Slowplaying is the act of playing a hand that is strong in a manner that would indicate that it is not so strong.  The slowplay is used with the intent of trapping other players into the hand and trying to get more chips out of them.  Although it is a useful concept, it is often misused and abused. Slowplaying is useful if you have a hand that is so strong that you need other players to catch up just so they can call with an improved, but losing hand.  It is not a useful strategy if those players that catch up have a decent chance of making stronger hand than your hand.  Slowplaying is also not a useful strategy if your opponents were willing to call your bets or raises anyway.  Here are some situations to think about.

1. You have Q♦J♦ and 5 players see the Flop for one raise. Your hand: Q♦J♦

Flop: Q♠J♠J♣

You have a full house.  This is a great Flop for your hand.  There are all sorts of possible hands that other players may be drawing to with a Flop like this.  They could have two spades for a flush draw, they could have a straight draw with AK, AT, KT, K9, T9, T8, they could even have trips with the fourth J.  This is a time to ram and jam and try to get more money into the pot as there are many ways that other players will call anyway.  If you wait until the Turn to make the raise, other players will naturally be afraid that you have a monster, but being aggressive on the Flop could  be read by other players as a strong drawing hand or a Q with an A or K kicker.  When one of the draws gets their card on the Turn or River, they may think they have drawn out and even raise you at that point.

2. You have Q♦J♦ and raise in late position.  Only the big blind calls. Your hand:  Q♦J♦

Flop:  Q♠J♠J♣

You have flopped a monster, a full house.  Now you may think about slowplaying and hope he catches up.  If the player is aware though, you may have to put in a bet on the Flop and hope that he calls.  Most players will expect you to bet on the Flop with anything, so if you do not bet, they may get a strange feeling wondering why you did not bet, and think you are slowplaying a monster hand.  Against players who are less aware, a check may get some bets from them on the Turn or River if they pair up one of their hole cards.

3. You have A♣A♥. Flop: A♠2♣3♦

If you had raised before the Flop, it is usually difficult not to bet on the Flop.  It is usually best to bet with the hopes that another player has the case A or is drawing to a straight with a 4 or 5.  In order to make a successful slowplay here, you would need a player to catch a pair with a hand like KJ on the Turn.  But players who are aware will usually be very careful with an A on the board.

4. You have 55 in a three way pot. Your hand:  55

Flop #1:  A-5-5

This is a monster hand that has almost no chance of losing.  Many players will play with an A in their hand, so even if there are only two other players in the pot, they may be willing to call or even raise.  Slowplaying here will probably just reduce the amount of your win.  If you bet and everyone folds, it is likely that they had no piece of the Flop and would not have put in much after that anyway.  If the Flop had a J instead of an A, then the situation is different.

Your hand:  55

Flop #2:  J-5-5

This is a situation where a slowplay may be useful.  A player with A7 may not call a bet when there is a J on the board since he may figure you for a J and think he only has 3 outs.  But if he senses weakness when you check to him, it may get him to play on.  All players are more likely to play a hand containing an A than a hand containing a J.  So it is less likely any given player has a pair of J’s when the Flop is J-5-5 than has a pair of A’s when the Flop is A-5-5.

5. You are in the big blind with J♠T♠ and call a late position player’s open-raise. Your hand:  J♠T♠

Flop:  9♣8♦7♠

You have the nut straight.  In this case you need to determine the looseness of the pre-Flop raiser. If you think he is willing to call all the way to the River with a hand like AK, you may want to check-raise on the Flop and take the lead.  If he is willing to play hard with a hand like AT, then you do not mind betting and raising at every opportunity.  If there is a greater probability that he will give you more credit and fold to your aggressive play on the Flop and Turn, then it may be best to just check and call his bets, until an A or K show up, then a check-raise may get more money into the pot if he indeed has a pair.  The correct usage of slowplaying will depend on how you think your opponent will play.

6. You have AK in early position and raise pre-Flop.  A couple of decent players call behind you.

Flop: A-8-4

You bet out and get called by one player. Turn: 4

Now you may want to put the slowplay into gear.  Since your opponent did not re-raise before the Flop, it is likely that he did not have a big pocket pair and instead has a hand like AQ, AJ, AT.  If you check, it should give him the idea that you have a big pocket pair and are afraid of the A.  You can now check with the intention of check-raising on the Turn, or wait until the River to pull off your check-raise.  This slowplay will work best against decent players who respect your play yet

are willing to get all the edge they can get.  You do not want to try this slowplay against opponents who are loose enough that they could have called your pre-Flop raise with a hand like 98, because then they will likely not bet after you have checked.  You also would not want to try this slowplay against opponents who are very timid and may be afraid to bet a weaker pair of A’s even after you check to him.

