The pitfalls of slow playing

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Picture this scenario…

Poker action at a nine-player table. Scotty is in late position. Three players call before him. He looks down at his hole cards. A-A. Blinds are at 15-30. Chip stacks are 1,500 across the board. He decides to raise. Good. He raises to 60 and gets two callers. Bad.

Scotty just committed the ultimate poker sin of not raising enough with an excellent starting hand. Although I gave the example of Aces, this applies to any premium hand.

Scotty made a pre-flop raise with Aces, as he should. But by raising only the minimum bet, everyone else thought, “Why the hell not?” and called. Even if Scotty was in early position, this is still a very poor play. As a general rule of thumb, avoid making minimum bets or raises.

Scotty is essentially slow playing his Aces by not making an effective pre-flop raise. He couldn’t possibly believe that his bet would get anyone out of the hand.

Is slow playing a good method for winning bigger pots?

Unless you are going heads up, slow playing before the flop is a recipe for disaster. Remember, with every mediocre drawing hand that calls your raise, your chances of winning diminishes.

Aces rarely win big pots when slow played, but they do lose big pots. Straights win big pots. Flushes win big pots. Trips can win big pots.

Aces, on the other hand, win hands pre-flop. They win pre-flop all-ins and they win when played aggressively after the flop. The more cards you let your opponents see, the less chance you have of winning.

“But I want to extract the most chips. After all, I have the best starting hand in the game.” Yes, you have the best starting hand. When those five community cards come out, it’s a different story.

It’s natural to be excited when you look down and see American Airlines or Cowboys in your hand. But it’s not all clear skies. These cards can cloud your judgment.

Let’s keep going with this Aces example.

The flop comes 10-2-7, all different suits. The two other players check to Scotty. Scotty makes a bet of 30 chips into a 150-chip pot. The player in the big blind calls, while the guy after him folds.

The turn is a King of Hearts. The board is now 10-2-7-K, with two hearts showing. Scotty makes a paltry bet of 50. He is called. The river is the Ace of Spades: the Death Card.

Scotty has made a set. He bets 300. The player in the big blind raises to 700. Scotty re-raises all in. He is called. That player flips over his cards: Q-J. He has a straight. Scotty is knocked out the tournament. He curses his luck, repeating “always on the river” as he walks away.

Where did Scotty go wrong?

In a word, everywhere. This is a perfect example of not making effective bets throughout a NL Texas Hold’em poker hand.

We already covered his poor pre-flop raise. His pre-flop raise should have been in the neighborhood of three to four times the big blind in order to induce others to fold.

Somehow, Scotty’s raises got progressively worse. Not surprisingly, his opponent’s hand got progressively closer to gold until he ultimately hit the jackpot on the river.

The flop gave Scotty the perfect opportunity to make a strong bet, which he failed at doing. He was lucky to even get one player to fold with his 30-chip bet into a 150-chip pot. The flop was a rainbow: three different suits and no connectors. It was a good chance to make a strong bet and see if his opponent had anything. Instead, he played the hand like a typical tight-passive player, failing to play aggressively enough to win the pot.

If Scotty thought it was okay to slow play on the flop, he should have slammed on the brakes when the King of Hearts came on the river. Allowing his opponent to see one more card could result in a flush or a straight. He all but checked the turn, giving his opponent that almost-free card that he needed to catch his straight. The rest is history.

What makes slow playing so dangerous?

Slow playing requires that many things go right in order to be effective:

1. Your opponent must have a good enough hand to bet into you, but not a good enough hand to catch cards that will have you beat.
2. Your opponent must suspect that you have a weaker hand or think you are bluffing.
3. Your opponent must not be suspicious of your telltale small bet, small bet, big bet pattern of play. Or your check/call, check/call, big bet play.

Many players seem to think that if they wait until the river, that is when they can extract the most value out of their made hand. This is often not the case.

For instance, say you make a full house on the turn and there is the possibility for other players to have trips, a straight or a flush. With a bet and a raise in front of you, flat calling would be a mistake. If the possibility exists, and you put your opponents on one of those hands, you could get good value by re-raising.

What is the key to effective bets?

Selective aggression. So what does that mean?

Selective aggression doesn’t mean just raising the heck out of the pot because you have a good starting hand. It also doesn’t mean playing tight, and never bluffing or slow playing. It simply means knowing when to play aggressively, and committing to that act.

Committing to your hand doesn’t necessarily mean making a continuation bet regardless of whether you catch your cards. It doesn’t mean continuously calling down to the river with pocket Kings, even though your opponent is betting fast and furious. It means having an idea of the hand you want to make before committing to an action, and having an idea of the hand your opponent is trying to make (or has already made).

It also means taking into consideration a number of factors, including: your table position, pot size, pot odds, your chip stack, other players’ chip stacks, and the playing styles of other players.

For instance, if I know I am going against a particularly loose player and there are two of a suit and connecting cards on the board, how much do I have to bet to get that player to fold?

Good question. We’ll cover that in another post soon about how to make effective bets.

Conclusion

From the above example, it’s obvious that Scotty doesn’t know. Slow playing Aces is a particular bad decision because it’s unlikely your hand will improve. Unfortunately for him, it improved at the wrong time.

Slow play sparingly. When you have a good hand, get your money into the pot. Had Scotty made an effective pre-flop raise, it’s likely this scenario would have never happened.