November 27, 2024 • 22 mins
Get 25% off elite poker courses & tools during the biggest sale of the year right now! Click here to shop now!
You might be tempted to slow play the next time you have a monster hand, but that could be a huge mistake!
Mike Brady and Gary Blackwood discuss how carefully choosing when to take your foot off the gas is the best strategy to ensure maximum profitability. Don't play another hand until you've listened to this episode!
Audio version available on all major podcast platforms.
View the episode transcription here.
00:00 Welcome to the Upswing Poker Level-Up
01:04 Preflop Slow Playing Strategies
03:59 Distinguishing Slow Playing from Pot Control
06:23 Avoiding Slow Playing Strong Hands in Position
07:49 Slow Playing from the Big Blind: Specific Scenarios
09:50 Fast Playing Monsters Out of Position
12:14 Adjusting to Opponent Bet Sizes When Slow Playing
14:06 Slow Playing in Three-Bet Pots: In Position vs. Out of Position
17:25 Trapping as the Preflop Aggressor
19:01 Adapting Strategies for Low Stakes and Passive Players
21:02 Black Friday Sale Reminder
Welcome to another poker strategy podcast episode, where hosts Mike Brady and Scottish poker pro Gary Blackwood break down everything you need to know about slow playing. If you’ve ever wondered when to trap your opponents with monster hands—or when to avoid it altogether—this is the episode for you.
Dive into advanced poker strategies starting with preflop slow playing, such as why you should sometimes call a four-bet with pocket aces or kings to maximize value. The discussion also covers the delicate balance between slow playing and pot control, helping you recognize when playing passively protects your stack and when it costs you money.
This poker strategy podcast also examines the risks and rewards of slow playing on different board textures. Gary and Mike explain why betting three streets with strong hands is often the best move, but also reveal rare exceptions—like checking back top set on ace-high boards in single-raised pots.
As the episode progresses, you’ll uncover key tactics for fast playing out of position, the importance of reacting to opponent bet sizes, and how to adjust your strategies for three-bet pots. The duo even shares practical advice for adapting these solver-approved techniques to real-world games, including low-stakes live poker.
Whether you’re a beginner learning to recognize profitable traps or an experienced player refining your edge, this podcast delivers actionable insights on every aspect of slow playing. From appreciating your opponent’s range to identifying key moments for aggression, you’ll leave this episode with a stronger grasp of the nuances that separate amateurs from pros.
Plus, don’t miss the Black Friday sale at Upswing Poker, where you can get 25% off courses and tools designed by the game’s top players. Level up your poker IQ today and join us as we explore the art—and science—of slow playing in this exciting episode!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike (00:01):
What's up players? Let's level up your poker game.
You're going to learn when toslow play your strong hands today.
I'm Mike Brady here to interrogateScottish poker pro Gary Blackwood on this
critical topic.
Gary (00:12):
That was right guys. Today we're going to talk about slow playing,
when you should be setting the trap withyour monstrous hands for your opponents
to fall into and win the maximum.
Mike (00:22):
Before we get into slow playing,
I want to let you know that right nowthe biggest sale of the year is happening
over on upswingpoker.com.Every course, tool,
and piece of merch onthe website is 25% off.
So if you've considered investing inyour poker skills with a course made by a
top pro, head over to upswingpoker.com.The discount applies automatically.
Everything from the PokerBlueprint to Lucid Poker,
(00:44):
the Upswing Lab and all of ouradvanced courses are 25% off.
It's the biggest sale we runall year. Now getting into it,
when most players thinkabout slow playing,
their mind probably jumpsto playing post flop,
but slow playing canmake sense preflop too.
When should you lay the trap witha super premium like aces or kings?
Gary (01:04):
This is something that we spoke about in our last episode,
but for sure worth mentioning againbecause it's so important when you have
pocket aces and you face afour bet from your opponent.
If your opponent is not a mega nit,
you want to slow play your aces andjust call versus a four bet really,
really often, almost alwayswhen you're in position.
(01:25):
Let's keep in their king queensuited their ace queen offsuit,
all these types of hands,
even their ace eight suiteddepending on the right positions.
It's a four bet pot. Thepot is going to be huge.
Let's slow play those aces.
Mike (01:36):
If your opponent is an aggressive player,
they're going to be four betting withsome of those hands as sort of a bluff
that Gary just listed. King queen suited,
ace queen off are very common four bet"bluffs" when you're out of position
facing a three bet and you want to keepthose hands in, if you five bet all in,
they're just going to fold youkind of let them off the hook.
Keep them on that hook, give thema chance to c-bet on the flop.
(01:57):
Maybe give them a chance to hit top pairthat doubles you up or pays you off.
It's a much better scenario.
Gary (02:03):
Absolutely it is and it doesn't just stop there with four bet pots.
Even in theory, if you raisethe button for example,
and the big blind uses a very largepolarizing three bet size of 13
big blinds, which doeshappen from time to time.
You are supposed to flat with youraces there sometimes for the exact same
reason. It's a very large three bet,
which means the pot is going to bebloated when you go to the flop.
(02:26):
Which means you want to flat your acessometimes and keeping your opponents king
queen offsuit, queen eight suited,
all these types of hands which are goingto flop a pair a reasonable amount of
the time,
and they're more likely to stack offbecause the pot is already more bloated.
Pocket aces is also not the onlyhand we're slow playing preflop.
There are actually some scenarios wherewe flat even more really strong hands
(02:47):
preflop.Again, depending on the positions.
