Slowplay - Trapping your opponent
Introduction
In this Article
- When can you slowplay?
- On which Boards can you slowplay?
- Against who can you slowplay?
Slowplay is a strategic element that is useful to have in your arsenal, and can, in specific situations, increase your profit. Yet it is generally overrated by beginning and semi-advanced players, since especially on the lower limits, aggressive play is often the most profitable course of option.
This article will therefore deal with the topic of slowplay. It'll show you in which situations tricky plays make sense and in which situations you should simply play straightforward. Using several examples the article will demonstrate on what type of boards and against what type of opponents passive slowplay will yield more profit than aggressive play. This is also the key message of the article: being tricky and slowplaying is pointless if simply raising and betting will earn you more money.
What is slowplay?
Per definition, slowplay is checking and calling, that is, playing a passive game, if you have a strong hand. Although this shouldn't be misunderstood. Slowplay maximizes gains by accounting for „implied" gain in later streets. You play with a small expected value to start and improve it later through the implied winnings.
Slowplay goes against the basic principles of the tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive style. It goes against the principle of protection, where you try to play aggressively to drive your opponent out of the pot. In some cases, though, a hand is so strong that you don't need protection and in these situations slowplay can really payoff.
This is a key principle: slowplay is a viable option whenever your hand is so strong that you have no need of protecting it.
In addition to the slowplay post-flop, you can also slowplay strong hands pre-flop. However, in no limit cash games there is no reason to play slow pre-flop, so I'll focus on the post-flop slowplay.
What are advantages of slowplay?
Slowplay in no-limit Hold’em has decisive advantages. Through your passive game lets your opponents see the next card for a small fee (and give them no opportunity to fold).
If you play aggressively and raise the cost, they'll probably throw their hands away. In most cases their fold would be correct. But you want the opponent to make a mistake. To be more precise: you hope that their hands improve, but not beyond yours, in order to gain more money from them since they'll bet on their improved hands and not fold them.
Important in this regard, is the condition that your own hand still beats the improved hand of the opponent. If this is not the case, then you have made a mistake and allowed your opponent to correctly draw a better hand.
Additionally, you enable your opponents, through your passive game, to bluff since you have not shown strength.
This method can lead you to win his whole stack or just to win more from their improved but worse hands - it's all about value maximization.
Which hands can you slowplay on what boards?
The first question you should ask when considering a slowplay is:
Is my Hand strong enough that I can afford to give freecards?
If the answer is no, then you should forget about slowplay - right away!
The principle question you should ask yourself when having a hand that does not need protection is: How will I get the most amount of money in the Pot? Slowplay can be a possibility.
The strength of your own hand is inextricably bound with the lay of the board. If the board is not connected and is a rainbow (ragged), then it is relatively safe to allow freecards.
The amount of opponents is also important for the evaluation of your own hand. An overpair on the flop in a pot against one opponent is almost a monster. If there are 7 opponents, you would clearly lose equity on the overpair and it might even be defeated on the flop.
You should not slowplay very often with 2-pair, straights, and sets - even if these hands seem very strong at first.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
Preflop: Hero is MP+3 with A
, 6 .
UTG+1 calls $1, UTG+2 calls $1, 1 fold, MP1 calls $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, 3 folds, BB checks.
Flop: ($5.5) 9
, A , 6
(5 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 bets $3, Hero ???
This is definitely not the time for a slowplay. You have the best hand but you should raise to protect yourself from flush draws and other draws. A raise of $12 looks good here.
If you just call then you give the players behind you good odds. 2-pair is usually too weak to play slowly, even if a flush draw is not possible. If another 9 drops on the turn or a pair turns up on the river that is higher than 6, the 2-pair is relatively worthless.
Straights have the same problem. If the board pairs and you have a straight, it can be very expensive if your opponent has a full house. Furthermore straights are vulnerable to flushes and should generally not be slowplayed.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 8 , 8
.
1 fold, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, MP1 calls $1, MP2 calls $1, 4 folds, BB checks.
Flop: ($4.5) 9 , Q , 8 (4 players)
BB checks, Hero ???
Hero bets! This is not a good time to slowplay. On this board you cannot afford to give away a freecard. That would be a catastrophe. Many cards could be deadly for hero and even if a player has a backdoor flush card and improves to a flush draw on the turn hero could give away the pot on the river - and that to a hand that would have folded against a simple bet on the flop. Of course, you must also count flush and straight draws on the flop. A pot sized bet (PSB) of $4.5 seems correct here.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 8 , 8 .
1 fold, Hero calls, 1 fold, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, 4 folds, BB checks.
Flop: ($4.5) K , 2 , 8 (4 players)
BB checks, Hero ...
Now things look a lot different! Hero could now afford to give away a freecard in order to win more bets later. Whether he should do this or play straightforward and bet depends on other factors which will be discussed in the next section. Theoretically this board is good for slowplaying since the set hardly needs protection.
Against who can you slowplay?
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
BB ($100) VP$IP:50 / PFR:5 / AF:2.0 / WTSD:40
Preflop: Hero is MP+3 with 8 , 8 .
Hero raises to $3.00, 3 folds, BB calls $2.00.
Flop: ($6.50) 8 , K , 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero…
Hero bets! You should bet here. Looking at the board, it hardly matters if the opponent sees another card. Our hand hardly needs protection, at least not now. The board is quite safe.
If another , or falls on the turn he could get a flush draw. That doesn't matter to us since we could still lead him to make a wrong call with a strong bet. It is much more important that our opponent call a bet on the flop.
This lets us draw conclusions about what kind of opponent we should slowplay. As we see above, this opponent has a Went-to-showdown value of 40. In a NL cash game this is very high. A good player's WSD is somewhere between 16 and 22, but definitely not 40. Even if the board isn't threatening a draw, he would probably call a bet with any pair and probably even with ace high.
