Poker Strategy - Slow Playing Monster Hands | Online Poker Player Tracking

Poker Strategy – Slow Playing Monster Hands

As a word of caution, it is extremely vital to all poker players to be able to utilize slow playing strategy. This strategy traps aggressive players into betting into you when you are holding a monster hand, allowing you to extract the maximum amount of chips from your big made hand. Bear with us as this article will show you exactly how slow playing is down at a masterful level.

The art of slow play in poker is a vital skill that once learned is a dangerous play that can destroy and cripple opponent’s chip stacks. Simply put, slow playing is displaying weakness when your hand after the flop is extremely strong. For example, you have pocket fives and the flop comes 7-5-Q all off suit. This is a beautiful flop to slow play because there are no flush draws and remote straight draws that are unlikely.

To slow play in this situation you merely check when its your turn to act and let your opponent(s) do the betting for you. Slow playing is most effective against aggressive and super-aggressive players that will bet if no one else does almost every time. Once they bet, don’t jump the gun and go all-in just discipline yourself and simply call. On the turn there’s not really a card that can come out that will scare you too much so check-call again. On the river when your opponent bets this is when you raise or check-raise if you want to try to extract some more chips.

Keep in mind that slow playing is not the viable option every time a favorable flop comes up or every time you flop a set. You need to analyze the flop carefully to determine if it’s a proper play. Even if it is a favorable flop it should not be done every time especially if you raised pre-flop because checking after a raise can look suspicious to keen players but at weak home games or a weak table you could get away with it most of the time.

As far as analyzing the flop you need to look at what potential draws are possible on the board and how likely your opponent is to hold cards that could be part of the draw. The first thing to look for is flush draws (two or three suited cards on the flop) then screen for straight draws (a flop like J-10-2 or 5-6-7 are bad flops to flop a set with). If one or both draws are present slow playing is not the ideal play however you can try it on the flop then speed up if a scare card comes on the turn to see if your set is still good.

When slow playing straights you need to watch and look for flush draws and that’s the main thing you need to be cautious of unless the board pairs and you’re concerned about a full house. For flushes, you can probably slow play a queen-high and up flush but any lower than that you should semi-slow play by perhaps checking the flop and speeding it up on later streets. Lower flushes are difficult because being beat by the nut (ace-high) flush or other high flushes is hard to read so I do not advise slow play when flopping a flush under queen-high.

Don’t play scared because when you’re slow playing you have a monster hand but just play cautious and be aware of draws and letting opponents chase draws. Slow playing is not optimal play against conservative players because they will likely check behind you to see the free card and giving free cards is the worst thing you can do. Only try slow play if you’re sure there will be betting behind you.

For more information on slow playing and dozens of pages of free poker strategy ranging from starting hand requirements to probe betting and slow play can be found on Mega-Poker.Net After you have mastered the free strategy take a look at the poker site reviews to aid your choosing of an online poker room to hone your skills and utilize our other resources and recommended books/software.

By Matt Cnae
Published: 2/11/2008

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