By Howard Lederer
You've probably already heard the classic reasons to avoid slowplayer: this is dangerous because when you slowplayez, you give your opponent the chance to make a better hand than you at a minimal price. This is absolutely true. But there is another reason to play its big hands aggressively, and this reason is not mentioned very often. A slowplay may prevent your opponent to lose a lot of money in a hand where normally it would lose a lot of money. Take the following example.
You are in late position in a game of No-Limit Hold ' em. A player raise in early position. You look at your cards and see 88 and you decide to caller. The flop is absolutely perfect: Qh 8 h 2d. You hit your set, and with the Lady, it is possible that your opponent has hit also something. AQ, perhaps KK or AA. He bet the flop.
Several players will only caller here hoping that their updated opponent also turning. But here, to raise is the best game to do. If you do that caller, you might see another heart out at the turn. I do not however think that you must be worried about the flush. If you have to be beaten by a flush, you will be even if you bet. Therefore, you should not be concerned by the fact that another heart could come out. If you don't that caller, your opponent might you suspect to be on a flush draw and he wants not investing a lot of money in the pot and, even with ACEs.
In fact, no matter what K, J, 10 or 9 or map that even the board will do slow down your opponent. If he bet the turn and that you raisez, you report that this map has helped you. Indeed, you tell him you quite liked the flop for caller and the turn has improved your hand enough to go there a reminder. You announce to him that you can beat a pair.
Therefore, a good flop may be the only time where an opponent will be ready to defend itself with a single pair. If you raise on the flop, he may suggest you semi - bluffing with a draw and it can raise you a large sum of money to protect his hand if not go all-in. When that happens, you leave with a monstrous pot!
This is a good game when a preflop raise does not give you the expected results. You can scare players with dd or AK, but you do not much money against these hands in any way. And if you're up against Ah-Jh, you could lose a big pot against a flush. But that's OK because you have staked with the best hand.
Obviously, there are some occasions where the slowplay is the best of the options.If you flop a square or something like a hand full to the ladies, you want to give your opponent the chance to improve his hand on the turn or river. But most of the time, the best option is to win the pot quickly on the flop; This could be your only chance to win a big pot with a big hand.
