I had to raise to slow you down

[Mike]

One of my favorite phrases, from others of course. I can't seem to grasp the concept so I smile and say yes. It appears to work as follows: A player holds a medium to below par hand and there is a bet, so the player raises to slow the bettor down? Hmmmm, let's see, if there was no bet, the bettor is betting because they think they have the best hand. How does raising slow the bettor down? Does anyone understand the thinking behind this concept and willing to share it?

[Dynasty]

The initial bettor may just call the raise and check on the following street. This allows the raiser to check behind. If you make this kind of raise on the flop and check behind on the turn, you may have saved yourself one small bet.

[drewjustdrew]

I would say it is a way of taking away control of the game. Fast players are trying to gain control and will do so with weaker hands. Passive players let them do it. By raising a fast player to "slow him down", you are essentially saying that "I am going to raise your variance above even your own comfort level if you don't stop betting the garbage."

I think this goes in hand with a Negreanu article about his first trip to Vegas. He was used to bullying the players in Canada. His technique did not work in Vegas because the players there also wanted control of the game and would not just play weak. They slowed him down by making him pay for his overaggressiveness.