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Slow Playing

Slow playing (aka sandbagging or trapping) is a deceptive method of attempting to increase the amount that you win from another player by acting weak. This is done by acting passive or weak with a strong holding. The decision to bet at a pot is usually driven by the number of players in the hand, the amount of action before you and pot size. In addition, you would take into account what you know about the players and the hole cards that you have.

The slow play is often very effective for getting players who would not otherwise have bet, to enter a pot or bet above what they would, in order to try to win the pot. In order to have successfully 'slow played a hand', you are in actual fact trying to induce a bluff, semi bluff or simply over represent a hand, all the time lurking in the background with a monster hand. Alternatively, it might be to get more of your opponents involved in the pot thus increasing the pot value. The danger is that the more people that enter the pot, the less of a favorite you are (or the more chance that someone has a better hand than you), assuming that you hold a monster.

So, slow playing comes at a risk, however let's look at a couple of examples.

You are playing a shorthanded $5-$10 cash game and you have been dealt American Airlines - A A , under the gun. You have been waiting for over an hour for a big hand so you are keen to maximize your return. Now you have a decision, do you bet it up and hope that other players have half enough of a hand to call your bet, or do you play it sneaky?

Well their are a few things to take into consideration. Are you playing at an aggressive or passive table? Are their any players who continually raise it up or are their any players who find it difficult to lay down top pair? These are all factors that could go in your favor. Let's for the same of argument, assume that it is a fairly loose table. By not raising the hand, you are disguising your hand sufficiently and could take down a much larger pot against a flop like K 9 2 . A player with KQ, KJ, AK, K10, all of which are very playable hands, will be a big dog against your aces. The danger here is that you don't want to let too many players in as your aces could easily be cracked.

Had you bet out initially with a big bet, any player with KQ, KJ or K10 will be wary and are unlikely to over commit to the pot. This is where slow playing pays real dividends - the disguise of the hand. Having not bet out, no-one will put you on aces (unless your betting pattern suggests you fold every hand for 5 hours only playing aces) so there is real potential to extract extra money from opponents.

Aces is an easy example, how about other big hands like flopping a set. Well, you will do this every 7 or 8 hands so you want to maximize your return when you do. Imagine you hold pocket 9's on a board K 9 2 . You don't want to rush in with a huge bet as everyone might fold. A typical slow play would be to check the flop and maybe even the turn to get opponents to bet out. Hopefully they hit enough of a hand to find it difficult to lay down and with your well disguised hand, extract far more than you would have if you had been the aggressor.