Apart from patience, the most common habit amongst professional holdem poker players is the vastly profitable use of ‘slow-play’.
You’d be hard pressed to find a really good competitor who doesn’t hold the ‘slow-play’ strategy in the highest regard.
They regularly allow a constant stream of donations to come their way. And, you’d be well advised to do likewise.
Or, if you so choose, ignore the tool best used by professionals in the process of ‘Expanding Your Bankroll’, and remain ‘stuck on stupid’. You’ll not be alone!
Just spend a few minutes on the NoPay freerolls poker site, and observe the ‘Farm Animals’ who put ignorance in the forefront; they’ll flop ‘trip’ aces with a paint kicker, and proceed to post an all-in bet. Never realizing that they would ultimately end up with so much more profit had they only learned the ‘slow-play’ lesson.
Now, is it you being described in the last paragraph? No….not a chance; not from my perspective.
You’ve read through ‘Building a Bankroll‘, you’ve won money at the poker tables, you’ve developed into an ‘advantaged’ player, and there are any number of NoPayPoker.com free poker player ‘pasture dwellers’ who can’t correlate ‘your success’ to ‘your command’ of the game.
How could they? They’ve done no reading, and they’re not interested in the potential for game play improvement.
They’re perfectly content to ‘swat flies’ with their tails, lay dung mounds where they eat, and self-profess to be poker players.
Plus, many of them actually believe that they ARE poker players….competitive poker players! That alone makes me fondly reflect on the old adage “even a broken clock is correct twice a day”.
In the interest of never replicating the plays of these ‘dung-lovers’, and prior to getting to the details associated with when to poker slow-play, let’s lay out an example of when NOT to slow-play.
I’ll present one hand….that should suffice; since each of you would be capable of compiling a list of ‘NOT to slow-play’ examples just as well, or better, than I can.
- Should you be holding pocket Kings, and the flop exposes no overcards, but two of the board cards are suited….
- The ‘NOT to slow play’ flashing light turns on.
- Why? Surely, you know the answer!
- One or more of your opponents could be holding suited pocket cards that match the board; and, that gives them a flush draw.
- It therefore becomes a situation where a bet equal to the size of the pot must be pushed.
- Once you do that, they’ll not be getting correct Pot Odds (no matter how many players are holding a 4 card flush).
You want the poker math? Maybe not! But, you’re getting it anyway.
- One competitor with suited pockets that match the board, 9 outs
- He needs 2 to 1 to break even on a long term basis (and no one should ever be playing to break even).
- Two competitors, 7 outs, and they each need 3 to 1 to break even.
- Three competitors, 5 outs, and they each need 4 to 1 to break even.
- Four competitors, 3 outs, and they each need 7 to 1 to break even.
- Five competitors, 1 out, and they each need a session with the pasture’s ‘alpha bull’….he alone can get them to break even, or break something!
We don’t know the ‘alpha bull’, we have no interest in meeting him, and our use of ‘slow-play’ is going to insure that he remains very distant from any of us.
And, while many of us are not professional poker players, we have no aversion to playing the game with many of the tactical strategies that each professional brings to the game.
For sure, ‘slow-play’ is, without question, one of those strategies. And, for sure, a ‘session with the alpha bull’ is not, without question, one of those poker strategies.
Thus, on to the tactical aspects of ‘slow-play poker’.
By definition, it simply means that we currently hold the ‘nuts’ hand, but are not initiating any bets….we’re looking for another player, with a weaker hand, with the belief that he/she controls the felt, to do some ‘Farm Animal’ wagering for us.
We’re looking to ‘Make a Habit of Accepting Donations’.
- Plus, pre-turn, providing that a ‘turn’ card (4th Street) can’t hurt us, we’re only calling….
- Pe-river, providing that a ‘river’ card (5th Street) can’t hurt us, we’re only calling.
In fact, our calls are always going to be made in as timid a fashion as is possible; likely accomplished online at the free play poker NoPay tables by using a substantial portion of our time clock allotment.
- This type of action, using most of our time clock, may well validate our competitors opinion that he controls the hand
- Which, would be cause for him to continue betting into us post-turn and post-river.
- And, as long as we’re holding the current ‘nuts’ hand, having him do the betting, having him believe that he holds the controlling hand, our extended time clock usage potentially delivers the ‘weakness’ message we want conveyed.
Once the board is filled, when all 5 cards are exposed, and we have maintained the ‘nuts’ hand, our ‘slow-play’ strategy may change.
If the player who had been betting into us was aggressively betting, putting forth large bets, well….we’re not changing anything; let’s give him another opportunity to donate.
After he bets, then we’ll raise. But, if he was only pushing out small or moderate size bets, change may well be in order.
Those small or moderate bets aren’t big enough donations….we want more.
So, given that we’ve indicated a degree of timidity to our opponent, and, given that he will likely ‘read’ any aggressive bet on our part as a ‘shot to steal the pot’, let’s opt to go after him.
