Advanced Limit Hold’em - Slowplaying

In a recent article I discussed some general guidelines for when you should slowplay. Slowplaying is a pretty big and important topic though, so in this article for more serious players, I want to delve a little more in-depth. The advice here will be strictly applicable to Limit Hold’em. Also, I’ll be making some generalizations about who you’re playing against. I’ll assume that you’re playing against average and reasonable players. Not maniacs, or players who read you well, or, “own your soul” (poker players like to exaggerate). Here is some concrete advice about what hands you should slowplay when playing Limit Hold’em.

“Crippled Deck” – You have “crippled the deck” if you have almost all of the cards that could make a good hand. This occurs when the board is paired and you have at least the trips card. Whenever this is the case, you should think about slowplaying. For example, if you have AK and the flop is AA2 you have the deck somewhat crippled, but if you have AQ and the flop is AAQ, you definitely do, and you should slowplay. This is one of the few cases where you might want to slowplay by checking instead of making a continuation bet. Generally, you should always continuation bet, even with a monster hand. Your other continuation bets will often be bluffs or semi-bluffs, and you need to have a balanced strategy.

Playing Heads Up – By heads up, I mean that only two players are dealt into the hand, not only two players seeing the flop. You can slowplay a much wider range of hands when you’re playing heads up, because your opponents will be very aggressive. You don’t have to fear an opponent checking it down as much.

With High Straight or High Flush – If you flop the top straight or a high flush (queen or higher) you should definitely consider slowplaying. Your hand is strong and the board is coordinated and scary, meaning players are likely to fold to a bet. With a low flush or low straight, however, you need to give anyone with a higher straight or flush draw an opportunity to fold. You can slowplay with a queen or king-high flush because no one will fold a draw to the ace or king anyway.

Top Set – It is often correct to slowplay top set or even a lower set, but if there are two suited or connected cards on the flop, you should just play aggressively. If your top set is aces, you should usually slowplay, because you also have the deck crippled to a certain extent. You can even slowplay top two pair if there are no draws possible on the board.

That just about covers the extent of the situations where you should slowplay the flop. There are rarely times when you want to slowplay the turn, as there’s only one more betting street left where you can be paid off. Limit Hold’em is a game of straightforward aggressiveness, so it’s not surprising that there are few situations where slowplaying is correct.