All good players slow-play from time to time, and you should, too. Once you make the decision to slow-play a hand, another important question arises: How slow is too slow? If you play it too fast, you might scare off your prey; too slow, and you may miss bets, letting him off too cheaply. Even worse, there's the nightmare situation of slow-playing too long and giving too many free or cheap cards, and you get your big hand beat!
Let's start at the beginning. Do you have to slow-play hands? I usually hate to give definite answers in poker, but this time, the answer is absolutely, positively yes. If you never slow-play a hand, your opponent can bluff you or value-bet you at will with no fear of a check-raise. Even if you only rarely slow-play, you must do it at least occasionally to keep your opponent in check. He must think in the back of his mind that when you check, you may in fact have a big hand and are slow-playing.
Once you instill that fear in your opponents, you can play more "straightforward" poker if that's what you're more comfortable with. But until you do, you will be playing to their tune, not your own. I know that when I play, most of my opponents will think twice before betting top pair, no kicker or second pair into me on every street. If they don't? Well, I'll have a little surprise waiting for them sometime soon.
Slow-playing also has an advantage that many overlook. It sometimes can enable you to escape a cooler. Your opponent already may have you beat, or have some sort of a drawing hand that is so big that he can't get away from it, even if you play it fast from the get-go. The following hand that I recently played is a great example:
I was playing in a no-limit hold'em game that was not too tight, not too loose. When several players limped in front of me, I did likewise with pocket fives. To my delight, several more players limped behind me, and the big blind checked his option. The flop comes 5-4-4, no suits … bingo!
It's checked to me, and now I have a decision to make: slow-play or play my hand now. There were several factors to consider here, such as the number of opponents who saw the flop. As I said, there were quite a few limpers, seven players total. That fact alone was enough to make me want to play it right here instead of waiting.
First off, with so many players in, there's a good chance that someone hit something here. Secondly, I have a big hand, but it's still vulnerable to overpairs hitting a bigger full house. And, finally, I have a lot of money on the table compared to the size of the blinds and the game overall. This amplifies the first two points. I can either win or lose a very big pot here. (Another major factor would be the aggressiveness of the players at the table, but inasmuch as I just got here and don't know any of them, I just have to play it by ear.)
Anyway, I bet out about three-quarters of the pot and get one call from a lady with a fair amount of money in front of her. If you don't know your opponent, this is when you have to quickly analyze her and figure out what type of player she is and what she is likely to do. I can see by the way she handles her chips that this "ain't her first rodeo." Also, she has an aggressive, hungry look about her - kind of like a stripper at the end of the month who hasn't put away any money for her bills coming due tomorrow (in other words … all of them).
She was my only caller, and fourth street brought a rainbow 7. Now I had another decision to make: check and possibly give her a free card, or bet. There aren't many cards that could hurt me with my hand, so a check would definitely work here. But, I sense something in this lady. She appears to be what I refer to as a "mirror player." We've all played with these players; you check, I check (even though I have a big hand). You raise, I raise (even though I have nothing).
I'm afraid that if I check my fives full, she may in turn check trip fours or possibly even fours full - whereas if I bet, she may make a big raise (mirroring my play). I fire out a pot-sized bet and, sure enough, she makes a big raise. Wow, now what should I do?
Well, I quickly try to figure her possible hands. Sevens full or quad fours would have me beat, but are extremely unlikely, and there's not much I can do about it if that's the case, but just calling may save me a few dollars. Fours full or a straight would call a reraise and probably get me max value. But what about an overpair, three fours, or a hand like 7-6 (top pair with an open-end straight draw)? I don't want to scare a hand like that out, and she most certainly would pass a hand like that if I reraised. And let's not forget the stone-cold bluff.
I decide to just call and give her another card. Maybe she can make her straight or hit her kicker for fours full. Well, the river brought a little surprise for me, another 7, double-pairing the board. Now, if she did have the 7-6 or made fours full of sevens, she just improved to sevens full, drawing out on me.
Yet, I think there's a good chance that I still have the best hand. In case I don't, perhaps I can keep a big bet off me with a defensive bet. That's what I do, betting about half the pot. This lady never missed a beat, moving all of her chips to the middle of the pot with a slightly veiled smile on her face.
After a few moments of hesitation, I reluctantly pass my beautiful full house that I had flopped. You're probably thinking, "You slow-played your hand too long, Todd, you stupid mullet head!" And, that very well could have been the case here. Fortunately for my ego, however, my opponent, being the lady she was, said, "That card didn't help me," and turned over quad fours!
This was one of the rare cases in which we both were slow-playing our monster hands. Had she raised me on the flop, I'd never have been able to fold a big full house like that, and she would have busted me for sure. So, when slow-playing a hand, how slow is too slow? As I said earlier, in poker, there's rarely a definite answer. Just analyze all of the information you have and think about the points I brought up here.
Maybe you, too, will dodge a cooler!
