Slow-Playing for Beginning Poker Players
The short version of this thread "SlowPlaying for Beginning Poker Players" is don't. I am going to discuss some of the things which should be in place for you to slowplay but there is one overwhelming factor for the beginning poker player which makes slowplaying wrong 99% of the time. This factor is that you're playing in low-limit and weak games (you should be because these are places to learn cheaply). In these games, a primary characteristic is that the players call too often with marginal hands and funky draws... you do NOT want to give them free cards if they're likely going to pay for the card anyway. This is actually part of the text below but I emphasize it here. In games where most bets are called, regardless of the strength of someone's hand, bet for value and don't slowplay.
It should also be noted that this is not talking about check-raising (where you check intending to raise in the same round) which is also abused and misused a lot but is a totally different thing. This is checking/calling on a round... not intending to make a move until the next (or a later) round.
A note: The 5 criteria are copied from Hold'em Poker: For Advanced Players by David Slansky and Mason Malmuth (Section Two: Slowplaying). I recommend this book for players looking mainly to increase their limit game. I also recommend The Theory of Poker by David Slansky for a more in depth discussion on when and why to slowplay. And while the criteria are copied from this book, the rest of this post and commentary on each criteria are my own words... so if there is a mistake, it's me and not Slansky.
1. Your hand must be very strong. [emph mine]
2. You probably will chase everyone out by betting, but you have a good chance of winning a large pot if you check.
3. The free card that you're giving has good possibilities of making second-best hands. [emph mine]
4. This free card has little chance of making a better hand for someone or even of giving him a draw to a better hand with sufficient odds to justify a call.
5. The pot must not yet be very large.
I'll elaborate a little on these below.
1. Your hand must be very strong. [emph mine]
Basically, you must have flopped a monster. The best possible straight (with no flush draws out), the best possible flush (A-high), a full house, quads, or better. And you should note that the straights and flushes are not hands I would recommend slowplaying. There's nothing worse than having the board pair and finding, from the action, that someone flopped a set and turned the boat... and now you're in a bad spot.
In short, your hand has got to be about the only thing out there.
2. You probably will chase everyone out by betting, but you have a good chance of winning a large pot if you check.
This is where the beginning player usually fails the slowplay test. Most low stakes games are very loose and very passive. You're going to get called most of the time if you put a bet out. Also, no one else at the table is going to bet your hand for you. You need to just step up and bet it. On top of that, if you want to win a huge pot... you need to start building a big pot as early as possible.
3. The free card that you're giving has good possibilities of making second-best hands. [emph mine]
The emphasis is because you do not want someone to draw out on you. If you have AA and the flop is A-9-7, there aren't many cards that are going to make someone a second-best hand that they'll commit a lot of chips with. Even if they have a K and they get one... they're going to worry about a pair of Aces. The only hands that are going to give action are going to be hands that can beat a pair of aces... and some of those are also going to beat a set of aces. This is especially true if there are two to a flush on the board.
Flopping a set of Aces is where most beginning players make the mistake of trying to slowplay. If someone is not going to call your bet on the flop, they probably don't have enough to go broke on the turn or river either. There just aren't a lot of second best hands that could be made. But some miracle card could crack your hand.
If you have A-4
and the flop is 4
-4
-A
4. This free card has little chance of making a better hand for someone or even of giving him a draw to a better hand with sufficient odds to justify a call.
In NL games, the sufficient odds concern is less of a problem because you can change or control the odds on the turn more. But you do not want to slowplay when a free card could very likely make someone a better hand. If you flop the best possible straight... and there are two
5. The pot must not yet be very large.
This one is hard to define for beginning poker players. The size of a pot is relative to the type of game. In a limit game, a large pot would be several Big Bets (say 5-6 big bets -- big bets are twice the big blind). In this case, the pot is already large enough that you want to just win it. On top of that, it's also large enough to give other players good odds to call and try to beat your hand. You want to bet for both reasons. It's big enough that you're happy to win it now... but it's also big enough that many hands that would fold normally will come along because the pot odds are so good.
In a NL game, the size of the pot is relative to the amount of chips left in each players stack. I'll keep it simple and say that if someone in the hand has less than 4-5 times the size of the pot left in their stack... the pot has become very large for them. At this point, if they have something... they're probably going to go along for the ride anyway. If you lead out... they might call and end up unable to fold the turn for what is left in their stacks.
This is a very... very basic intro to slowplaying. Unless you have a really solid grasp of all 5 of these concepts and the experience to tell when they're all in play... you shouldn't be slowplaying. In general, it's wrong for a beginning player to slowplay. If you bet and everyone folds, then it's likely no one had enough to improve to a second-best hand anyway... and you might have saved yourself from someone improving to the best hand.
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Two enthusiastic thumbs up. 
There are always going to be beginners that want to take a stab at slow-playing, whether they know better or not. At least with this information they'll be armed with the tools to attempt it properly. 
Originally Posted by Matthew
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