Slowplaying in Low Limits: A Big Mistake?
Current Roll: $7746
Hand of the day: I have a tough time making accurate reads when people make plays that I would never consider (mabye this is my problem...I should be considering some even more aggressive plays?). I'm an aggressive player, so when someone plays a hand far more aggressively that I would I have trouble comprehending his play. I'm in MP, I make a loose raise first in with QJs. Short stack rerraises $.50 more all in, next player completes the full raise. I call for the one more bet. Flop of JT8, gives me top pair and a straight draw and a bdoor flush. Heads up not including the all in player. I bet and he raises. Turn 9, I checkraise him and he 3 bets. I bet and call his raise on the river and he turns over KQo. I had trouble making this read, considering his previous action, especially with an all in player.
Second hand of the day: I was surprised at this hand. I'm holding 5's (no diamond) in the BB. Everyone folds to the cutoff who opens. I reraise and the flop comes 962 two diamonds. I bet, he calls. Turn is the A of diamonds. I bet he calls. River is a 3 of diamonds. I check, and fold when he bets - and he turns over the QJ of hearts! What the hell?! Clearly he's trying to advertise or make me emotional, but I feel I played that hand well, and I'd play it the same way next time since very few people will play the hand as he did.
Of those that clearly have an idea of what they are doing, slowplaying is often one of their biggest losses of BBs. To see why, I think it's important to understand exactly where profit comes from in low limits.
Profit comes when players invest money in the pot not justified by their returns. That's it, and it's completely general and includes pot odds, effective odds, (reverse) implied odds, etc. You need to give them every opportunity to invest money when you are a favorite, especially on the flop where most low-limit players will be the loosest. Also, showing too much strength on the flop can be interpreted as a sign of bullying or weakness! (I make this interpretation frequently, sometimes correctly and sometimes not)
I could list hand after hand of people that missed out on bets from me because they waited until the board became scary to show me strength - they're slowplaying against a player they should know to be aggressive!. I lost count of how many times people have caught runner runners because they were given a free card on the flop (mabye they still would have caught and you would have lost more - but the long run you'd be making a killing!) I've lost count of how many people will cap the flop with me, while they are holding nothing, and then come out betting the turn, and I love this multihanded. I'm still surprised how many people will put in 4 bets on the flop and then fold for 1 turn bet (does anyone know what they could possibly have?!), all those bets are often missed due to slowplaying!
The more people that are in, the less likely you should be to slowplay since it's far more likely you will get raised and these raises called by more people. The less people are in, the more aggressive people are in general so you should be punishing that overaggessiveness when you hold an edge. Don't slowplay!
People in low limits will chase with the longest odds against them, often drawing nearly dead. I've seen people chase (and hit) backdoor flushes on a capped flop. You want this! And I've seen far, far worse chases, including 1000-1 chases in a capped flop (i.e. guy had A3o, opponents had AQs and 33 flop came 3xx, got the two running aces for the only possible win). Don't give them a cheap shot at outdrawing you, and if they're drawing dead force them to pay for that too.
If you're slowplaying suited flops, connected flops, flops with an ace, or any hand with aggressive players - you're almost surely missing bets, and I see it happen all the time.
Anyways, I don't slowplay anymore. I can't remember the last hand I slowplayed. I used to go for checkraises, but now I'd rather bet and be raised so I can reraise. I garnish my aggressive image and want people to always be guessing (if they're even paying attention). Now if I'm checkraising I'm far more likely to be weak than strong, but I'll leave my theory of checkraising to another day :)
Is it ever more profitable to slowplay than not? - yes of course! But it's very tough to tell when it will be more profitable to slowplay so you should error on the non-slowplaying side. Because more often than not, I think you are missing out on bets. There are many other advantages to playing a flop fast and hard, such as information and control of the hand, but I'll leave those to another day.
Hand of the day: I have a tough time making accurate reads when people make plays that I would never consider (mabye this is my problem...I should be considering some even more aggressive plays?). I'm an aggressive player, so when someone plays a hand far more aggressively that I would I have trouble comprehending his play. I'm in MP, I make a loose raise first in with QJs. Short stack rerraises $.50 more all in, next player completes the full raise. I call for the one more bet. Flop of JT8, gives me top pair and a straight draw and a bdoor flush. Heads up not including the all in player. I bet and he raises. Turn 9, I checkraise him and he 3 bets. I bet and call his raise on the river and he turns over KQo. I had trouble making this read, considering his previous action, especially with an all in player.
Second hand of the day: I was surprised at this hand. I'm holding 5's (no diamond) in the BB. Everyone folds to the cutoff who opens. I reraise and the flop comes 962 two diamonds. I bet, he calls. Turn is the A of diamonds. I bet he calls. River is a 3 of diamonds. I check, and fold when he bets - and he turns over the QJ of hearts! What the hell?! Clearly he's trying to advertise or make me emotional, but I feel I played that hand well, and I'd play it the same way next time since very few people will play the hand as he did.
Of those that clearly have an idea of what they are doing, slowplaying is often one of their biggest losses of BBs. To see why, I think it's important to understand exactly where profit comes from in low limits.
Profit comes when players invest money in the pot not justified by their returns. That's it, and it's completely general and includes pot odds, effective odds, (reverse) implied odds, etc. You need to give them every opportunity to invest money when you are a favorite, especially on the flop where most low-limit players will be the loosest. Also, showing too much strength on the flop can be interpreted as a sign of bullying or weakness! (I make this interpretation frequently, sometimes correctly and sometimes not)
I could list hand after hand of people that missed out on bets from me because they waited until the board became scary to show me strength - they're slowplaying against a player they should know to be aggressive!. I lost count of how many times people have caught runner runners because they were given a free card on the flop (mabye they still would have caught and you would have lost more - but the long run you'd be making a killing!) I've lost count of how many people will cap the flop with me, while they are holding nothing, and then come out betting the turn, and I love this multihanded. I'm still surprised how many people will put in 4 bets on the flop and then fold for 1 turn bet (does anyone know what they could possibly have?!), all those bets are often missed due to slowplaying!
The more people that are in, the less likely you should be to slowplay since it's far more likely you will get raised and these raises called by more people. The less people are in, the more aggressive people are in general so you should be punishing that overaggessiveness when you hold an edge. Don't slowplay!
People in low limits will chase with the longest odds against them, often drawing nearly dead. I've seen people chase (and hit) backdoor flushes on a capped flop. You want this! And I've seen far, far worse chases, including 1000-1 chases in a capped flop (i.e. guy had A3o, opponents had AQs and 33 flop came 3xx, got the two running aces for the only possible win). Don't give them a cheap shot at outdrawing you, and if they're drawing dead force them to pay for that too.
If you're slowplaying suited flops, connected flops, flops with an ace, or any hand with aggressive players - you're almost surely missing bets, and I see it happen all the time.
Anyways, I don't slowplay anymore. I can't remember the last hand I slowplayed. I used to go for checkraises, but now I'd rather bet and be raised so I can reraise. I garnish my aggressive image and want people to always be guessing (if they're even paying attention). Now if I'm checkraising I'm far more likely to be weak than strong, but I'll leave my theory of checkraising to another day :)
Is it ever more profitable to slowplay than not? - yes of course! But it's very tough to tell when it will be more profitable to slowplay so you should error on the non-slowplaying side. Because more often than not, I think you are missing out on bets. There are many other advantages to playing a flop fast and hard, such as information and control of the hand, but I'll leave those to another day.
posted by mike at 9:47 PM
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