Know When and When Not to Slow Play (Including Examples)

Hey losers, I know I have already written an article about the basics of slow playing strategy in holdem (which you should read if you’re new to the site and new to poker, so you at least have a clue what I’m talking about here). If you’re familiar with slow playing, but you are not using it to effectively win more money with your hands, then you suck at poker and need to read the rest of this article.

You may know about this strategy, but knowing when to slow play and when not to slow play can be the difference between using a good strategy properly, and screwing it all up and winning less money than  you could have.

The idea behind slow playing, where you play a strong hand in a manner that indicates that it is not so strong, is a useful strategy, but one that is often abused and misused by losers like you. The key is to know when you have a hand that is so strong that other players will attempt to improve their hand by calling, only to lose out in the end. It is only to be used when you have a hand that will almost never be beaten. It is also not very useful when  your opponents are already willing to call your bets or raises regardless.

Here are some example hands that you can consider, so you will have a better idea on when to slow play, and when to be more aggressive.

1) Your Hand: Q♥ J♥

Situation: 5 players see the Flop for 1 raise

Flop: Q♣ J♣ J♠

This is a great flop for you obviously, giving you a Full House. More importantly, it’s just the type of flop that people will be drawing to. They might be holding two clubs, so will go for the Flush draw. Or they might have a Straight draw with something like AK, K9, T9, T8, etc. They might even have the fourth J, and will go for a triple. This is a best case scenario for you – many draws will give someone a good hand, but not good enough to beat your straight (since you know nobody can get quad Q’s or J’s, and hitting quads on the Turn and River, well someone just got really lucky and deserves to win the pot). If you raise here or wait until the Turn, your opponents will be wary of your hand, thinking you might have a Q with a high kicker. So in this case Slow Playing is a great idea, because it will allow someone else to draw a good-but-not-good-enough hand, and they may even be the one raising you at that point.

2) Your Hand: Q♥ J♥

Situation: You raise in middle position, only Big Blind calls

Flop: Q♣ J♣ J♠

Here you have the same monster Flop, giving you a Full House. This time you are going Heads Up with the BB. So do you slow play him, hoping to allow him to catch up? In this case though, not betting may set off some flags in the BB’s mind. He will be very wary of being slow played by a monster hand, and will likely just re-check you unless they happened to get a good draw. So this is where knowing your opponents comes in handy. If the opponent is not a very observant player, a check may get some bets from them if they go looking for something on the Turn or River.

3) Your Hand: J♣ 10♣

Situation: You are in the Big Blind, and call an open-raise

Flop: 9♠ 8♥ 7♣

Now you have the nut straight, and will need to determine the style of the player who raised pre-Flop. If he’s willing to call all the way to the River with a hand like A-K, you may want to check-raise on the Flop. If he is the type who will play hard witha  hand like A-10, then you should bet and raise each time. If he’s a tighter player who would fold to aggressive play, then you might want to check and call his bets instead. If an A or K shows up, a check-raise will get more money out of him if he has a pair. This is why it is very important to know the style of player you are going up against. I’ll be talking more about that later on, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.

4) Your Hand: 5♥ 5♣

Situation: You limp in and the Blinds check and call

Flop: A♣ 5♦ 5♠

You have drawn quads, which has almost no chance of losing. With the Ace out there, you will find quite a few people willing to call or even raise. In this case, slow playing will more likely reduce the amount you win. Because if you bet, and everyone folds, they likely didn’t find anything on the Flop anyway, and you won’t find much action from anyone with anything other than an Ace here.

5) Your Hand: 5♥ 5♣

Situation: You limp in and the Blinds check and call

Flop: J♣ 5♦ 5♠

If a J drops in this situation however, slow playing is a good strategy to use. If a player has that Ace, he will not likely call a bet with that J out there, since he will likely assume you have a pair of J’s. But if you show weakness and check to him, he might just fall for it and play on.

6) Your Hand: A♠ A♣

Flop: A♦ 2♠ 3♥

With Pocket Rockets, you most likely will have raised before the Flop, so it would be pretty awkward not to call on the Flop here. In this case, it would be a better idea to bet, hoping that someone else has the last Ace or is going for a Straight draw with a 4 or 5. For Slow Playing to work here, one of your opponents would need to catch a high pair on the Turn. But any reasonably aware player will be cautious of that Ace on the board.

