Over the past couple of months...I've just given up slow playing all together. Everytime I do it, I get outdrawn to some horrible beat. I had stopped when I lost two top full houses to runner runner quads in a week's time. (the odds of me losing each of those hands were about 1/1000 btw)

So of course today I decide that I will try to slow play again. I't's been 3 months....it couldn't have been as bad as I remembered right?!

Case in point

I have [5d]...limp from Middle position. The two blinds call.

I trip on a flop of

I check on the flop. I normally would bet here and try to get some action.

Needless to say... The big blind proceeds to hit a runner runner full house with . I lose my stack.

So here is the question. Coincidence...? Or am I just the unluckiest fellow in online poker?

I'm not a big fan of slow playing myself. On lower limits, you rarely run into problems getting paid off (most of them think the only hand that you lead out with is top pair - you slow play everything else), and at the same time you protect your hand. I always play the nut str8 on a rainow flop fast, because if it gets checked around, there's a chance someone can pick up a flush draw or hit a gut shot to a higher nut - for example.

Say you have [8c], and the flop comes [9s][Td], and it gets checked around, then on the turn comes -- congrats, you know have the sucker str8 and there is a heart draw.

However, with the hand you described, I'm assuming the player with the [8d] is a bad player, and unless you could have gotten him to fold on the flop (unlikely), there is no way you would have gotten him to fold after he made two pair on the turn.


However on Saturday there was a hand I was very glad I slow played. It was a NL home game with $1/$2 blinds with an open buy-in. The table texture is pretty wild, there are a lot of loose action based players. I have one of the bigger stacks with around $450. There are about 6 limpers (uncommon at this table) and i'm in the small blind with [5c] and I limp and the BB checks. The flop comes comes [7s][Qh]. With no draws available I decide to check it. A player in early position bets $10 (probably betting the Q is my read), then a player in middle position goes all in for $120. This player "runs without the ball" a lot - and only bets that hard when he is weak post-flop. The player on the button thinks for a while and goes all-in for $200. This player is a pratical player. He would have raised with QQ, so I can eliminate that, He wouldn't have thought so long if he had A7s - thus he must have had either 76,87, or 79. I'm only ahead of one of those - and I'd need a 10,J,K or A to split the pot with him or a 5 to win. Not a good situation to be in. Thus - I folded. The initial better only had $20 left so he called. EP had AQ, the initial all-in player had K10o (WTF?) and the button had 79. The turn was a 3 and the river was a K. One of my better "slow-plays" even though I never put a chip into the pot after the flop. (and yes this is a juicy game)

No kenny, you aren't the unluckiest because that same thing would happen to me when I used to slowplay.

Once I had 93 in the bb and the flop was 933, I checked it to the river and what do you know the board comes up with running 8's to give someone eights full which bettered my 3's full.

Plus, betting out with sets is the best way to maximize there value, if you slowplay them you will most likely only be getting action from a hand that can beat a set(flush, straight, etc)

My general rule of thumb for slowplaying is that I only do it when I can give the next card for free and there is still virtually no chance that I am behind. Generally, I will slowplay trips if the board doesn't contain a flush draw or a straight draw (example: I have KK and flop comes [8h][2s]). Or if I made a boat with my pocket pair (example: I have AA and flop comes A-T-T).

In your case, kenny, I really don't think slowplaying there would have been a good idea. The reason why I say is that although you were very unlucky in getting beat by K8, you could also have easily been beat by 42, 43, 87, 97, 98, 73, 74, 84, etc. and any two hearts. In addition, if the turn falls another heart, you now have to worry about getting any heart out. The only way the turn will not affect you on a bad way is if it comes an offsuit high card, as so many cards can spell trouble for you. I would bet just enough here to give the drawing hands incorrect odds (I know you already know this). In this case, Mr K8 would have called you down anyway, and you wouldn't have had to feel as bad about the beat.

Gnosis --

I really don't like your fold in that hand -- you are contributing a very small amount of equity to that pot relative to the current pot size, and according to your own analysis, you had at least 16 outs to split the pot with 2 cards to come -- that's way more than 1/4 of the pot in equity if you call, ignoring the 3 outs to win the pot. 4 players with lots of money in the pot means that you're giving up alot more by folding than by calling.