A. You have a good to strong hand

B. You have a mediocre hand

C. You have a below average hand

D. You have a very poor hand

Situation A is a simple situation.  You should be betting and hoping your opponent calls and loses more chips to you.  This is not a bluff.

Situation B is a little more complex.  This is the type of situation that comes up where you have to think if it is worthwhile to make what is called a “value bet”.  This is defined as a bet when your cards are not that great, but you still think there is value in making a bet because you believe your hand is stronger than your opponents with a decent degree of certainty.

Situation C & D are the situations where the decision of whether or not to bluff comes into play.

In each Situations B, C and D, the size of the pot needs to be considered as well as the opponent’s thoughts on the size of the pot.  In Situation B, if the pot size is large, you should be more inclined

to make a wager, because your opponent will be more inclined to call with a worse hand since he believes he is getting relatively large pot odds in case you were bluffing.  In Situation C & D, a bigger pot will reward you more handsomely for a successful bluff than a smaller pot would.  But keep in mind that your opponent may be aware of the relative pot size as well, and thus may be

more inclined to call your bet when the pot is bigger. Here are some examples of Situation C&D

Example of Situation C

Assumptions:

1. You have a 25% chance of having the best hand

2. If you bet and your opponent has a better hand than yours, he will fold 40% of the time and call

60% of the time.

3. If you bet and your opponent has a worse hand than yours, he will fold 100% of the time.

4. The pot size is 5 big bets

5. Your lone opponent has checked on the River and you are last to act.

Expected Value of checking:

The pot size is 5 big bets.  If you do not bet, you have a 25% chance of winning the hand and a 75%

chance of losing the hand.  The expected value of checking in this hand is:

Expected Value of checking = (25% x 5 big bets) + (75% x 0 big bets) = +1.25 big bets

It is important to forget about the chips that you have put in the pot yourself in previous rounds. Those chips are now a sunk cost, it is no longer your chips as it currently belongs to the pot.

Expected Value of betting:

In the assumptions, it states that if you bet and your opponent has a better hand, he will fold 40%

of the time and call 60% of the time, but if he has a worse hand, he will fold 100% of the time.

In the assumptions, it was stated that when you have the best hand (25% of the time in this example), your opponent will not call a bet.  When you have the worst hand (75% of the time in this example), your opponent will fold 40% of the time and call 60% of the time.

The expected values individual situations are: You have the best hand = 25% x 5 = 1.25

He has the best hand and he folds when you bet = 75% x 40% x 5 = 1.50

He has the best hand and he calls when you bet = 75% x 60% x -1 = -0.45

Since there is no increased value to betting when you have the best hand (since we have assumed

he will fold 100% of the time when he has a worse hand), the only possible extra value that is

gained by a bet is due to bluffing, when you bluff him out of a better hand.  In this example, we are not sure if we have the best hand or not, so it is unclear if we are actually bluffing.

Expected Value of betting/bluffing = (25% x 5 big bets) + (75% x 40% x 5 big bets) + (75% x 60%

x -1 big bet) = +2.3 big bets

When we bet, we have an expected value of +2.30 big bets.  In this example, it is clear that betting

is better than checking, as an expected value of +2.30 big bets is better than an expected value of

+1.25 big bets in checking.

If the numbers were slightly changed, then it could make the bluff an incorrect move.  Lets change the assumptions and assume that instead of folding 40% of the time when he has the best hand,

your opponent is only going to fold 10% of the time when he has the best hand, and call 90% of the time.  Then the expected value equation becomes:

Expected Value of betting/bluffing with adjusted numbers = (25% x 5 big bets) + (75% x 10% x

5 big bets) + (75% x 90% x -1 big bet) = +0.95 big bets

In this case, the expected value of bluffing is +0.95 big bets, which is worse than the expected

value of checking +1.25 big bets.  So your decision to bluff or not is dependent on how likely your opponent is going to call.

Example of Situation D

In cases like Situation D, where we have a very poor hand, with almost no chance of winning the pot outright, the calculations would be similar.  We could assume we had 0% of winning if we

checked, but a 20% chance of our opponent folding if we bet.  If we also assumed the pot contained

5 big bets, then the expected value formula is:

Expected Value of checking in Situation D = 0% x 5 big bets = +0.00 big bets

Expected Value of bluffing in Situation D = (20% x 5 big bets) + (80% x -1 big bet) = +0.20 big bets

With these numbers, it is clear that a bluff bet is the best option as we gain +0.20 big bets compared

to 0, but if we changed the percentage of your opponent folding down to 10%, then bluffing would

be a worse option than just giving up the pot without a fight.  The expected value formula is:

Expected Value of bluffing in Situation D with adjusted numbers = (10% x 5 big bets) + (90% x

-1 big bet) = -0.40 big bets

Now we have the math, but we still need to learn the skill of pinpointing the percentage that our opponents will fold.  If we were able to obtain their folding frequency number, then poker would

be very easy for those who are adept at math, we could just plug the numbers into an expected

value formula like the ones above and it will tell us the right move to make.  Alas, in real life, it is difficult to make these assessments.  Putting a percentage on whether a player will call or fold is not the easiest skill in the world to learn.  You need to be paying attention to the players and see how they play to try to pick up on their tendencies.  Whether they call with mediocre hands or if it seems they are calling a lot even though there are not any draws available.  The reason why that is important is because it will show that they are calling with a low pair instead of just folding on a missed draw.  The main way to gain this skill is through experience, observing your opponents and

thinking about the game.