7) Your Hand: A♣ K♠

Situation: You are in early position, and raise pre-Flop, and get called by a couple good players

Flop: A♠ 8♥ 4♣

Situation: You bet here, and get called by one player

Turn: 4♦

With that Turn, you might want to change gears, and start slow playing with your well-kicked Top Pair. Since your opponent did not re-raise your bet on the Flop, they are likely holding a decent but beatable hand like A-9 or A-J. If you check, he might be convinced that you have a big pocket pair, but were afraid of the A. Now would be a good time to check, and then check-raise on the River. This is the right time to Slow Play, because you know you’re up against a good player who will respect your play, but will be willing to try to get the upper hand if they can. You do not want to do this against a loose player who will have called your pre-Flop raise with a shitty hand, because they will most likely not bet against your check. It also won’t work against a super tight player who will not bet with his weaker pair of A’s, even after being checked to.

As you can see, it’s extremely important to not only be aware of your hand, but you must have an idea of the type of player you are up against. Slow play strategy works, but it depends severely on the situation, and that situation itself will change depending on your opponents. So be sure to observe  your opponents, and know who the tight players are, who the loose ones are, and keep an eye on their passiveness and aggressiveness. I’ll talk more about that later, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed or my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter. Or just keep coming back if you like, I don’t mind :)

How to Play the Middle and Late Positions in No Limit Holdem

Hey losers, I’m glad you’re back to check out my advice on basic positional strategy. Without knowing how to make the right plays depending on your position, you will continue to lose over and over like the loser you are. Follow my advice however, and you may surprize yourself with how often you start winning. My first article talked about the overall strategy and how positions work in No Limit Holdem. It also covered basic pre-flop strategy for everyone. My second article focused more on early play, including the Blinds and the tricky Under The Gun position. Today I am going to discuss the Middle and Late positions. Once again I’ll post a screenshot showing all the positions, so you can keep up. If you don’t know what any of this means, you NEED TO LEARN NOW.

Purple is the Late Position, Orange is Early, and Blue is the Middle Position. This is a screenshot from PKR, the best looking real money poker game out there. Use code JERK1000 when you make a big deposit, and they will match you 100% up to $1000. If you are making a smaller deposit, use JERK100 instead to get 100% bonus up to $600. The middle position is tricky in that it has some of the disadvantages of the early positions, and some of the advantages of the later positions. Middle players get to see the actions of the early players, but there are still a few players acting behind them. In the pre-Flop round, middle position players have a few more hands they can open raise with, since there is a smaller chance someone in a later position will have a better hand (for instance in my position in the picture above, if the first 3 people before me fold, there are still 6 more players that may have a better hand than I do). Overall though, the list of raisable hands is not much longer than that of early position players. After the flop, the relative position is most prone to change for the middle players. As an example, using the same example as above: if the first 3 players fold, I call, and nobody but the blinds call, I am now in the Late Position, and have advantage over the other players (because they have to act before me for the Flop, Turn, and River).

Late Position Strategy: Cut-Off and The Button

With the exception of the pre-flop round, the Button is the last player to act on all rounds. Therefore, he has the greatest positional advantage of all, since he can see how everyone has acted before he has to act. The player to the right of the Button is the Cut-Off, and as you can imagine this is a good place to be as well, especially when the Button folds. Late Position players with a drawing hand will have more chances to raise for free cards, since they are able to check on the Turn when acting last. If an Early Position player attempted that strategy, it wouldn’t work since they have to act first on the next round. Another strategy Late Position players have access to is being able to get a free showdown by doing a semi-bluff. To do this, they would raise on the Turn with the intention of checking on the River for free if their hand didn’t improve, or betting if it did. I’ll be talking more about particular strategies every day, so be sure to check back often. To stay up to date, be sure to subscribe to my RSS, or to my Newsletter, or follow me on Twitter.

You SUCK at Poker! Try This Strategy

Hey loser, I think I saw you at a table the other day, whining because you were SURE that you had a good chance to win the pot and make some of your money back with a decent starting hand. Then the other guy “sucked out” and got triple Kings from the river! What a lucky bastard! He folded to all your previous raises!

No, he’s not lucky. He was biding his time, and you were playing his game. By waiting for just the right time, this “tight” player now has you fooled. Does he only bet with a sure hand? Or does he calculate his odds and outs? Oh shit, another raise, he must have a good hand. Better fold. Oops, he had nothing!