If the cutoff puts in a four bet andwe're on the button with pocket kings,
we get to flat there with kings aswell. If the small blind four bets us,
and we're in the big blind with aceking suited, pocket aces, pocket kings,
we're just always flatting these handsbecause of how much four bet bluffing the
small blind should be doing here,
(03:08):
and a lot of these hands we'vegot really heavily dominated.
Getting to know the right scenarios whereit's correct to slow play preflop can
really help you trap your opponentsand stack them after the flop.
Mike (03:20):
Remember that caveat though that Gary threw in there in the middle?
If your opponent is a mega nit and theyprobably just have a very good hand when
they four bet, you're probablybetter off just going all-in.
God forbid you slow play theaces, they end up having queens,
and the flop comes kinghigh. In that case,
you're going to cost yourselfthe chance at stacking them.
So if your opponent is a mega nit,
(03:42):
you can probably just put all the moneyin because they're probably going to
call.
But if your opponent is an aggressiveplayer who's going to be four betting as a
bluff, which is thecorrect strategy overall,
then you're going to want to implementthese slow plays. Moving on from preflop,
when should you slowplay on the flop, Gary?
Gary (03:59):
Well first of all,
let's talk about the difference betweenslow playing and pot controlling.
Sometimes you'll play a relatively stronghand passively because it is better
than bloating the pot with abet that's pot controlling.
That's controlling the size of the potwith a hand which is reasonably strong
because it might not want to playfor three streets for example.
Say we raise in the cutoff,the big blind calls,
(04:21):
and the flop comes down sixfive three with two diamonds.
We can see from our sim here that we'reactually checking quite often with our
pocket tens and above.
This is not slow playing because we'vegot a monster and we're trapping our
opponent. This is playing ahand slowly for pot control.
The big blind does really wellon this low connected board.
Many turn cards that will reallymake your overpair shrivel up.
(04:44):
And it's a single raised potprobably with a lot of chips behind,
so it's tough to imagine betting tens orjacks on all three streets and getting
called by worse. Again, this is aslow play not to trap our opponent,
but simply because this is not a greatboard at all for a one pair hand,
especially in a single raised pot.
(05:04):
Let's change the board here to a moredisconnected queen six deuce rainbow.
If we were to check back astrong hand on this board,
it would be slow playingand not pot control.
But as we can see insidethe Lucid Poker trainer,
solvers do not slow playany strong hands here; sets,
two pairs, overpairs.
These monsters are almost never,
(05:26):
virtually never slow playing whenin position. A hand like queen six,
pocket deuces,
it's just worth so much moneyand it wants to play a really big
pot. Checking back will cause you tomiss out on a whole street of value,
and you'll miss a chance to increasethe pot exponentially by the river.
People sometimes decide to slow play hereso as to quote unquote not lose their
(05:50):
customer,
but the risk is well worth the rewardwhen you're able to build the pot.
Just wait until you win a big potby betting three streets here.
If we're out of position, we cancheck some of our really strong hands.
In that case,
your in position opponent can still betand you'll have the chance to put in a
large check raise. In general though,
(06:11):
slow playing really stronghands in position in small pots,
particularly on dry boardsis a humongous no-no.
I cannot stress that to you enough.Go ahead, bet. Build the pot.
Do not slow play.
Mike (06:23):
So do you really never slow play in position with a hand like top set in a
single raised pot?
Gary (06:33):
There's one common scenario where we do want to slow play a set and it's a
very specific scenario witha very specific set on ace
king x and ace queen x boardsin a single raised pot.
We should c-bet very big andoverbet in fact because the board is
really, really good for us. We'rereally polarized with our betting range.
(06:55):
Our nutted hands, they wantto play for all by the river.
That's the reason we use that very largec-bet on that board. When we do this,
the big blind's response isto fold a lot of low pairs,
and even a reasonableamount of second pairs,
and even a teeny tiny amountof top pairs as well in theory.
This means that againsta really large c-bet,
(07:16):
around three quarters of theircalling range is top pair. Therefore,
when we have a set of aces,
we block their top pairs so much thatwe actually want to check back top set
here really often. It's a rare occurrence,
but if we really think about the rangesof what can call versus our big bet,
it actually makes a lot of sense. Now,if we're to have a 75% bet size here,
(07:39):
our aces will still bet really often.
It's only when we're overbetting on theflop and we've got top set and we block
so many of our opponent's continuesthat we throw in this check.
Mike (07:49):
We've spoken a lot about slow playing in position so far.
Let's look at the other side of it.
Gary (07:54):
When you're out of position as the preflop caller,
you should fast play much more oftenin general for a number of reasons.
When we're the player in thebig blind facing a c-bet,
we fast play much more often.
Looking again at our queensix deuce rainbow for example.
The big blind's pocket deuces,pocket sixes, queen six,
queen deuce, virtually always checkraising. It's a single raised pot.
(08:17):
The pot is tiny and we're out of position,
which means that if we justcall with pocket deuces,
it is a disaster if theturn goes check check.
That is another street where there's justno money going in and the strength of
our hand in relation to the sizeof the pot is just unacceptable.
It might be tempting to just call herewith your pocket sixes and let your
(08:39):
opponent bluff or catchup, but here's the problem.
It is virtually impossible tostack your opponent if we just call
here. Their medium strength handslike pocket jacks and queen eight,
they're going to c-bet on the flopand then just check back on the turn.
