Slow-Playing Advantages - PokerTraining.org

Slow-playing
The advantages of slow-playing - part 1/3

The advantages of slow-playing:

1)      You increase your chances of getting paid by mediocre hands

One thing you really want to happen once you hold a great hand is getting paid by your opposition. Holding the nuts and not seeing anybody calling your bet can be really frustrating. When you slow-play a hand, your chances increase that somebody else tries to take the pot by betting with a mediocre hand, thereby putting money into the pot. Of course, it basically doesn´t matter whether or not you slow-play a certain hand when one of your opponents has a strong one, too. However, by pretending to be weak, you might be able to trap the other guys on the table into thinking that they have you beat, leading them to bet with inferior hands.

2)      You might catch your opposition off guard

If you want to have long-term success while playing Poker, it is crucial, that you keep your mistakes at a minimum. You can avoid a lot of mistakes by carefully thinking through every situation you put yourself in and by anticipating your opponents´ moves. Now, the same holds for any of your opponents and if you´re able to confront them with situations they didn´t see coming, you can force a lot of them to make poor decisions. Don´t get me wrong, I wouldn´t count on surprising anybody you might consider a shark, but especially the opposition playing on micro- and medium-limits might be caught off guard by those actions.

To clear up this point a little bit more, consider the following situation: You´re going up against one opponent and you flopped a great hand like a set or a straight. You decide to play your hand slow, so you check. What does your opponent might think now? Maybe he assumes that you didn´t hit anything and he might be able to steal the pot by bluffing. Perhaps he believes that his middle-pair might be ahead right now and he has to protect his hand against a potential draw. Another option would be that he´s on a draw himself. All things considered, your rival probably spends the time until he makes his decision believing that he´s ahead of you. Because of that, he bets the pot. Your response then would be to check-raise him by betting the pot again. Now things are going to get really interesting. Ten seconds ago, your opponent was pretty sure that he was winning the pot and now he has to make a huge call. In addition to that, he´s now under pressure to make a decision within 20-30 seconds.

Especially bad players have a problem when it comes to adjusting to changing situations like this. Ten seconds ago he was ahead of you and now you have him beat all of a sudden? Your opponent might think that you´re only bluffing or that he still has outs to beat you in case he really is behind.

Another aspect is called “escalation of commitment”, which basically describes that some people have the tendency to throw “good money after the bad”. Instead of accepting their losses, those players keep investing into a pot/situation in order to recoup potential deficits. I´ve seen it numerous times that some players even call a huge check-raise with nothing to show for, simply because they´re so surprised by that move or because they cannot live with the fact that folding their hand would cement their losses.

3)      You keep bluffers in check

Especially when you´re playing tight-aggressively, going up against one or even more opponents that like to bluff can be a pest. The problem is that you often know that those guys are bluffing you but you cannot do much about it since your hand isn´t strong either or you´re not willing to counter-bluff them. Working with check-raises is an option to keep those bluffers in check and make life on the table a lot easier for you.

The first advantage I would like to mention is that you lead a bluffer to invest chips or cash into the pot if you decide to slow-play a hand you. Let me give you one brief example:

I once reached the heads-up during an SNG with 4000 in chips while my opponent had 2000. During the first hands of the heads-up I realized that my rival always went all-in when I was the BB or when I only called out of the SB. Once I raised him, he quickly folded his hand. Of course I knew that he was mostly bluffing me but I wanted to wait for the right moment. Despite all those raises I was able to keep him in check for the first hands and I decided to use my knowledge against him once I received the right cards. After ten hands or so, my hole cards showed TT. To me that was the perfect hand to slow-play him. I knew I wouldn´t get any action by raising that hand and I was pretty sure that a simple call would trigger my opponent to raise me all-in, in order to steal the pot again.

Long story short, I called, he went all-in (with J8o) and I called him just like I planned. Additionally, I won the tournament and felt pretty good about my successful read. Even when you´re playing ring-games instead of SNGs or if you´re involved in post-flop- instead of pre-flop-situations, you can learn a little bit from this story. If your opposition likes to bluff a lot, more often than not, they will interpret you checking the board as a sign of weakness, triggering them to try to bluff you out of the hand. In this regard a check-raise works like the Poker-equivalent of judo since you´re using their force against them.

The second advantage of slow-playing when dealing with bluffers on the table is, that they start to fear you more and more and don´t try to steal the pot from you as often as they used to. Once you successfully check-raised those guys a few times, they simply don´t know anymore whether a check from you is a sign of weakness or the preparation for just another check-raise once they invested money into the pot.

So slow-playing can not only help your game by collecting additional chips from bluffers but also by keeping them honest for the next few hands, preventing them from trying to steal the pot from you.

4)      You can use the image of other players to blow up the pot

Now that point sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Consider the following situation:

You hit a set or a straight again and you´re playing against two opponents. One of them is a maniac and the other one is an educated, tight-aggressive player just like you are. If you start to bet, the maniac might stay in the pot, but the smart opponent will probably leave the hand, because he respects your moves.

But if you decide to check, the maniac might be triggered into betting because he sees another opportunity to bluff. However, your educated opponent might now assume that the maniac tries to bluff as usual, leading him to call the maniac´s bet. Do you see what I want to explain to you?

Now you have the best hand and two other guys already invested chips into the pot instead of just one, giving you the option to check-raise and probably win the hand right away, or to check-call (Only check-call when you hold a monster, the board doesn´t look dangerous at all and your opponents have the tendency to continue betting on the turn!).

5)      You switch your style up

Nothing is better for your opponents than exactly knowing what you´re about to do. Just think about what you would prefer if you were able to choose: An opponent that is always acting the same way and following his patterns without switching anything up or an opponent who is making moves you didn´t see coming therefore constantly giving you headaches? Right, I don´t like headaches, either.

For example, once I´ve found out about my opponents´ patterns, I start to bluff him when I smell weakness. Sure, I still pay attention to the board and his overall behavior; however by more or less knowing what your opponent probably thinks, my task of getting chips from him turns out to be a lot easier.

By slow-playing some hands, you make it more difficult for your rivals to read you. If your opposition cannot read you, you´re less likely to be attacked with mediocre hands because the other guys on the table always have to keep in mind that you´re maybe only one bet away from check-raising the hell out of them.

Read part 2/3