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.