You suck.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Well there is if you keep sucking, and keep losing money! Try this instead:

Play tight poker at the beginning; only play premium hands at first, and don’t chase draws. Check your ego at the door, and if you crave action, go play something else. If you’re playing against inexperienced players (Cake Poker is famous for having plenty of fish at their tables), they will assume you are weak, and will try to run over you with huge bets.

While they are doing this, you will observe and see what they are betting with. You will soon be able to pick the loose players from the careful ones. When you do get a strong hand, re-raise and see how they react. Good players will fold, but the shitty players will keep throwing their money into the pot. Just don’t let these noobs draw out on you – sometimes they do get lucky.

Look out for the loose players that may fold to your raise on the Turn. If they feel that you, the tight/weak player is chasing them off a pot too often, they will assume that you are bluffing too much, or that they can’t control their need for action. They might go on tilt, and start protecting their own ego. Yup, this is how you used to play, loser. Turn the tables!

This is the difference between losers like you, and winners like me: I know when to lay down a good hand when I think I’m beat. Morons like yourself will play by “feel” and will not lay down what is most likely a crap hand. If you can put down a good starting hand when the board indicates you are beaten and your hand hasn’t improved, then you might see some success for once in your life.

I will usually start a session playing loose and aggressive; bluffing with mediocre hands and “trying” to go all the way with not absolute garbage, but something that an inexperienced player might assume would win. Basically, I try to depict myself as a loser, like you. Then I will change gears, and play similar to above; I only play premium starting cards. Most of the geeks at the table won’t notice this strategy change, and assume I am still playing mediocre hands. Sometimes they will see me as such an easy target, they will bet on their mediocre hands, only to see me win. In the long run, I will win, and in some cases people who were originally winning against me are the biggest losers in the end. Again, this works best against poor-to-middling players, like the ones found in easy online poker rooms.

Just keep in mind that if you play tight and aggressive, you are pretty much guaranteed a better than 50% chance of winning at the showdown. Just stick to the plan, and the odds will be in your favor when it counts the most.

Counting Cards in Poker to Determine Odds and Outs

Most losers I know suck at math. Not that poor math automatically makes you a loser (there are plenty of other things that make you a loser), but it can definitely work to your advantage in poker. One way it can help is by doing quick math in your head to determine your outs, in comparison to the pot odds. Both those pages I link to offer detailed advice on each subject, so I’ll only be using the basics here. If you’re too lazy to read it all, tough luck. Have fun losing all your money, loser.

Counting Outs

If you can, you should always know what your outs are. Here’s an example:

Your opening hand is 6♥ 5♥

The flop comes down as: Q♥ 3♠ 7♥

In this case, your hand has almost no chance of winning, unless it improves. But if it does improve, you have a very good chance of winning. There are a number of ways it can improve:

• A♥ 2♥ 3♥ 4♥ 8♥ 9♥ 10♥ J♥ K♥ will all give you a flush.
• 4♣ 4♦ 4♥ 4♠ will all give you a straight.
• Since 4♥ gives you a straight flush, it shows up twice. Only count it once.

Go ahead, count those cards. In the current situation, you have 12 outs. In the next round, 12 cards can come that will improve your hand enough to make it a potentially winning hand.

The Rule of 4 & 2

A well-known mathematics based rule that many people base their strategies on is The Rule of 4 & 2.

Use the Rule of 4 after the flop. To determine the rule of 4, take your outs, and multiply them by 4. This will give you a percentage of chance to make your hand in the game. In this example:

12 x 4 = 48

You have a 48% chance to make your hand by the river, according to the rule of 4.

After the turn card, you should then use the rule of 2. Let’s go back to our example hand:

Opening hand: 6♥ 5♥

After Turn: Q♥ 3♠ 7♥ 8♣

Looking at our outs again:

• A♥ 2♥ 3♥ 4♥ 8♥ 9♥ 10♥ J♥ K♥ will still give you a flush.
• 4♣ 4♦ 4♥ 4♠ will still give you a straight.
• And now 9♣ 9♦ 9♥ 9♠ will give you a straight as well.

You now have 15 outs after the turn. Multiply that by 2:

15 x 2 = 30

The Rule of 2 determines that you have a 30% chance of catching the winning card on the river.

