop comes up or every time you flop a set. You need to analyze the flop carefully to determine if it’s a proper play. Even if it is a favorable flop it should not be done every time especially if you raised pre-flop because checking after a raise can look suspicious to keen players but at weak home games or a weak table you could get away with it most of the time.

As far as analyzing the flop you need to look at what potential draws are possible on the board and how likely your opponent is to hold cards that could be part of the draw. The first thing to look for is flush draws (two or three suited cards on the flop) then screen for straight draws (a flop like J-10-2 or 5-6-7 are bad flops to flop a set with). If one or both draws are present slow playing is not the ideal play however you can try it on the flop then speed up if a scare card comes on the turn to see if your set is still good.

When slow playing straights you need to watch and look for flush draws and that’s the main thing you need to be cautious of unless the board pairs and you’re concerned about a full house. For flushes, you can probably slow play a queen-high and up flush but any lower than that you should semi-slow play by perhaps checking the flop and speeding it up on later streets. Lower flushes are difficult because being beat by the nut (ace-high) flush or other high flushes is hard to read so I do not advise slow play when flopping a flush under queen-high.

Don’t play scared because when you’re slow playing you have a monster hand but just play cautious and be aware of draws and letting opponents chase draws. Slow playing is not optimal play against conservative players because they will likely check behind you to see the free card and giving free cards is the worst thing you can do. Only try slow play if you’re sure there will be betting behind you.