There is no doubt that slowplaying a poker hand in Texas Holdem is deceptive. When you check then you are implying weakness and when you imply weakness then you are throwing your opponents a curve ball so to speak. However is slowplaying always necessary? If you have a very powerful hand then checking is creating the possibility of missing out an entire betting round and so this blunts the geometric potential of the pot to expand. Let us look at a couple of examples to show when slowplaying is correct and when it isn’t.
Actually even with these examples then there are no absolutes as you cannot know your opponents hand or see or know what they are going to do. But you can however use a combination of factors to base your decisions on. These are mainly the flop texture, actions of both you and your opponents and the number of opponents that you have in the pot.
Let us look at the first example and it has been folded around to you on the button and you open raise with T-T and the big blind calls so there are only two players in the pot. The flop comes T-6-2 rainbow and your opponent checks. This really weak betting sequence is indicative of a player who will either fold or call one barrel and then fold. So this is where checking the flop may get more value later in the hand.
Do not get me wrong here, betting the flop isn’t wrong as it is starting to build a big pot with a big hand but slowplaying is a viable option as you are trying to let your opponent catch up and make a second best hand. Now contrast this with the following example, three players limp and you limp on the button with Q-J and the small blind completes making a six way family pot. The flop comes 10-9-8 rainbow giving you the nut straight and all of your opponents check.
Here you need to bet for numerous reasons. Firstly you have five opponents and a board that figures to have connected with limpers rather than raisers so a bet will get some calls here in all likelihood. Secondly it looks like you are trying to steal from the button when you bet like this. But there is also a third reason as well and it is to do with a scare card coming on the turn to kill your action. If you check this and the turn card is a Q,J,7 or 6 then the board will look too scary for all non straight hands to call and so you will have missed the chance to get some money on the hand.
Just because your opponents have checked then this does not mean that they are check folding to a bet. At least one player if not two of them will check call a bet on this board. So slowplaying poker hands is right some of the time but not right in others and hopefully this article will have identified some situations where it is right and wrong to do that.