So let's fast out of positionon the flop, bloat the pot,
and get maximum value with your monsters.
Mike (09:00):
If we look at this spot in the Lucid Poker trainer,
we can verify what Gary is saying aboutthat problem where they're often going
to check back the turn.
If we just call the flop on a queen sixtwo flop and the turn is let's say the
seven of hearts. We checkto our opponent again,
the in position player is supposed tocheck back the turn 62% of the time here.
They're only going to put ina bet about 38% of the time,
(09:23):
and they're checking back with hands asstrong as queen ten for top pair with a
medium kicker, they'rechecking back pocket jacks,
they're checking backa ton of bluffs. Yeah,
there are a handful of hands that arecontinuing to bluff that maybe picked up a
draw,
but for the most part we're going to facea check on the turn after they've had
their c-bet called on the flop,
and that is a disaster whenyou have a set or two pair.
(09:45):
So don't make that mistake,don't get yourself in this spot.
Just fast play on the flop and you'regoing to make a lot more money.
Gary:
One last thing I want to talk about andthis is really important is you've got
to really appreciate the wideness of youropponent's range and that's something
even really quite experiencedplayers struggle with.
If we check raise the flophere with pocket deuces,
it's not like we just get called byking queen and ace queen and pocket
(10:07):
jacks and things like that. Ouropponent is going to c-bet on the flop,
and then float so widewith hands like king jack,
king ten with a backdoor flush draw,eight seven with a backdoor flush draw,
gut shots, ace highs, the list goes on.
So it's not like we're just checkraising and getting called by top pair.
If we really appreciate the widenessof our opponent's range here it becomes
(10:29):
even more appealable to fast play yourbottom set because you're getting called
by so many hands like acehigh and king high, et cetera.
We definitely want a fast play here.
If you play low stakes live, you might be thinking, well,
my opponents won't float on the flopvs a check raise with ace high or king
high. And that very well may be true,
but all that means is your bluffs whenyou check raise are going to overperform.
(10:50):
They're going to overrealize their equity.
So as long as you stillhave that well-built check raising range that includes
these strong hands balanced by bluffs,
which includes gut shotsand backdoor draws,
you're going to be printing money inthis spot.You kind of can't go wrong.
They're either going to defend the properrange and you're going to get great
value with your strong hands,
or they're going to play too tight andyou're going to print money with your
(11:12):
bluffs. That's the power ofplaying a balanced strategy.
So that's the rule, but let'stalk about the exception.
When should you lean towards slowplaying from the big blind with a flopped
monster?
Gary (11:24):
Such spots are not that common, but they do still exist,
and it's all to do with the betsize that our opponent chooses.
If they bet smaller,one third or half pot.
We basically always raise our sets andour really strong hands that we've spoken
about. But if our opponentbets bigger, say 75% pots,
we start to just call with someof those really strong hands.
(11:46):
Let's look at nine six three with twodiamonds. Again, cutoff versus big blind,
single raised pot. As the big blind,
our pocket sixes and our pocket ninesactually check call the flop here
slow playing sometimesversus the bigger bet size.
But our bottom set of threeshould raise every time,
and that's because they don't blockflopped pairs that will call versus our
(12:09):
check raise.
We can look at the example that we sawearlier on the ace king six rainbow flop.
This flop is very good for our opponent,
so the solver prefers tooverbet in their shoes.
If our opponent is using thatsolver approved big bet size,
we should react with a simple defensivestrategy of rarely raising the
flop. In theory, we see ourpocket sixes, our ace six,
(12:33):
our king six not raising that oftenand we can actually see our range
only raising 2% of the time here,
and that's because our opponenthas used that large bet.
I personally actually simplify my strategyin this spot and just don't play any
check raises.
It's just difficult to find the bluffsalong with that rare pocket sixes that
elect to raise and it's also a board thatyour opponent has overbet the flop on,
(12:56):
so it's likely they'regoing to barrel off.
So it's nice for us to have a hand likea set of sixes, which can call down.
It's kind of cool to see thegradual effect in the solver,
we always raise versus a 33% c-bet,
and then raise a middlingamount versus a larger c-bet,
and then never raiseversus that over bet size.
It's kind of cool tosee the sliding scale.
(13:16):
Mike:
It is worth noting if your opponentsare not using the solver approved bigger
bet sizes on these boards.
If they're still going for asmall bet on nine six three,
or if they're going for asmall bet on ace king six,
then you should consider check raisingwith your strong hands because frankly
those hands want the pot to be bigger assoon as possible and when they've used
(13:37):
that big bet, the pot is already gettingbig so you can kind of slow play,
but when they put in that small bet,
you're kind of thinking that'snot enough for this hand.
I want to put more money in now andbuild this pot so you can do that.
We've been focused on single raised pots,
but things can change in three betpots because the stack to pot ratio is
smaller. IE (13:56):
You have fewer chips behind compared to what's in the pot.
How should our listeners approach slowplaying with monsters in three bet pots?
Gary:
Because the pot is already so big youcan slow play more often in three bet
pots, especially when you're in position.
Let's look at a couple ofexamples in the solver here.
First one example where we're inposition and we rarely fast play.
(14:19):
You raise from the button, the smallblind three bets, and you defend.
The flop is jack six five rainbow,
and the small blind betshalf pot on the flop.
Our really strong hands,sets and two pairs,
are just almost never raising here.