Another example of a bluff attempt against one opponent

You are in the big blind holding Ad8c.  Everybody folds to a player one to the right of the cutoff seat who raises.  Everybody else folds and you call, there are two players and 2.25 big bets in the pot.

Flop: 8s-7s-6c

You check, the pre-Flop raiser bets and you check-raise.  He re-raises and you decide to call. Going into the turn, there is 5.25 big bets.

Turn: 2c

You check hoping that your opponent was only on a spade draw and checks as well.  However he does not, he bets.  You are afraid that he has an overpair and has you down to just 5 outs (if he has KK you have 5 outs, 3 A’s and 2 8’s) or 2 outs (if he has AA, you only have 2 outs, the 2 8’s).  There

is also the distinct possibility that he holds a hand like AsKs or AsQs which may seem to him like

he has many outs, thus raising on the flop and betting on the turn as a semi-bluff may seem reasonable to him.  With two overcards and a flush draw, you can see that maybe he thinks he has

as many as 15 outs, so he did not mind re-raising on the flop.  Many times these players will also continue to bet on the turn too with the hopes that you fold, and if you do not fold, at least they still have outs.  It is unclear exactly what hand he has, you may be the favorite or you could be the underdog.  You decide to call his bet.

But that is not the important decision.  The important decision is wondering what to do on the

River.  There is an opportunity to bet out if a T, 9 or 5 hits the board, whether or not it is a spade.

In fact, if it is a spade, it actually helps your bluff attempt even more.  That is because if he is on spades, he will raise you and you can fold knowing that you are beat, thus losing the same amount

as a check and call.  If he is not on spades and has an overpair, the 9s is going to look like a very

dangerous card to him.  You may have been in the hand with a spade draw, a straight draw or hit two pairs.  If he views you as a good player, he may be afraid that a bet on the river by you is a bet that is trying to save the hand from being checked down on the river.  It will look like you got there with a draw.  Whether a bluff is correct or not will depend on your thoughts about the chances that

your opponent can fold with an overpair.

There are two important points to take here.  One is that you do not have to succeed all the time

with your bluff to make it profitable.  All you need is to win it the same percentage of the time that the pot odds reflect that you need to win it by.  So if you get called once or twice making a bluff

like this, it does not necessarily make it a bad bluff.  On the other hand, if you are bluffing into players who are incapable of folding a big pocket pair even into a scary board of 8s-7s-6c-2c-9s, then you are just throwing your money away.  Bluffing depends heavily on the ability of your opponent to fold a better hand.  If they are incapable of that, then it is a foolhardy experiment.

The best players treat poker like a BUSINESS… not a hobby. It’s a way to make money. Period. Sure… poker pros love the game and respect it, but they aren’t playing for pride. They’re playing to pay the mortgage, car payments, and win more MONEY. Do you ever get TIRED of waiting for good cards? Do you get annoyed by quiet… slowmoving
tables?

If you’re going to win money consistently, you’ve got to be able to play ten hours at a time… at a BREAK EVEN rate… as you patiently wait for the BIG OPPORTUNITITES to rake in large pots. Of course, besides being patient and ignoring that “itch” for excitement, you must also be able to handle LONG HOURS and LATE NIGHTS every day. When you hear “poker professional”, what do you think of? Lots of people think of the guys who win the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour and take in multi-million dollar purses.

But only a SMALL FRACTION of pros win those tournaments. Hell… not all pros even ENTER most tournaments, depending on their preferred game. And most importantly, the WIN RATE of even the best pros is very small. Just because you see someone on TV a lot one season doesn’t mean he always makes the final table for every tournament he’s in. What you DON’T see is all the frustrating losses he’s had to GET to this point. For every final table, there’s five… ten… twenty… maybe FIFTY… “bad” tournaments.

Most of the money that you’ll MAKE as a pro doesn’t come from that BIG tournament win. Instead, it comes from “grinding it out” at the casinos and card rooms. Try playing poker for a 12-hour session… FIVE DAYS IN A ROW. If you find yourself getting too tired, you’re not ready for the pro life. There are lots of players who have a DEEP PASSION and LOVE for poker… but they don’t have the PERSONALITY needed to play full-time. That’s why many of the greatest players just play SEMI-professionally… which may be a viable option for you too.

