"He slowrolled you."

"He slowfolded you."


The final board was J-8-8, x, x. Two spades on the flop and blanks on the turn and river. I open-raised with 10-10 and two guys called behind as did both blinds. On the flop, the blinds checked and I bet. The next player raised and the next player called and both blinds folded. Now we were three way with me first. The turn betting went check, bet, call, call. We all checked the river and I turned over my tens.


The next player did one of those "I missed a monster draw" triple takes, and finally turned over 10-9 of spades. His delay, and the check on the river, meant for sure I had him beat, so in the meantime I was watching Tony, the last guy. Thing is, I was ultra-sure I had him beat too. Besides his river check, there's no way he would have not reraised the flop with any jack and let me see the turn for one bet.


So what the heck was he waiting for? Why hadn't he already mucked his hand during the pause? Tony mucked after the other guy showed his hand and in our usual good-spirited way I gave Tony some flack, saying that he had slowrolled me by waiting instead of mucking when he saw my tens.


One of the other players pointed out that this was not a slowroll. It was a slowfold. "He slowfolded you." Pretty cool word, I think, for a fairly common situation.


(This doesn't qualify as "table talk" in my view because it's not about betting or cards or people or concepts or etc.)


As to the hand, I had the ten of spades. We read about the significance of having the flush-draw suit in our pocket pairs, and on this is a hand I was especially aware of that card because it sure smelled like a flush draw was out, so, looking back, that might have been what tipped the scales in favor of staying in, although I can't really be sure, as fast as these things go.


Tommy

I see slowfolding more often than I see slowrolling. I see 2 kinds of slowfolds:


1) A guy stares at your cards in apparent disbelief, looks back at his cards, rechecks the board, shakes his head while gritting his lips, and then finally mucks, sometimes accompanied with "that's good," a euphemism for "how could I lose to that crap?"


2) A guy looks at your cards and then turns his cards face up, as if he has you beat. Then he shrugs and turns his palms face up as if to say, "Look at my nice cards, how could they not beat that ugly hand you have?"


"I can't really be sure, as fast as these things go"


There was a mild criticism a few days ago for us posters second-guessing a person's play with the advantage of both hindsight and the luxury of time. I responded that people who post want constructive criticism and that, hopefully, such comments as they make will help us all become better players by recognizing similar situations that come up in the future more readily. Your admission that "you can't really be sure" seems both an affirmation that everyone sometimes makes a decision on the spur of the moment that they wish they had the luxury of more time to analyze, but also a recognition that, as one gets more experience, these things become second nature and the decisions are not harder because these things go fast, but easier.


Well played.