They need no protection and since we'rein position if the small blind checks
(14:39):
the turn we can ensurea bet goes in. Also,
if the small blind has missed some highcard hands like ace four or king queen,
we've given them the chance to continuebluffing or catch up to a second best
hand that can pay us off.
Those high card hands are drawingso slim versus our strong hands,
so let's keep them onthe hook by slow playing.
(14:59):
The main crux of this argument herethough is that the pot is already really
quite big and we can still play forstacks by the river if we just decide to
call.
Mike (15:09):
If we just call versus that half pot bet,
the pot's going to be around 50 bigblinds going into the turn and you're only
going to have 77 big blinds behind,
so that's like one and a halfpots behind in your stack.
You've got two streets to get thatmoney in and you're in position.
It's not going to be a tall taskto get all-in with your monsters.
(15:29):
So that's when you're in position.
Should our listeners fast play more oftenwhen they're out of position in three
bet pots as the caller?
Gary (15:36):
Yes, when we don't have the advantage of being in position,
we should slow play less oftenwith our monsters on the flop.
Suppose we raise in the cutoff,the button three bets, and we call.
Same flop as we just saw jack six fiverainbow, and we check to our opponent.
When the button bets we should raisemuch more often than in the previous
scenario.
(15:56):
This is partly because we don't want tolet our opponent check back on the turn,
but we can also expect our opponent toplay looser against our raise because
they're in position. We saw thisearlier in the single raised pot,
the same thing appliesin this three bet pot.
They can bet the flop and then call ourcheck raise with lots of backdoor hands
and overcards that they would never beable to bet call when they're out of
(16:19):
position.
Mike:
When we use Lucid to force the buttonto bet half pot on this jack six five
flop, and then make the cutoffraise to a relatively small size.
The button is getting areally, really good price.
They have to call like 11 blindsto win the 43 blinds in the middle,
so nearly four to one,
and they are calling this checkraise with hands as weak as
(16:42):
queen ten suited witha backdoor flush draw.
So that's like one over cardand some backdoor draws.
They're calling pretty much every timewith ace queen suited two overcards,
sometimes even withouta backdoor flush draw.
Ace king suited is calling every time,
king queen suited iscontinuing every time. Again,
maybe your real life opponentswon't find these calls
(17:04):
and maybe you can make some adjustmentsif you know that that's the case.
But A that's going to mean yourbluffs overperform in this spot,
and B,
I would actually challenge that becauseI think when you go for a small check
raise on this flop against a three bettor,
they might be pretty tempted to callwith ace queen suited or ace king suited
two overcards and some backdoor draws.I think even some of your tightest live
(17:27):
opponents are going to find those calls,
and how amazing is it to get this muchmoney in on the flop with a set against a
hand like ace high, which isessentially drawing dead against you?
Let's say you're the player who three betpreflop rather than the one who called
the three bet. Should you ever mixin some traps in those situations?
Very much so, particularly when your opponent has a lot of floats,
(17:50):
which they may bluff. Imentioned this earlier,
appreciating the widenessof your opponent's range is extremely important in the
game of poker.
Say we three bet preflop from the smallblind and flop a set on queen six deuce
rainbow. If we thinkabout our flop strategy,
we wanna bet really often on thisflop including with our sets.
But on any turn the solver starts slowplaying really often with both flopped
(18:14):
sets and both turnedsets as well. Remember,
the button gets to float ourc-bet really wide on the flop,
so they'll get to the turn with a bunchof hands that are drawing slim or are
drawing dead. Plus,
when we have a set we really heavilyblock our opponent's pairs that
can call and they're more likely to haveone of their ace highs or their king
(18:37):
highs or even their nine high floats ortheir gut shots or something that has to
fold versus our turn bet.
So we see the solver start slow playingsets in this scenario in an attempt
to induce bluffs,
and to also just make sure our opponentdoesn't just fold the turn really,
really often.
It's a really great spot to check yoursets and understanding why we want to
(18:58):
check our sets is extremely important.
Mike (19:01):
I've been throwing in a lot of caveats for low stakes live games and just
weaker competition games in general.
This is one where I think slowplaying on the turn is probably
not going to be as goodagainst those types of players.
You can jump in and disagreewith me if you do Gary,
but I don't see a lot of low stakeslive opponents floating the flop with
(19:23):
ace jack on this queen six deuce flop,
and then betting whenchecked to on the turn.
I think it's more going to be thatthey're weighted towards just top pair or
a decent hand that's going tocontinue calling if you bet.
So this is one where if your opponentis one of those weaker players who put
simply isn't going to float the flop alot and isn't going to bluff a lot on the
(19:45):
turn when checked to,
maybe just keep betting withyour pocket sixes to get value.
Maybe just keep betting with yourturned sets. Top set specifically,
I'd probably still slow play that becauseyou block so much of their continued
range, but that's one spot where Ithink in real life against lower level
opponents,
you're going to want to play a littlebit differently than the solver.
Gary (20:04):
Yeah, Mike, I totally agree.
When we've got a hand like pocket sixesand our opponent is really weighted
towards top pair, it would then be abit of a disaster to start checking.
So we really need to takeinto consideration our opponent and the type of guy
that we're playing against.
If it's a very loose player who's goingto float you and then they're going to
have those king highs and ace highs,by all means go ahead and check.
(20:25):
But when you're playing againstmore ABC tighter players,
you want to bet your pocketsixes, your turned sets,
you can throw in a check with yourpocket queens. That's absolutely fine.
