I get it — we all love the feeling of checking back a monster, having our opponent hit top pair on the turn, and getting paid in full. Unfortunately, the chase of this high has led to an uncountable number of hands being misplayed at the poker table. Nowhere is FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) more prevalent, and destructive, than in a slow-played pot. With that in mind, let’s look at two key reasons you need to all but eliminate slow playing from your game. Trust me, your bankroll will thank you!
I Missed Value
One of the most harmful effects that slow playing has on our bottom-line is how often it leads us to lose “value.” In poker, value can show up in many different ways, but regardless of how we define it, the important thing to recognize is that slow playing often leads to failing to extract the maximum amount of chips from our opponents. Let’s take a closer look at two types of value you risk losing by slow playing:
1. Our opponent has a good hand
Imagine a scenario where you raise from the button with A4o and the big blind calls with 45o. When the flop comes 44T, our opponent checks his option – as he generally will with his entire range – but is already foaming at the mouth for the opportunity to check-raise. But instead of obliging his desire to pile his chips into the middle, we check back our option and just flat-call his bet when a Queen peels on the turn. Now the river brings a King, putting three of the same suit on board and our opponent curses his “bad luck” and only check/calls your half-pot bet. Reviewing our line, we notice that we managed to take a hand that should have stacked our opponent (if we had bet the flop, called the check-raise and the raised or shoved over our opponent’s turn bet), and turned it into a hand where we collected a measly couple of big blinds. Done repeatedly over the course of a poker career, these “small” misses make a MASSIVE difference and can ultimately be the difference between a profitable and losing player.
2. Our opponent has a one street hand
Of course, we won’t always end up with the dream scenario of monster against monster, but even in less extreme situations we can see how quickly value cans slip away. Take a common situation in which our opponent is out of position with good hole-cards (let’s say AJo) on a disconnected board such as 349 rainbow. By checking back our monster, let’s say a set of 4s, we deny our opponent the opportunity to call the only bet they’re likely to call without improving. In today’s poker landscape, AJ is highly likely to peel the turn (aka call a bet on the flop) looking to hit an overcard or pick up a gutshot. But if we check back and allow our opponent to see the 8 on the turn, the likelihood of them calling a bet decreases dramatically. Even in the case that they do hit their card on the turn, by having them already invest a bet on the flop, we begin inflating the pot early, thereby putting ourselves in a much better situation to collect all our opponent’s chips. By not taking full advantage of our good hands, even at the risk of losing action once in a while, we make it all but impossible to weather the natural swings of the game. So bet early and bet often.
II Lack Of Balance
Perhaps even more importantly than losing value, as you move up the poker limits the biggest downside you’ll face when slow playing your big hand will be the lack of balance (defined as having an equal number of value bets and bluffs in each specific scenario) that it creates.
As aggressive poker players, we thrive on utilizing bluffs and semi-bluffs to keep our opponents guessing. However, if we consistently slow play our strongest hands, our betting range will quickly become too heavily weighted towards weakness. Once that happens, perceptive opponents will be able to begin attacking our imbalance with an array of check-raises, floats, and flat-barrels (calling the flop out of position and leading the turn) whenever we do bet.
To avoid this type of imbalance, it’s crucial that we ask ourselves, throughout each hand, what would I do in this situation if I had the opposite type of hand that I do? and then employing a similar approach. Meaning that if I want to continue bluffing boards like 772 at a high frequency (relatively speaking), I have to bet at least some of my 7x, AA/KK/QQ, and maybe even 22 hands too. By adopting a similar approach with our value hands and bluffs, we maintain a balanced betting range that keeps our opponents off-balance and uncertain of our holdings.
To summarize, although highly popular among recreational players, slow playing often leads to more problems than it solves. That’s not to say there is never an opportunity to slow play, but it should be used sparingly and generally be opponent-specific rather than hand-specific. So the next time you catch a monster and feel that slow playing Fancy Play Syndrome coming on, remember the words of poker player Lou Krieger and click the bet button instead:
“Most of the money you’ll win at poker comes not from the brilliance of your own play, but from the ineptitude of your opponents.”
Will Watson is a writer, poker player and enthusiastic student of the human mind.
Contact me at: willwatsonpoker@gmail.com
