Three situations to consider slow playing
Most experts suggest not to slow play, especially not on micro and low stakes. The reasons are two-fold; first, you can commit huge mistakes, and second, the player pool tends to call more and bet/raise less, which makes slow playing less attractive and less profitable. Nevertheless, here we'll explore three situations when you might still want to disguise your hand's strength by slow playing.
Why not slow play?
So the main problem with slow-playing strong hands is that we miss the opportunity to build the pot early on. Which eventually leads to smaller pots, the exact opposite we want with our strong/nutted hands.
Compare two similar situations; single raised pot from BTN versus BB. We open 2,5bb with aces so that the pot will be 5,5bb. We miss a c-bet on the flop QT2r to disguise our hand's strength. It's checked to us on the turn (3) when we decide to delay c-bet to 4bb and the BB calls. Arriving at the river (7), the pot size is 13,5bb. We have the opportunity to bet again, so we decide to make it 10bb. The BB quickly calls and shows QJo.
Now check this out. We are in the same spot, except we c-bet on the flop 4bb, which means that we arrive at the turn with the pot size of 13,5bb. On the turn, we make a 10bb bet which leads to a pot size of 33,5bb by the river. Here we decide to make it 24bb, and the BB calls. Congratulations, you won an 81,5bb pot instead of 33,5bb. Huge difference, right?
Still, you might want to slow-play your strong hand in several spots. One of the primary examples is when you heavily block Villain's calling range.
Think of an SB vs BTN 3-bet situation. BTN opens for 2,5bbb, and you 3-bet from the SB with aces to 11bb and BTN calls. The flop comes A48 rainbow. If you c-bet here, even for a small sizing, what hands will call you down? Indeed, there are some Ax combos in Villain's range, but they are definitely reduced in numbers when we block two, and the board blocks another ace from their hand. He might occasionally call you with a pair or floats you, but such weak hands will probably give you one street of value anyways and nothing else. You might say, but what if they have a nutted hand, and I miss the opportunity to build the pot early on, as suggested above? Well, against their nutted hand, we'll play for stacks either way. Moreover, in a low SPR situation, such as 3-bet pots, we can bet large enough on turns to play for stacks on the river.
Trapping a maniac or an overly aggressive player is a delicate exploit. So another reason when you need to consider slow playing is when your opponent gives you an excellent reason to do so by being overly aggressive.
In general, it's a good tip to trap this type of player and what would be better than the nuts. I recommend not being tricky with strong but vulnerable hands, even against such players. For example, if you have aces in a single raised pot where the stack-to-pot ration is high, and the flop is QT8 two-tone, you don't really want to give free cards nor building the pot by check-raising early on when there are more terrible runouts than great ones for your hand.
In case you have J9 there, then sure. Go ahead and trap your opponent more often; your hand won't be affected by that many runouts.
Usually, this will be a spot where you must check a lot (if not your entire range). Unfortunately, this spot is the hardest to recognize. Most beginners focus on protecting/value betting their actual hand, not considering their whole range, which leads to weak checking ranges.
In some spots, that's not a big deal, but in cases where your range needs protection, it's a punt to do so.
Look for spots you should check a lot, probably your entire range. An example is out-of-position plays when we have the initiative, but the board favours the caller. Such as low-connected boards. Let's say SB vs BB; we open 3bb, the BB calls, and the flop comes 865 two-tone. Having aces here, for example, is less exciting now. Even sets or two pairs are not so incredible when our opponent will have more straights or even two pairs if they call wide enough with off-suited combos.
Betting a hand that needs protection won't work well since your opponent can punish you by raising a lot. Or, you'll get terrible runouts, so why inflate the pot early on? There is little to do; check a lot, check your entire range and continue from there.
Summary
Today we've learned that usually, it's better to fast-play our super strong hands. That's when we can building the pot early on is crucial. However, there are specific cases where you need to consider slow-playing your strong hands. We've discussed three factors; 1. when your hand heavily blocks Villain's continuing range, 2. when your opponent is overly aggressive, and 3. from a GTO standpoint when your entire range benefits from checking.
I hope you found this article useful! Good luck at the tables!
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