One last thing that I wantto add to what Mike said,
and this is really important,
is that when we do start to check on theturn with hands like pocket sixes and
pocket nines,
we will see the button bet really quiteoften with their top pairs. However,
(20:48):
against these more passive players,
they're going to check back more oftenwith their top pairs and we end up losing
value.
So it's really important that versusthose tighter players we're aggressive and
we're continuing to bet and we're notslow playing with those sixes and nines.
Mike (21:02):
I was thinking the same thing.
I can't even count howmany times I've seen a live
player check back like kingqueen on a queen high board,
or even like ace queenon a queen high board.
Just no interest in going forwhat isn't even thin value,
but I guess in their mind it's thin value.
They're just a little afraid and theycheck it back. That is just a disaster.
(21:22):
Like imagine checking a set to slow playon this turn and they check back ace
queen for top pair, top kicker.Oh, that would just be brutal.
We don't want to steer youin that direction, y'all.
That's all we've got for youtoday. As a friendly reminder,
the once per year sitewide Black Fridaysale is happening over on Upswing Poker
right now through next week.Go over to upswingpoker.com,
(21:46):
get 25% off anything you want on the site,
and that includes the Upswing Lab andthe Lucid Poker trainer that we used
extensively throughout this episode.
I've got a special episode aboutpot odds coming to you next week.
I'll see you then.
What's up players? Let's level up your poker game.
You're going to learn when toslow play your strong hands today.
I'm Mike Brady here to interrogateScottish poker pro Gary Blackwood on this
critical topic.
Gary (00:12):
That was right guys. Today we're going to talk about slow playing,
when you should be setting the trap withyour monstrous hands for your opponents
to fall into and win the maximum.
Mike (00:22):
Before we get into slow playing,
I want to let you know that right nowthe biggest sale of the year is happening
over on upswingpoker.com.Every course, tool,
and piece of merch onthe website is 25% off.
So if you've considered investing inyour poker skills with a course made by a
top pro, head over to upswingpoker.com.The discount applies automatically.
Everything from the PokerBlueprint to Lucid Poker,
(00:44):
the Upswing Lab and all of ouradvanced courses are 25% off.
It's the biggest sale we runall year. Now getting into it,
when most players thinkabout slow playing,
their mind probably jumpsto playing post flop,
but slow playing canmake sense preflop too.
When should you lay the trap witha super premium like aces or kings?
Gary (01:04):
This is something that we spoke about in our last episode,
but for sure worth mentioning againbecause it's so important when you have
pocket aces and you face afour bet from your opponent.
If your opponent is not a mega nit,
you want to slow play your aces andjust call versus a four bet really,
really often, almost alwayswhen you're in position.
(01:25):
Let's keep in their king queensuited their ace queen offsuit,
all these types of hands,
even their ace eight suiteddepending on the right positions.
It's a four bet pot. Thepot is going to be huge.
Let's slow play those aces.
Mike (01:36):
If your opponent is an aggressive player,
they're going to be four betting withsome of those hands as sort of a bluff
that Gary just listed. King queen suited,
ace queen off are very common four bet"bluffs" when you're out of position
facing a three bet and you want to keepthose hands in, if you five bet all in,
they're just going to fold youkind of let them off the hook.
Keep them on that hook, give thema chance to c-bet on the flop.
(01:57):
Maybe give them a chance to hit top pairthat doubles you up or pays you off.
It's a much better scenario.
Gary (02:03):
Absolutely it is and it doesn't just stop there with four bet pots.
Even in theory, if you raisethe button for example,
and the big blind uses a very largepolarizing three bet size of 13
big blinds, which doeshappen from time to time.
You are supposed to flat with youraces there sometimes for the exact same
reason. It's a very large three bet,
which means the pot is going to bebloated when you go to the flop.
(02:26):
Which means you want to flat your acessometimes and keeping your opponents king
queen offsuit, queen eight suited,
all these types of hands which are goingto flop a pair a reasonable amount of
the time,
and they're more likely to stack offbecause the pot is already more bloated.
Pocket aces is also not the onlyhand we're slow playing preflop.
There are actually some scenarios wherewe flat even more really strong hands
(02:47):
preflop.Again, depending on the positions.
If the cutoff puts in a four bet andwe're on the button with pocket kings,
we get to flat there with kings aswell. If the small blind four bets us,
and we're in the big blind with aceking suited, pocket aces, pocket kings,
we're just always flatting these handsbecause of how much four bet bluffing the
small blind should be doing here,
(03:08):
and a lot of these hands we'vegot really heavily dominated.
Getting to know the right scenarios whereit's correct to slow play preflop can
really help you trap your opponentsand stack them after the flop.
Mike (03:20):
Remember that caveat though that Gary threw in there in the middle?
If your opponent is a mega nit and theyprobably just have a very good hand when
they four bet, you're probablybetter off just going all-in.
God forbid you slow play theaces, they end up having queens,
and the flop comes kinghigh. In that case,
you're going to cost yourselfthe chance at stacking them.
So if your opponent is a mega nit,
(03:42):
you can probably just put all the moneyin because they're probably going to
call.
But if your opponent is an aggressiveplayer who's going to be four betting as a
bluff, which is thecorrect strategy overall,
then you're going to want to implementthese slow plays. Moving on from preflop,
when should you slowplay on the flop, Gary?
Gary (03:59):
Well first of all,
let's talk about the difference betweenslow playing and pot controlling.
