Poker's Biggest Thrill - Slow Playing

By Stephen Todd

What is Slow Playing?

Slow playing is a strategy used to deceive poker opponents into thinking that you have a weaker poker hand than you actually have. By initially playing a weak hand, you are giving confidence to your opponents that they may have stronger hands. You are therefore encouraging your opponents to bet into your winning hand. The end result is a bigger pot for you to win.

The Thrill of Slow Playing

Part of the thrill of playing poker is the opportunity to create a deception by slow playing a hand and taking a large pot of poker chips from under your opponent's nose. There is no greater satisfaction when playing poker than beating other online players, by surprise and deception. Good slow playing takes time to perfect - it's a game of psychology. Stalling, checking, raising and playing cards other players are surprised you are playing.

Slow poker playing is about sending a message out to other players that your hand is weaker than it really is and giving them a false sense of security. A satisfactory conclusion to a slow playing hand is, your opponent bets into your winning hand, the pot gets bigger and you take it! There is no greater satisfaction in poker than this.

Slow Playing Requires Discipline

Slow-playing is used for one purpose only - winning more poker chips in situations where being too aggressive from the start will not achieve this. Slow playing a hand needs to be used sparingly to be effective - only when the circumstances are right.

The Four Circumstances that are Right for Slow Playing a Hand are

1. You must have a very strong hand to consider the play.
2. The free card you are allowing other players to get must have good possibilities of making them a second-best hand.
3. That same free card must have only a small chance of making someone a better hand than yours.
4. You must be confident that you will scare other players out by showing this aggression, but you still have good odds of winning a big pot if you don't.
5. The pot should not be too large to start with.

Maximizing Profits on Your Premium Hands and a Caution

Slow playing is a way to get better value for your premium hands.
You need to be aware though that you are giving away a free card to your opposition; so you need to make sure that even if your opponents hand improves, you are still confident that your hand is still strong enough to win.
Slow playing is an art and if you get it wrong you will suffer, play it right however, and you have one of the major traits that make a top player. You get an extra bet into the pot and make a good player stay with a marginal hand longer than they should - that's what a good slow play achieves.

 

Practice Makes Perfect

 

You need to decide how to play your hand based on building a large pot while increasing your chance of winning it. This is not as easy as it sounds and takes experience of knowing when the circumstances are right and the discipline not to use slow playing too often. Get your slow playing strategy right though and you will enhance your profit potential considerably. As with all poker strategies it takes time to perfect and the old adage practice makes perfect applies.