[M.B.E.]

This is a really provocative article.

I disagree with the statement "Once the pot is around 20 percent of your stack or larger, there is no shame in just taking it down with a normal bet, especially if a free card has any possibility of knocking you out of the tourney." Actually I think the converse is true: if the current pot is 20% to 50% of the money behind, you should be more inclined to slowplay than if the current pot were, say, 10% of the money behind. That's for two reasons: first, your discussion about giving your opponents correct implied odds, as in your example where you slowplay AT on a TT3 flop allowing your opponent with 77 to catch a 7; second the concern expressed by Hectorjelly in this thread that you want to bet your monsters in order to build a pot.

I found your third example really interesting, where you attempt a steal with Q8, are called by the chip leader, and the flop comes Q86. The board offers a variety of possible straight draws, and if your opponent has a gutshot, then by slowplaying you are essentially risking 96K in chips to win 58K. (There's 58K remaining in your stack and 38K currently in the pot.) Of course you won't always win 58K more if you slowplay this flop by checking. For example, if your opponent has JT, you check behind on the flop, and the turn card is a deuce, there's a good chance your opponent will bet the turn, perhaps 20K and then you move in and he folds. If your opponent has JT and the turn is a jack or ten, then you almost certainly get all-in on the turn with your opponent drawing to six outs.

I think what this example really turns on is how your opponent has seen you play before. If your check will look suspicious after you raised preflop, then you do need to bet this flop. However, if you have previously raised preflop and then checked behind on the flop when it missed you, while your current opponent was at the table, then it is reasonable to also check behind now with top two pair. This should cause your opponent to bet the turn even if he has absolutely nothing.

Even if you don't check, you still can slowplay by betting less than you normally would. The pot is 38K and you have 58K left; if you bet this flop, you are hoping that your opponent has either one pair or some kind of draw and will checkraise you all-in. I think if you bet 19K you will look pot-committed and so your opponent would be less likely to make the checkraise-with-bottom-pair play. I'd prefer a bet of 14K or so. This is still a "slowplay" because with a moderately good hand like top pair you would bet more than that, probably all-in. In theory that type of slowplay should be balanced by also betting 14K or so in a situation like this when you have nothing.