Sometimes you'll play a relatively stronghand passively because it is better
than bloating the pot with abet that's pot controlling.
That's controlling the size of the potwith a hand which is reasonably strong
because it might not want to playfor three streets for example.
Say we raise in the cutoff,the big blind calls,
(04:21):
and the flop comes down sixfive three with two diamonds.
We can see from our sim here that we'reactually checking quite often with our
pocket tens and above.
This is not slow playing because we'vegot a monster and we're trapping our
opponent. This is playing ahand slowly for pot control.
The big blind does really wellon this low connected board.
Many turn cards that will reallymake your overpair shrivel up.
(04:44):
And it's a single raised potprobably with a lot of chips behind,
so it's tough to imagine betting tens orjacks on all three streets and getting
called by worse. Again, this is aslow play not to trap our opponent,
but simply because this is not a greatboard at all for a one pair hand,
especially in a single raised pot.
(05:04):
Let's change the board here to a moredisconnected queen six deuce rainbow.
If we were to check back astrong hand on this board,
it would be slow playingand not pot control.
But as we can see insidethe Lucid Poker trainer,
solvers do not slow playany strong hands here; sets,
two pairs, overpairs.
These monsters are almost never,
(05:26):
virtually never slow playing whenin position. A hand like queen six,
pocket deuces,
it's just worth so much moneyand it wants to play a really big
pot. Checking back will cause you tomiss out on a whole street of value,
and you'll miss a chance to increasethe pot exponentially by the river.
People sometimes decide to slow play hereso as to quote unquote not lose their
(05:50):
customer,
but the risk is well worth the rewardwhen you're able to build the pot.
Just wait until you win a big potby betting three streets here.
If we're out of position, we cancheck some of our really strong hands.
In that case,
your in position opponent can still betand you'll have the chance to put in a
large check raise. In general though,
(06:11):
slow playing really stronghands in position in small pots,
particularly on dry boardsis a humongous no-no.
I cannot stress that to you enough.Go ahead, bet. Build the pot.
Do not slow play.
Mike (06:23):
So do you really never slow play in position with a hand like top set in a
single raised pot?
Gary (06:33):
There's one common scenario where we do want to slow play a set and it's a
very specific scenario witha very specific set on ace
king x and ace queen x boardsin a single raised pot.
We should c-bet very big andoverbet in fact because the board is
really, really good for us. We'rereally polarized with our betting range.
(06:55):
Our nutted hands, they wantto play for all by the river.
That's the reason we use that very largec-bet on that board. When we do this,
the big blind's response isto fold a lot of low pairs,
and even a reasonableamount of second pairs,
and even a teeny tiny amountof top pairs as well in theory.
This means that againsta really large c-bet,
(07:16):
around three quarters of theircalling range is top pair. Therefore,
when we have a set of aces,
we block their top pairs so much thatwe actually want to check back top set
here really often. It's a rare occurrence,
but if we really think about the rangesof what can call versus our big bet,
it actually makes a lot of sense. Now,if we're to have a 75% bet size here,
(07:39):
our aces will still bet really often.
It's only when we're overbetting on theflop and we've got top set and we block
so many of our opponent's continuesthat we throw in this check.
Mike (07:49):
We've spoken a lot about slow playing in position so far.
Let's look at the other side of it.
Gary (07:54):
When you're out of position as the preflop caller,
you should fast play much more oftenin general for a number of reasons.
When we're the player in thebig blind facing a c-bet,
we fast play much more often.
Looking again at our queensix deuce rainbow for example.
The big blind's pocket deuces,pocket sixes, queen six,
queen deuce, virtually always checkraising. It's a single raised pot.
(08:17):
The pot is tiny and we're out of position,
which means that if we justcall with pocket deuces,
it is a disaster if theturn goes check check.
That is another street where there's justno money going in and the strength of
our hand in relation to the sizeof the pot is just unacceptable.
It might be tempting to just call herewith your pocket sixes and let your
(08:39):
opponent bluff or catchup, but here's the problem.
It is virtually impossible tostack your opponent if we just call
here. Their medium strength handslike pocket jacks and queen eight,
they're going to c-bet on the flopand then just check back on the turn.
So let's fast out of positionon the flop, bloat the pot,
and get maximum value with your monsters.
Mike (09:00):
If we look at this spot in the Lucid Poker trainer,
we can verify what Gary is saying aboutthat problem where they're often going
to check back the turn.
If we just call the flop on a queen sixtwo flop and the turn is let's say the
seven of hearts. We checkto our opponent again,
the in position player is supposed tocheck back the turn 62% of the time here.
They're only going to put ina bet about 38% of the time,
(09:23):
and they're checking back with hands asstrong as queen ten for top pair with a
medium kicker, they'rechecking back pocket jacks,
they're checking backa ton of bluffs. Yeah,
there are a handful of hands that arecontinuing to bluff that maybe picked up a
draw,
but for the most part we're going to facea check on the turn after they've had
their c-bet called on the flop,
and that is a disaster whenyou have a set or two pair.
(09:45):
So don't make that mistake,don't get yourself in this spot.
Just fast play on the flop and you'regoing to make a lot more money.
Gary:
One last thing I want to talk about andthis is really important is you've got
to really appreciate the wideness of youropponent's range and that's something
even really quite experiencedplayers struggle with.