To use the bluff successfully, one needs to know the right time to use it.  In many low limit games, bluffing is often pointless since most players will call with weak hands.  In the middle and high limit games, where players are more willing to fold hands, bluffing becomes an effective tool and can be used strategically at times.  The value of bluffing will change depending on the players and the situation.  For some opponents, they will not care about how you play because they have already predetermined whether they will call or fold based on their own holdings, they have not made the second step of trying to analyze what you have.  Against those opponents, your decision to bluff or not should be based solely on what you think they have.  Against other opponents who play better and who will try to deduce your cards given the play of the hand up to that point, it becomes a little more difficult.  Not only do you need a good handle on the cards that they hold, but you also need to have a good idea of what they think you have.

A bluff does not need to be successful a majority of the time for it to be a worthwhile venture.  It only needs to be successful more often than the pot odds provide for it to be a winning strategy.  If the pot holds ten big bets, risking one big bet to try to win the pot is worthwhile even if the chance of a bluff being successful is only 15%.  In that case, the expected value of a bluff would be

Expected Value of bluffing = (15% x 10 big bets) + (85% x -1 big bet) = +.65 big bets

If your opponent calls 85% of the time, you will be showing down a bluff bet and look foolish during those times.  It is the 15% of the time when he folds a better hand than yours that you will take the money and no one else will know what you just did.  An activity like bluffing can be quantified, even if much of the time, it is a skill of “feel” or intuition.

BUT NEVER will your boss call you in his office and say: “You know, your work lately hasn’t been that great… so we’re going to KEEP your paycheck this week, AND we’re going to take $3,000.00 from your bank account…sorry.”

As a professional poker player, you can literally work your ASS OFF all day… only to leave thousands of dollars POORER! There’s no other job like this in the world. It takes an incredibly strong stomach to deal with the intense up’s and down’s… and the different “swings” of luck you’ll encounter. It’s difficult to be able to PREDICT if you’ve got what it takes to handle the emotions of being a pro. The only real way to “know” is to experience it first hand…

To be successful, you’ve got to have an ungodly amount of POISE. Pretty much every successful career player has poise… (despite what it looks like on TV). This means the players are in CONTROL of themselves at almost all times. They don’t get impatient and make silly moves at the table… if they don’t like the way a certain table looks, they WAIT for a new opening. They are LOGICAL about each decision and REMOVE EMOTION from their game.

Let me ask you this simple question:
When is the last time you went on “tilt”?

If you still go on TILT (or within the last 10-15 playing sessions), then you’re NOT ready for a career as a poker pro. Because tilt at the poker table is just a “microcosm” of the “tilt” you’ll feel in LIFE as a poker pro. If three consecutive bad beats sets you off… then just wait for THREE MONTHS of cold cards!

As an example, just think about how many players LOVE to tell their “bad beats” stories. Ever wonder why that is? I think a big part of it is that they need an EXCUSE… so that they DON’T have to say, “Wow, I was totally outplayed!” Ego plays a huge role in poker… from amateurs to pros. But when you’re considering making the jump to playing poker for a LIVING, the stakes are too high to let your ego get in the way. You need to separate FACTS from VANITY.

Here are three initial steps to take to “get the facts” about your own poker playing ability:

1. Ask Around
Ask those people you PLAY WITH what THEY think of your poker skills. Don’t just ask your buddies either… talk to strangers at the casinos, chat with other online players, and have a friendly talk with your table “nemesis” if you have one. The point is to seek out opinions from OTHER parties about your skill level. Get a consensus. If nine out of ten people say, “You suck”… you probably do.

2. Track, Track, Track
Are you truly a WINNING player? How much money have you won this month? This year? What’s your “hourly rate”? What percentage of games do you win? Before assuming you have what it takes to be a poker pro, you must be able to answer these questions effectively and a have a clear history of tracking your play. Cold hard numbers don’t lie. After you log a solid 250 hours of poker, you’ll be able to get the REAL picture of your poker playing ability. You can’t really fool yourself by saying, “Oh, I caught bad cards” or “I had the WORST luck” because after 250 hours, your cold cards are equaled out by the hot streaks. If you are a loser after 250 hours, there is a good chance that you are going to be a loser at 2,500 hours.

3. Play A Variety Of Players
Sure, you might be able to DOMINATE the card game at the local pub with your DRUNK friends… but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to compete with strong players at the higher limits… the kind of games you’ll be playing as a PRO. Pros play a majority of games against players they know they can beat. But at higher stakes than what you’re probably used to. So before thinking about poker full-time, be sure to get a WELL-ROUNDED and complete picture of how you fare against the competition out there. Try out different games, try out different stakes online, go to different casinos, and so on. See if your previous success was your SKILLS or just BAD OPPONENTS.