When you “slow play” a hand, you don’t bet, or bet like you have a weak hand. This is done in order to hide a strong hand. If you get carried away, you can make a mess of a good hand.
I’m not saying that you should never slow play. I do think that you need the right situation to do it. Most players slow play at the wrong times. Let’s look at why you should be careful.
Let’s look at a classic slow play as it goes terribly wrong. Your hand is AA. With the blinds at 10/20 you bet 40 from under the gun. There are two callers. The flop comes out A 6 10 rainbow.
Then you decide to make a small bet to hope for some action. You get one call. The turn card is an innocent looking 9. Again, you bet small, trying to milk this hand.
Then your opponents make a big raise. Convinced he has no idea what you have you happily call. The river is a harmless 2, so you make a bet hoping for a call. Your opponent immediately pushes all in.
Well, you can’t fold, can you? You call, and when he flips over 78 of diamonds, your jaw drops. You’re out of the tournament. Out because you slow played yourself out.
The small bets, with your big hand, seemed to have backfired on you. You got someone to stay in the hand long enough to get yourself beat. When you get to the end you can’t fold, you’ve really out smarted yourself.
Most players then think about how unlucky they were in this hand. Are they right? Well, a little, but not completely. Let’s take a closer look.
All the bets you made were designed to keep players in the hand. By doing so you helped someone hit a long shot. When you call at the end you plan on seeing two pair, or a smaller set. But, when you think about it, these hands would be calling big bets too. You didn’t need to slow play against these hand that you’d beat.
By not betting much, you wouldn’t have made that many chips against some hands that would have been calling you. On the other hand, you get creamed when you make it cheap for someone to hit a long shot.
I think we all learn this lesson the hard way, by losing a few hands this way. I’m not saying never slow play, but most of the time it won’t make you more chips. In addition, sometimes you’ll get burned, bad.
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