If we check raise the flophere with pocket deuces,
it's not like we just get called byking queen and ace queen and pocket
(10:07):
jacks and things like that. Ouropponent is going to c-bet on the flop,
and then float so widewith hands like king jack,
king ten with a backdoor flush draw,eight seven with a backdoor flush draw,
gut shots, ace highs, the list goes on.
So it's not like we're just checkraising and getting called by top pair.
If we really appreciate the widenessof our opponent's range here it becomes
(10:29):
even more appealable to fast play yourbottom set because you're getting called
by so many hands like acehigh and king high, et cetera.
We definitely want a fast play here.
If you play low stakes live, you might be thinking, well,
my opponents won't float on the flopvs a check raise with ace high or king
high. And that very well may be true,
but all that means is your bluffs whenyou check raise are going to overperform.
(10:50):
They're going to overrealize their equity.
So as long as you stillhave that well-built check raising range that includes
these strong hands balanced by bluffs,
which includes gut shotsand backdoor draws,
you're going to be printing money inthis spot.You kind of can't go wrong.
They're either going to defend the properrange and you're going to get great
value with your strong hands,
or they're going to play too tight andyou're going to print money with your
(11:12):
bluffs. That's the power ofplaying a balanced strategy.
So that's the rule, but let'stalk about the exception.
When should you lean towards slowplaying from the big blind with a flopped
monster?
Gary (11:24):
Such spots are not that common, but they do still exist,
and it's all to do with the betsize that our opponent chooses.
If they bet smaller,one third or half pot.
We basically always raise our sets andour really strong hands that we've spoken
about. But if our opponentbets bigger, say 75% pots,
we start to just call with someof those really strong hands.
(11:46):
Let's look at nine six three with twodiamonds. Again, cutoff versus big blind,
single raised pot. As the big blind,
our pocket sixes and our pocket ninesactually check call the flop here
slow playing sometimesversus the bigger bet size.
But our bottom set of threeshould raise every time,
and that's because they don't blockflopped pairs that will call versus our
(12:09):
check raise.
We can look at the example that we sawearlier on the ace king six rainbow flop.
This flop is very good for our opponent,
so the solver prefers tooverbet in their shoes.
If our opponent is using thatsolver approved big bet size,
we should react with a simple defensivestrategy of rarely raising the
flop. In theory, we see ourpocket sixes, our ace six,
(12:33):
our king six not raising that oftenand we can actually see our range
only raising 2% of the time here,
and that's because our opponenthas used that large bet.
I personally actually simplify my strategyin this spot and just don't play any
check raises.
It's just difficult to find the bluffsalong with that rare pocket sixes that
elect to raise and it's also a board thatyour opponent has overbet the flop on,
(12:56):
so it's likely they'regoing to barrel off.
So it's nice for us to have a hand likea set of sixes, which can call down.
It's kind of cool to see thegradual effect in the solver,
we always raise versus a 33% c-bet,
and then raise a middlingamount versus a larger c-bet,
and then never raiseversus that over bet size.
It's kind of cool tosee the sliding scale.
(13:16):
Mike:
It is worth noting if your opponentsare not using the solver approved bigger
bet sizes on these boards.
If they're still going for asmall bet on nine six three,
or if they're going for asmall bet on ace king six,
then you should consider check raisingwith your strong hands because frankly
those hands want the pot to be bigger assoon as possible and when they've used
(13:37):
that big bet, the pot is already gettingbig so you can kind of slow play,
but when they put in that small bet,
you're kind of thinking that'snot enough for this hand.
I want to put more money in now andbuild this pot so you can do that.
We've been focused on single raised pots,
but things can change in three betpots because the stack to pot ratio is
smaller. IE (13:56):
You have fewer chips behind compared to what's in the pot.
How should our listeners approach slowplaying with monsters in three bet pots?
Gary:
Because the pot is already so big youcan slow play more often in three bet
pots, especially when you're in position.
Let's look at a couple ofexamples in the solver here.
First one example where we're inposition and we rarely fast play.
(14:19):
You raise from the button, the smallblind three bets, and you defend.
The flop is jack six five rainbow,
and the small blind betshalf pot on the flop.
Our really strong hands,sets and two pairs,
are just almost never raising here.
They need no protection and since we'rein position if the small blind checks
(14:39):
the turn we can ensurea bet goes in. Also,
if the small blind has missed some highcard hands like ace four or king queen,
we've given them the chance to continuebluffing or catch up to a second best
hand that can pay us off.
Those high card hands are drawingso slim versus our strong hands,
so let's keep them onthe hook by slow playing.
(14:59):
The main crux of this argument herethough is that the pot is already really
quite big and we can still play forstacks by the river if we just decide to
call.
Mike (15:09):
If we just call versus that half pot bet,
the pot's going to be around 50 bigblinds going into the turn and you're only
going to have 77 big blinds behind,
so that's like one and a halfpots behind in your stack.
You've got two streets to get thatmoney in and you're in position.
It's not going to be a tall taskto get all-in with your monsters.
(15:29):
So that's when you're in position.
Should our listeners fast play more oftenwhen they're out of position in three
bet pots as the caller?
Gary (15:36):
Yes, when we don't have the advantage of being in position,
we should slow play less oftenwith our monsters on the flop.
Suppose we raise in the cutoff,the button three bets, and we call.
Same flop as we just saw jack six fiverainbow, and we check to our opponent.
When the button bets we should raisemuch more often than in the previous
scenario.
(15:56):
This is partly because we don't want tolet our opponent check back on the turn,
but we can also expect our opponent toplay looser against our raise because
they're in position. We saw thisearlier in the single raised pot,
the same thing appliesin this three bet pot.
