When Not to SlowplayPosted by admin on May 23rd, 2010
The slowplay is one of the most valuable poker techniques that you can learn, and one of the most important things to learn about the slowplay is when not to use it. When it comes to methods of deception, the slowplay is king, especially when playing in locations like Caesars Online where you don’t have some of the physical false tells that you might otherwise have. Still, when executed incorrectly, the slowplay can be disastrous. Here are some basic tips about when not to execute this play.
The idea behind the slowplay is to take a hand that is absolutely killer and behave as if you do not have a great hand. By checking to your opponents (allowing them to either control the betting or delay betting until they’ve made a moderately better hand), you are getting more chips in the pot than you otherwise would. However, one major prerequisite is that you must actually have a killer hand.
What is a killer hand? It’s definitely not the high pair on the table. Two pair isn’t even fantastic, since there are so many ways to beat it by the end of play. However, if you have three of a kind or better on the flop, your hand is fantastic. If you don’t have this kind of hand, don’t bother slowplaying.
Another thing to remember is that one point of betting is to scare people away. When you slowplay, you want the opposite. However, let’s say you have three of a kind on the flop but there is a draw on both a straight and a flush on the table. You should generally not slowplay this, since by the end, your opponents may make their hands, breaking your killer hand and taking what generally amounts to large portions of your chips. When in doubt, scare them out!