If there is a good chance that your opponent would call a bet, you should not slowplay.
This is often true against fish with high WSD. If you slow play it is because you fear that the opponent will fold against a bet or a raise. This fear is not so great with fish as with TAGs.
Well, good. Two arguments against a slowplay have been mentioned. These alone are not enough to exclude it, since even fish with a WSD of 40 won't call everything and the probability of a backdoor flush is very small.
The most important point here is that a check would be abnormal and suspicious in this situation. The board is perfect for a continuation bet. Even a fish might ask himself here why his opponent would check after a pre-flop raise. A thinking player would notice it right away - and it reduces the possible winnings on later streets if an opponent believes you to hold a strong hand.
Example and Explanations
The effective Stack is $100 and BB is a LAG.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
Preflop: Hero is MP+3 with 9 , 9 .
Hero raises to $3.00, 3 folds, BB calls $2.00.
Flop: ($6.50) 9 , K , 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $4.00, BB raises to $12.00, Hero …
Hero calls! Let us look at the board and our hand in relation to each other. That should always be the first step when considering a slowplay. The board is safe. We are ahead against almost all hands and these hands have only 4 outs against us - that is very, very few. Our hand is therefore very, very strong on this board.
On the turn, there will probably be other draws possible, but we'll still be a big favorite. The most likely hand for the big blinds is a Top pair. You are big favorite against all possible BB hands. According to PokerStove our equity is almost 97% here - a dream.
Another possibility is that BB is bluffing. To get to the point: You should only call, as not to chase away hands like bare top pair and to possibly win another bet on the turn. This will often succeed.
Against a re-raise, however, the opponent might fold top pairs with bad kickers that he might otherwise have bet again on the turn. If it's a bluff he'll fold against another raise anyway and if he has 22, he will probably lose his stack by the end of this hand.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
MP+3 ($120.12)
Hero ($95.72)
Preflop: Hero is BB with A , Q .
MP+3 raises to $3.00, 3 folds, Hero calls $2.00.
Flop: ($6.50) T , A , Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP+3 bets $5, Hero …
Hero raises! If you're thinking of a slowplay here you haven't understood what you've read so far in this article. First, the board is very dangerous. You must protect yourself against flush draws. Second, this hand is not as strong as it appears. You could already be behind a set, a straight, or even a flush. A raise of $17-$20 seems about right here. Against strong opposition you should even think about folding this one.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
BB ($150.53)
Hero ($100.00)
Button ($80.90)
Preflop: Hero is MP+3 with 7 , 7 .
Hero raises to $3.00, 3 folds, BB calls $2.00
Flop: ($6.50) 7 , J , J (2 players)
BB bets $4, Hero …
Example A: Your opponent is a good player
You have a read on the BB. He is a good player that understands odds and outs and often donks his flush draws on the flop. Furthermore, he knows that you are a good player.
In this example you should call the flop and hope your opponent hits his flush. You represent a worse hand in order to get more money out of him than if you make a strong raise which would scare him off.
In case he has a pair or even three jacks then he will probably bet again on the turn, even against a mini-raise. If you mini-raise on the flop by $8, your opponent will get odds of 4:18.5, or 1:4.6. His flushdraw is an underdog of about 1:4. The odds would be enough for a call.
But since you know that BB is a good player, you also know he'll think about it if you make a small raise. That wouldn't make sense with an overpair because you'd need to protect against draws. It would be obvious if he gets the odds he needs.
Furthermore, the board is paired and it's possible that BB only has a small flush draw. Perhaps he would even fold to a small raise and if not, your suspicious raise would minimize later gains.
So in this case, you would call instead of raising since you would often call with 2 overcards here.
Example B: Your opponent is a bad player
In this case BB is a bad opponent who sees too many flops and too often goes to the showdown. He also likes to donk his flush draws on the flop, but rarely folds. He definitely wants to see the river.
Now things look different. If you raise, your opponent will probably call. Why would you call yourself if you can make the pot bigger?
If you make a small raise as considered in example a) and your opponent calls, he's making a mistake. If you now raise by a lot and he calls, he's still making an even worse mistake.
The goal with strong hands is to get the most value possible.
In this case, we get the most value if our opponent makes a big mistake. There are hands, though, where our opponent might play correctly and we would still get maximum value, for example second nuts versus nuts.
You should definitely raise in example b, since your opponent will probably call. The pot will get bigger on the turn and you'll be able to win even more. This way you win a lot of money even if your opponent does not hit his draw. This example shows again the importance of knowing your opponent.
0,50/1,00 No-Limit Hold'em
Preflop: Hero is MP+2 with 9 , 8 .
MP+1 calls $1, Hero calls $1, 2 folds, BU calls $1, SB calls $0.5, BB checks.
Flop: ($5) 7 , 3 , Q (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP+1 bets $3, Hero…
Hero raises! Here you should not slowplay. Even if your hand looks very strong it is still only a relatively small flush that would lose to a lot of other flushes - and it is against this that you must protect yourself. A call would be fatal here. Higher would get the right odds for your call and make it profitable. Otherwise it's almost certain that with five players at least one higher is floating around. A raise of $12 is appropriate here.
Summary
Before you decide to slowplay, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my hand strong enough that I can afford to give freecards?
- Will my opponent fold if I bet?
If you answer both question with a yes, then you can consider a slowplay. To feign weakness and play slow is only sensible in situations where aggressive play will most likely yield less value.
Here it once again depends on your opponent. Against the typical "I have two cards fish" slowplay doesn't make a lot of sense. Yet when your opponent is capable of making correct folds, and to realise when he is beat, slowplay and masking your hand strength are valuable tools for extracting additional value.
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