Slow-playing means taking a line in which you under-represent the strength of your holding. Or to put it another way, you have a hand which you’re sure is the best but you don’t think you’ll get paid by betting, so you check to entice your opponent into betting. The idea is to set a trap for your opponent either by convincing him he has the best hand or by encouraging him to bluff when behind. Either way you’re looking to get him to put more money in the pot where he otherwise wouldn’t. Slow-playing can be a great way of trapping an opponent and is a vital part of your strategic armoury. And it’s also kind of fun.
There are, however, some dangers you need to be aware of when slow-playing. The first is that you may miss out on value, which is a great sin for any modern player. If you decide to check instead of bet and it’s a spot where your opponent would have called, you’ve missed out on those extra chips. You also invite the great catastrophe of turning a winning hand into a losing one by giving away a free card.
Weighing up the risks
Given these strengths and weaknesses, slow-playing should not be your standard thought in a hand. You should normally be playing aggressively, betting your hands for value and bluffing to force better hands to fold. In general you will be looking to slow-play in situations where you have the deck crippled and in situations where you can safely allow your opponents a free card to catch up.
When you have the deck crippled – for example, you hold Q-Q on a Q-6-6 flop – betting makes very little sense. Unless your opponent holds a 6, or an overpair he’s unlikely to give you chips, and it’s also very unlikely that allowing him a free card will result in you losing the hand. It’s likely that checking here will make you more money in the long run.
You can also slow-play when you’re pretty sure you have the best hand and may make more money by playing your hand deceptively. For example if you have A-K on an A-9-2 rainbow flop it’s extremely likely you’re ahead. You may make more money by checking here in an attempt to convince your opponent that you don’t hold an Ace. This comes with the health warning that you’re allowing a free shot at a set or two pair, but sometimes you’ve got to take a chance if you’re going to get paid off.
What's your range?
The slow-play can be a very lucrative way of playing a hand. But when looking to slow-play you need to be clear about the range and type of hands your opponent has and also how your hand looks to your opponent.
Let’s say you call a preflop raise with 6c-6d in position against a predictable opponent who has raised in early position and the flop comes a beautiful As-6h-2c. On this flop you can be extremely confident you have the best hand (bar your opponent holding pocket Aces), and with no flush draws you will almost always have the best hand after the turn and river. Your mission is to extract as much value as humanly possible. When your opponent makes a continuation-bet on the flop his hand range contains hands with an Ace that have been helped by the flop, pocket pairs below the Ace as well as the odd connecting hand that has completely whiffed.
It may seem natural to raise here as you have the best hand almost 100% of the time. The problem is that if you make a raise your opponent will fold all of the hands that haven’t been helped by the flop. He may even fold some hands that contain an Ace because the board is so dry and you’ve come out showing so much strength. In this situation you will make more money by slow-playing and just calling the bet on the flop with the plan to raise either the turn or river. Your call may encourage your opponent to keep bluffing if he’s missed the flop or think that he’s value-betting you with top pair and a stronger kicker.
Giving the game away
It’s important to realise when slow-playing that it may cost you chips if your play is not consistent or gives away information about your play. For example, if you have been continuation betting most flops but suddenly check in a spot where you would be expected to bet, your thinking opponents will smell a rat. Think about the following situation: you raise in early position with K-K and the flop comes K-7-2 to give you the nuts. If you now check rather than making your regular continuation-bet it may look strange, and an observant player may get wary and shut down with a hand like 8-8 or 9-9. It’s too bad as you have the deck crippled, but you probably have to bet to maintain the value of your c-bets to make your play hard to read.
Lessons from the master
What better way to illustrate how and why you should sometimes slow-play with big hands than studying a hand played between two of the game’s top players: Patrik Antonius and Brian Townsend.
The hand in question took place in season two of the Million Dollar Cash Game. In the pre-flop action, Phil Ivey and Antonius limp in for $600 with 3-7 and 6h-6c respectively, before Townsend raises to $3,300 to isolate and take control of the hand with Qd-Jh. Patrik makes the call, only to see the flop of his dreams, Qs-6d-5h, giving him a set and Townsend top pair. Patrik decides to take a very trappy, slow-playing line which turns this hand into a huge pot.
On the flop Antonius check-calls Townsend’s $7,200 bet. The Kh comes on the turn, bringing a flush draw, and Patrik now gets super trappy and decides to check-call again for $20,000. This is a somewhat dangerous slow-play line as its possible Townsend could make a hand like Broadway or a flush to win the pot or that a card could come on the river to kill Patrik’s action. However, Antonius backs his ability to stay out of trouble on the river, but more than that he knows how aggressive Townsend is and that he can get Brian to either keep bluffing or value-bet thinly on the river convinced his pair is still good.
River fireworks
The river brings a harmless looking 4d, which would complete a straight with 7-8 but fails to complete the heart draw. Patrik again checks, completing this extreme slow-play and Townsend decides to make a thin $40,000 value bet. Finally Patrik springs the trap and makes a big $150k raise into the $103k pot.
This raise really confuses Townsend. It’s a big raise which not only maximises value for Antonius but also looks like it might be a bluff. This raise really polarises his range as it looks like a bet he would only make with either a big hand or a bluff (either a missed draw or a hand worse than Brian’s that he’s decided to turn into a bluff). Brian ends up paying it off and loses a huge pot.
Townsend said afterwards that he didn’t think Patrik would play a set that way, but Antonius used Townsend’s aggression against him for maximum value. He read the situation and his player perfectly and was prepared to take the risks associated with slow-playing in an attempt to win a huge pot on the river.