Obvious Times to Slow Play the Flop

Slow playing feels sexy. So does wearing lipstick, but that doesn’t make it right when your uncle does it. When you trap an opponent and you get to put in that last raise just to see his eyes bug out of his face, you know you have him. That amazing feeling raises slow playing frequencies for all players. Tricking another player is memorable. It creates a story. However, the most profitable poker play is often less theatrical. Slow playing too often creates a disproportionate strategy. A fun way to lose money is still losing.

To determine when to slow play on the flop, you should really account for all future turn and river possibilities. That seems like a no brainer to most professional players, but when you try to wrap your head around the fact that there are 2162 possible turn and river combinations, you see how convoluted the decision can be if given the proper respect. The craziest part of the flop decision is that all those combinations don’t account for bet frequency and sizing. So how do we ready ourselves for millions of potential outcomes? When do we slow play? Let’s generalize the idea a bit and come to a decision based on board texture, board rank, your hand, and stack-to-pot ratio (SPR).

Board Texture

The texture of a board has to do with its connectivity. Simply put, the more connected a board is, the more draws that are possible on that board, and the more likely a player has a hand with at least some equity. Think about a board like 9 8 7. It’s almost difficult to name a hand that isn’t at least two overcards to the board. In contrast, there are the disconnected boards, sometimes called dry boards, like K 7 2 where a flop-calling player’s range is mostly weak made hands like 9 9 or K 10. It’s on the latter boards, the dry ones, that slow playing is generally more favorable.

On connected boards, semibluff raises (bluff raises with some extra equity when called) mask raises with made hands. It makes sense. It puts your opponent in a difficult decision. And your opponent may not be able to rebluff (reraising your semibluff) for fear of those semibluffs moving all-in on him. Usually, the raise/reraise/all-in type of dynamic occurs with powerful draws like ace-high flush draws and powerful made hands.
On dry boards, this type of raise/reraise/all-in dynamic cannot occur as often because when the all-in player is called he is much more likely to be very far ahead of the caller or very far behind him. On the K 7 2 board that exemplifies the dry board, there are no draws to drive such a dynamic. When the best semibluff one might have is a single overcard (a hand with an ace that’s above the king-high board) and somewhere between two percent and six percent average equity when called by a reasonable range, semibluffs aren’t exactly attractive plays! For the reason that dry boards require a wide calling range and a very narrow (possibly nonexistent) raising range, slow playing is the norm.

Board Rank

Slow playing also has to do with board rank. On lower boards like 9 3 2, the calling player is typically going to face difficult decisions with a defined range; whereas, a betting player is able to leverage bets to apply pressure to a weak range when he sees fit, especially on particular board run outs. The idea with slow playing these low flops is that you protect your weak hands a bit from the oncoming onslaught of thin value bets and bluffs that a good player mixes into his strategy.

Consider a heads-up match between a great player and you. He raises preflop and you call. The flop comes 9 3 2. You check. He continuation bets. You call. What is the best hand with which you have to call? What is your plan on a turn that is a ten or higher? Keep in mind that’s nearly half the deck!
Board rank has a lot to do with how often you get to the river with a crap hand and face a large bet, so slow playing the flop mitigates that risk and protects you from being run over by an aggressive and solid opponent.

Your Hand

Beyond the strength of your hand, a slow playing decision is often determined by your hand because of card removal. For instance, you know the range of hands with which you opponent bets and calls on a particular flop should you decide to check-raise. If you face a late position preflop raiser’s continuation bet on a 9 3 2 board when you have 9 9, then you significantly limit the made hands with which the player might continuation bet and call a raise. In contrast, the times that he value bets (and bluffs!) the flop, turn, and river hardly changes.

Your hand has quite a bit to do with slow playing, but not an incredible amount when you are against a wide range. For instance, if having 9 9 in our example decreases the value of a check-raise by 5 percent, then it still may not be enough of a factor to turn the hand into an automatic slow play. Consider though a raise and a reraise going in preflop. You decide to be tricky and call with A A and the flop comes A 3 3. Your opponent bets. How do you decide to play?

Stack To Pot Ratio

SPR is a huge factor in determining whether or not to slow play a flop. The main concern is maximizing the amount of each player’s stack that goes into the middle when you have a strong holding, and are therefore most likely to win the pot. With large SPRs, raising or even reraising on earlier streets is necessary to get in that much money; but, if the raising and reraising has already occurred, then you have plenty of opportunities to get in the money with your monster hand.

Back to the A A example. We flopped a boat and the only way we lose is to the one combination of quads (and if we miss that fourth ace!). Typically with 100 big blind stack sizes and in a heads-up pot, after a raise and reraise go in preflop, the SPR is around four through six. That means that only two streets of betting need occur to get all the money in, and there are several ways it can happen: reraiser bets, we call and see turn, he moves all-in and we call, or reraiser checks, we bet, he calls and we see turn. Reraiser checks, we bet all-in and he calls, etcetera.

We only need to get in two streets of action, and there doesn’t need to be a raise, which allows us to be maximally deceptive. Deception is huge with slow playing, especially on boards like this one where it is so unlikely that our opponent has a slightly worse hand. A perfect example of such deception is checking back the turn after calling a flop continuation bet (just like you might do with pocket jacks). If your opponent believes you’re weak with a hand like jacks, then he might bluff you on the river and your slow play has been successful!

Using all four of these generalizations will guide you to the proper decision about slow playing the flop. Remember, it’s not about making your opponent’s jaw drop, it’s about winning the most money in the situation in which you find yourself at the table. Occasionally, the two overlap, but playing for a rush is a sure way to find yourself a losing player long term. ♠

Reid Young is a successful cash game player and poker coach. He is the founder of TransformPoker.com.