They can bet the flop and then call ourcheck raise with lots of backdoor hands
and overcards that they would never beable to bet call when they're out of
(16:19):
position.
Mike:
When we use Lucid to force the buttonto bet half pot on this jack six five
flop, and then make the cutoffraise to a relatively small size.
The button is getting areally, really good price.
They have to call like 11 blindsto win the 43 blinds in the middle,
so nearly four to one,
and they are calling this checkraise with hands as weak as
(16:42):
queen ten suited witha backdoor flush draw.
So that's like one over cardand some backdoor draws.
They're calling pretty much every timewith ace queen suited two overcards,
sometimes even withouta backdoor flush draw.
Ace king suited is calling every time,
king queen suited iscontinuing every time. Again,
maybe your real life opponentswon't find these calls
(17:04):
and maybe you can make some adjustmentsif you know that that's the case.
But A that's going to mean yourbluffs overperform in this spot,
and B,
I would actually challenge that becauseI think when you go for a small check
raise on this flop against a three bettor,
they might be pretty tempted to callwith ace queen suited or ace king suited
two overcards and some backdoor draws.I think even some of your tightest live
(17:27):
opponents are going to find those calls,
and how amazing is it to get this muchmoney in on the flop with a set against a
hand like ace high, which isessentially drawing dead against you?
Let's say you're the player who three betpreflop rather than the one who called
the three bet. Should you ever mixin some traps in those situations?
Very much so, particularly when your opponent has a lot of floats,
(17:50):
which they may bluff. Imentioned this earlier,
appreciating the widenessof your opponent's range is extremely important in the
game of poker.
Say we three bet preflop from the smallblind and flop a set on queen six deuce
rainbow. If we thinkabout our flop strategy,
we wanna bet really often on thisflop including with our sets.
But on any turn the solver starts slowplaying really often with both flopped
(18:14):
sets and both turnedsets as well. Remember,
the button gets to float ourc-bet really wide on the flop,
so they'll get to the turn with a bunchof hands that are drawing slim or are
drawing dead. Plus,
when we have a set we really heavilyblock our opponent's pairs that
can call and they're more likely to haveone of their ace highs or their king
(18:37):
highs or even their nine high floats ortheir gut shots or something that has to
fold versus our turn bet.
So we see the solver start slow playingsets in this scenario in an attempt
to induce bluffs,
and to also just make sure our opponentdoesn't just fold the turn really,
really often.
It's a really great spot to check yoursets and understanding why we want to
(18:58):
check our sets is extremely important.
Mike (19:01):
I've been throwing in a lot of caveats for low stakes live games and just
weaker competition games in general.
This is one where I think slowplaying on the turn is probably
not going to be as goodagainst those types of players.
You can jump in and disagreewith me if you do Gary,
but I don't see a lot of low stakeslive opponents floating the flop with
(19:23):
ace jack on this queen six deuce flop,
and then betting whenchecked to on the turn.
I think it's more going to be thatthey're weighted towards just top pair or
a decent hand that's going tocontinue calling if you bet.
So this is one where if your opponentis one of those weaker players who put
simply isn't going to float the flop alot and isn't going to bluff a lot on the
(19:45):
turn when checked to,
maybe just keep betting withyour pocket sixes to get value.
Maybe just keep betting with yourturned sets. Top set specifically,
I'd probably still slow play that becauseyou block so much of their continued
range, but that's one spot where Ithink in real life against lower level
opponents,
you're going to want to play a littlebit differently than the solver.
Gary (20:04):
Yeah, Mike, I totally agree.
When we've got a hand like pocket sixesand our opponent is really weighted
towards top pair, it would then be abit of a disaster to start checking.
So we really need to takeinto consideration our opponent and the type of guy
that we're playing against.
If it's a very loose player who's goingto float you and then they're going to
have those king highs and ace highs,by all means go ahead and check.
(20:25):
But when you're playing againstmore ABC tighter players,
you want to bet your pocketsixes, your turned sets,
you can throw in a check with yourpocket queens. That's absolutely fine.
One last thing that I wantto add to what Mike said,
and this is really important,
is that when we do start to check on theturn with hands like pocket sixes and
pocket nines,
we will see the button bet really quiteoften with their top pairs. However,
(20:48):
against these more passive players,
they're going to check back more oftenwith their top pairs and we end up losing
value.
So it's really important that versusthose tighter players we're aggressive and
we're continuing to bet and we're notslow playing with those sixes and nines.
Mike (21:02):
I was thinking the same thing.
I can't even count howmany times I've seen a live
player check back like kingqueen on a queen high board,
or even like ace queenon a queen high board.
Just no interest in going forwhat isn't even thin value,
but I guess in their mind it's thin value.
They're just a little afraid and theycheck it back. That is just a disaster.
(21:22):
Like imagine checking a set to slow playon this turn and they check back ace
queen for top pair, top kicker.Oh, that would just be brutal.
We don't want to steer youin that direction, y'all.
That's all we've got for youtoday. As a friendly reminder,
the once per year sitewide Black Fridaysale is happening over on Upswing Poker
right now through next week.Go over to upswingpoker.com,
(21:46):
get 25% off anything you want on the site,
and that includes the Upswing Lab andthe Lucid Poker trainer that we used
extensively throughout this episode.
I've got a special episode aboutpot odds coming to you next week.
I'll see you then.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.