Slow Playing

[thomastem]

There was an iteresting point made but it was on one of the kindergarten posts so I am bringing it up in it's own thread.

A statement was made that you should never slow play a made hand against a draw or draws. I disagree with this statement and would like feedback.

PS I received criticism on my strategy of not always raising A-A pre-flop. Last night 1 or 2 2+2ers ran into this and it did cost them a couple BBs. If they wish to come forward, and I were a betting man I would bet 3 hefers that they wouldn't critisize me on the play.

[Robk]

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A statement was made that you should never slow play a made hand against a draw or draws. I disagree with this statement and would like feedback.


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That's obviously wrong. If you know your opponents are on a draw then there are many situations where you want to slowplay on one street to get a raise in on another street. The key is minimizing their effective odds.

[thomastem]

That's obviously wrong. If you know your opponents are on a draw then there are many situations where you want to slowplay on one street to get a raise in on another street. The key is minimizing their effective odds.

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OK then not to beat a dead horse, do you believe this same principal can be applied to big pairs pre-flop?

[winningonlinepkr]

first of all, both of these strategic statements are flawed because they indicate that you should play the same way every time. if your opponents notice that you absolutely never play a hand in a certain way, they will start to adjust their play accordingly.

that said, whether or not i will slowplay a made hand against draws depends heavily on who i am facing. i assume the draws are hitting to hands that can beat yours. aggressive opponents will bet their good draws, so a slowplay is definitely good against them. against more passive opponents, the times when you should check a good but vulnerable hand are rare. typical players online are liable to call you with as little as a gutshot, so most of the time it is correct to make them pay for the chance.

if you have them drawing dead, there is more to be said for slowplaying, but i believe that most opponents will call with their drawing hands anyway, so i would still bet much more often than not.

[thomastem]

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first of all, both of these strategic statements are flawed

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Which 2 statements?

[Robk]

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do you believe this same principal can be applied to big pairs pre-flop?

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It can- but the situation has to be just right. Could you be more specific about the situation? BTW do you own PE III?

[thomastem]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
do you believe this same principal can be applied to big pairs pre-flop?

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It can- but the situation has to be just right. Could you be more specific about the situation? BTW do you own PE III?

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We didn't get into situations but a good amount of posters believed that you must always raise with A-A. 1 example is on the big blind where a raise doesn't thin the field. A check raise on a later street will be more effective and profitable. There are several other situations or types of players that make sense to me as well.

What is PE III?

[crockpot]

that you should NEVER slowplay and ALWAYS raise preflop. you don't want to be using exclusionary statements in poker. the alternative play can usually be correct in some situations.

[PokerKing]

I assume you are referring to my statement. If I did say "never" (I don't think I did) I mean never in the context of playing in a typical loose passive low limit online game. I was referring to Crocksucker's website where he gives advice for these sorts of game.

Do you want to do the same thing every time in every game? No, of course there are always exceptions. But as a general rule in that type of game it's the WRONG MOVE. There are no "blanks" when people play any facecard2.

It is bad advice to give to beginning low limit holdem players. When you hold AJ and the flop comes JT6 with 2 hearts, you raise if bet into, no fancy slowplaying, no worrying about looking predictable, raising is the right play in this typical low limit loose passive game 100% of the time.

I think crocksucker realizes this, and although he won't admit it, I am sure he will have changed this passage on his site within a few days.

[Inthacup]

Post the hand. You have my permission. I need to see the hand history to tell you more. If you don't have it, I can look it up on Pokertracker tonight.