Slow Down The Slow Playing
Slow playing is when you think, or know, you have the best hand and play the hand more weakly than it should be, to entice the opposition.
This is a form of deception, and like I've mentioned here throughout the site, deception always comes at a cost. As a beginning player, slow playing seems like an advanced trick. It is useful, yes, but you don't want to religiously slow play every hand. I see a lot of players doing this and they end up playing reverse poker.
Here is a guide to slow playing
Reverse poker is when you end up using so much deception that whenever you have a good hand you check and whenever you have a losing hand you bet. That is fundamentally wrong. Fundamentals: bet your good hands and check/fold your losing hands. Makes sense, right? You want to play your hands in such a way that they yield the most return -- sometimes this may be slow playing, often times it isn't.
There are problems, a few of which are:
- Slow playing a big hand, often times, is more obvious than just playing it straightforwardly. You never want to play in a way that allows your opponents to pigeon hole your play: "He must have me beat, he only raises the turn with a big hand like two pair or better." You have to mix it up. Say you have a set against a preflop raiser. Sometimes bet right into him or raise the flop, instead of waiting. You might end up getting more action this way than raising the turn. As a general rule, the later in the hand you raise, the more credit/fear your raise will get. So when you want calls, mix it up.
- Slow playing leaves the betting up to your opponents, and they don't always do what you want. Many hands are bet on the flop and then checked on the turn. Countless times I've flopped a set or two pair and tried to checkraise the turn only to have it checked around. Then no one calls the river when I bet. Don't leave the task of getting bets in to your opponents. Who knows, even overcards hitting on the turn can keep players from betting, then you make no money with your hand. They could have draws that they bet once then check through, again making you nothing.
- Both in limit and no limit holdem the size of the pot pulls people in. The more money that goes in on early rounds, the more the players will feel like fighting for it. Likewise, in no limit structures the pot size dictates (to a degree) the size of the bets. Build that pot. Bet something at least. Good things can happen as a result of this in later rounds.
So the rule is: NEVER SLOW PLAY! just kidding. It has its role, you just shouldn't do it habitually.