Calculating Pot Odds

I have posted an extremely thorough discussion of pot odds already, so be sure to read up on that.

Luckily the math is pretty simple here, so even an idiot like you can figure it out. Let’s use a really easy example:

• The pot has $300 in it
• Your opponent bets $100, bringing the pot total to $400
• So to win $400, you will have to bet $100
• Your pot odds are 400:100, or 4:1.
• If you do call, your $100 represents 20% of the pot ($100 of the now $500 pot)

Putting it all Together

So using the rules of 4 and 2 above, you can then compare it to your pot odds. This will give you a rough idea on your odds of winning. In our scenario, we have a 30% of winning at the river, and are being asked to call 20% of the pot. Since your 30% chance outweighs the pot odds, then you should most definitely make that call! Obviously that was a very good scenario, so let’s put something else together:

• Let’s say you have 5 outs at the flop
• Rule of 4 means 5 x 4 = 20%. So you have a 20% chance of making a winning hand by the river.
• After the bet, there is $200 in the pot. You’re being asked to call $100. 2 to 1 pot odds.
• Therefore, you need a 1:3 or 33% chance to win to justify calling that bet.
• Since The Rule of 4 states you only have a 20% chance of winning, you should fold this time.

This should be used as a basic guide to determine if you should call or fold, and mathematically speaking you should come out on top in the end. However, since you are playing with other people (most of them being idiots) you shouldn’t adhere to this ruleset 100%. It is a guideline though, and has helped many players start out on the right track. You just have to be quick with those math skills. Eventually, you’ll know your outs just by glancing at the draws.

Poker Outs

In a poker game with more than one betting round, an out is any unseen card that, if drawn, will improve a player’s hand to one that is likely to win. Knowing the number of outs a player has is an important part of poker strategy. For example in draw poker, a hand with four diamonds has nine outs to make a flush: there are 13 diamonds in the deck, and four of them have been seen. If a player has two small pairs, and he believes that it will be necessary for him to make a full house to win, then he has four outs: the two remaining cards of each rank that he holds.

One’s number of outs is often used to describe a drawing hand: “I had a two-outer” meaning you had a hand that only two cards in the deck could improve to a winner, for example. In Draw poker, one also hears the terms “12-way” or “16-way” straight draw for hands such as 6? 7? 8? (Joker), in which any of sixteen cards (4 fours, 4 fives, 4 nines, 4 tens) can fill a straight.

The number of outs can be converted to the probability of making the hand on the next card by dividing the number of outs by the number of unseen cards. For example, say a Texas Holdem player holds two spades, and two more appear in the flop. He has seen five cards (regardless of the number of players, as there are no upcards in Holdem except the board), of which four are spades. He thus has 9 outs for a flush out of 47 cards yet to be drawn, giving him a 9/47 chance to fill his flush on the turn. If he fails on the turn, he then has a 9/46 chance to fill on the river. Calculating the combined odds of filling on either the turn or river is more complicated: it is (1 – ((38/47) * (37/46))), or about 35%. A common approximation used is to double the number of outs and add one for the percentage to hit on the next card, or to multiply outs by four for the either-of-two case. This approximation is reasonably close only for small numbers of outs.

Note that the hidden cards of a player’s opponents may affect the calculation of outs. For example, assume that a Texas hold ‘em board looks like this after the third round: 5? K? 7? J?, and that a player is holding A? 10?. The player’s current hand is just a high ace, which is not likely to win unimproved, so the player has a drawing hand. He has a minimum of seven outs for certain, called nut outs, because they will make his hand the best possible: those are the 2?, 3?, 4?, 6?, 8?, 9?, and Q? (which will give him an ace-flush with no possible better hand on the board) and the Q? and Q?, which will give him an ace-high straight with no higher hand possible. The 5? and J? will also make him an ace-high flush, so those are possible outs since they give him a hand that is likely to win, but they also make it possible for an opponent to have a full house (if the opponent has something like K? K?, for example). Likewise, the Q? will fill his ace-high straight, but will also make it possible for an opponent to have a spade flush. It is possible that an opponent could have as little as something like 7? 9? (making a pair of sevens); in this case even catching any of the three remaining aces or tens will give the player a pair to beat the opponent’s, so those are even more potential outs. In sum, the player has seven guaranteed outs, and possibly as many as 18, depending on what cards he expects his opponents to have.