And, let’s do it quickly, let’s not permit more than a few seconds to elapse on our time clock.
We need to get a bet out there within 2 or 3 seconds; another ‘read’ he’s gonna’ pick up on, since it’s the exact opposite of the way we’ve been betting throughout the hand.
Will it work? Will it have suckered him into making a call? Will it put him in the position of foolishly raising? Who knows!
But, we’ve got nothing to lose; except maybe the equivalent of the small to moderate amount he had been previously raising with….and, again, we’re not interested in ‘piddling’ sums, we’re interested in busting him out of the game, taking his money, and having him meet up with the ‘alpha bull’.
Let’s now attempt to isolate the pockets that will provide us with the best opportunities to deploy the ‘slow-play’ strategies.
- Low pocket pairs top the list….they would include 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, and 77.
- And, FYI, playing these small pocket pairs with the hopes of flopping a set is most often referred to as ‘set-mining‘….which, for me and other professionals, is the most profitable play on the felt.
Then, 88, 99, TT, and JJ would be second on the list; and, of note, I will always include those four pockets in my ‘set-mining’ strategy.
Next, QQ, KK, and AA would follow.
And, last, AK suited, AK unsuited, AQ suited, AJ suited, AT suited, AQ unsuited, AJ unsuited, AT unsuited, KQ suited, QJ suited, and JT suited.
Clearly, not a whole lot of pockets! But, the list does represent close to 10% of the pocket cards will be dealt over the long-term.
And, dependent on our seated position at the table (as it relates to the Dealer Button), none of the pockets, pre-bubble, except AA, KK, and QQ, will ever cost us more than 3 times the Big Blind to see the flop.
Importantly, however, the list of pockets, in relationship to the multiples of the Big Blind bets that will be made, will be cause for us to have about an 8% ‘flops seen percentage’.
And, be mindful of the fact that we’ll be witness to a Flop Texture that is to our liking somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of the time….or, 5 flops, with 1 flop that we like.
In the end, for every 200 pockets we’re dealt, we’ll be ‘hosting the nuts’ post-flop a bit over 3 times.
And, since it’s an infrequent occurence, we’ll want to maximize any and all money-winning potential whenever it does happen.
So, when serendipity magically appears in our 5 card vision, albeit attributable to our patience and not magic, let’s grab that invisible ‘slow-play’ hat, pull out our cell phones, and send a text message to the ‘alpha bull’….he may soon have a new friend.
As for the five card magic, or the five card reward for exercising incredible patience, now would be the ideal time to detail a hypothetical hand….just one, I don’t need to bore you; because, as stated earlier, you’ll be as capable of describing others as well, or better, than I can.
We all know the ‘turnip’ truck left y’all standing upright quite a few years ago!
You’re holding pocket Sixes, and the flop showed A/T/6 rainbow.
- Three players called a pre-flop 3 times the Big Blind raise
- You’re sitting with the Dealer Button.
- The original better checked, the second player made a pot-size bet, one player called, one folded, and it’s your turn to act.
- You possess the current ‘nuts’ hand.
- Your time clock is self-permitted to wind down to near zero, and then you call.
- The player who checked follows with a fold.
The turn card gets flipped onto the board….
- It’s a Ten. Wow! A double dose of serendipity! Or is it?
- Well, your two opponents could be holding either pocket AA or pocket TT; that’s certainly possible.
- But, you’re well aware of their playing styles.
- You know that if either of them had held any paint pocket, one or both would have re-raised pre-flop….and, they didn’t; all they did was call the 3 times the Big Blind bet.
- Your conclusion….they either both hold pocket Ace/paint, Ace/rag, or Ace/Ten.
- And, only an Ace or a Ten on the river could make either of them a winner.
Additionally, you’re fully aware of the fact that only 2 outs exist for them.
- You’re about a 19 to 1 favorite to win the hand, and all you’re gonna’ do post-turn is call whatever bet is made.
- Plus, when you’re in the process of making the call, you’re using every second on your time clock.
- Plop! The river is a brick….as expected. We all know that a 19 to 1 favorite rarely gets beaten.
- And, the pot-size bet made by the first player to act gets called by the second player to act.
Wham! Within 3 seconds you toss out a ‘hopefully perceived desperation’ all-in bet.
One of them calls. Or, both of them call. Bam! You take down a monster pot….Mike Sexton’s wish for you comes to fruition, and your text message gets read by the ‘alpha bull’….he smiles!
Best of Luck at the Tables,
D. Michael.
by D. M. Vadnais
(c) copyright; March, 2010; no reproduction, all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais
Part 4 of Advanced Poker Strategies will be released June 30th. Keep an eye on the NoPayPOKER Free Poker Blog or NoPayPOKER Facebook page for it. If this was a bit heavy going for you and you want to learn to play online poker go back to the Building a Poker Bankroll series. This combined with free play poker practice on NoPayPOKER is the perfect way to learn to play poker for free, no risk of losing money but you can still win it.
Archive for June, 2010
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