Slowplaying
You have KQ in your hand and four players see the flop. You were in the big blind, the pot was not raised, so you just checked pre-flop; no one has any idea what you have and being in the big blind in an un-raised pot you could have any two cards.
The flop comes out King, King, Queen and you are first to act. What do you do?
There is not a poker player on the planet who will not check this flop. Why? Because you want other players to bet, you have flopped a monster hand and you do not want to bet out and scare anyone away. You hope someone bets and the others call and then you will call and everyone gets to see the turn card and you will check again. What you are going is called: slowplaying.
Now you don’t need a complete monster hand to slowplay but, of course, the chances that someone will catch-up is there, so the smaller your big hand is, the more risk to slow-playing. Sometimes a player will just bet out with their big hand on the theory that they would rather win a small pot then lose a big one.
Every professional player we have ever talked to or read will tell you that to be a winning player you must learn to use the slowplay. You must disguise your big hands and maximize your winnings with them. It’s not like you get them all that often and they must pay you off to the max. Slowplaying will make you money.
-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #67
