When to slow play and when not two....?

Lafortezza

DeVore wrote:

You are on the button, the blinds are 50/100, a guy in mid position who has been folded to raises to 500. You are on the button with AA. You telling me that you will reraise him to at least 1000?? More? If you want to win 650 that seems like a pretty good idea. And if the blinds where big and the raise proportionate then I'd go all in over the top fine, but in the scenario I've outlined I'll probably mull over it a while and then flat call. Particularly against some of the players in the Fitz who think I'm a weak player who hedges his bets.

Yes on the button I'd reraise to maybe 1200. What if the SB has pocket 77's and the BB has QJs, they might tag along for the 500 for the laugh as well (especially if the stacks are reasonably deep).
As you say if the blinds are big then its an all-in/big reraise no brainer.
But 3-handed to the flop AA is not such a big favourite against hands that have value, like say 88 and J10s. Heads up its a monster.

If you reraise the first raiser, firstly it blocks the SB and BB from entering the pot, secondly you might get called by someone who raised with AQs.
Thirdly you might get reraised all-in by QQ or KK, sweet.
Worst case scenario is that the initial raiser folds, you win the blinds plus 500. Not that bad really.

Its a calculated risk to call with AA preflop, you might win a huge pot, but then again if you get action on the flop when you start betting, you really need to be hoping your opponent has Top Pair Top Kicker. What else are you going to get action from apart from something you're behind?

Basically if I hold AA or KK in a tournament, I always want to be headsup before the flop, unless I know the 3rd person in the hand is a very bad player who'll make mistakes or is an easy read. Flat calling with AA is a bad play (personally), especially if there are people who 'think of the value' to act behind you, or you are in the SB or BB, i.e. out of position after the flop.

DeVore wrote:

I'm holding KQ (or most high cards), you bet out on that flop I'll probably go away. Almost certainly in fact. Now if the rest of the board comes 88JKQ or 88J9T or a number of other possible combos, then you'll get some action from me. If there are six people in the pot the more likely it is that SOMEONE will (politely) hit a flush or straight etc and donate you all of their chips.
The options as I see it are "bet out on the flop and scare everyone away" or "let them build a hand they will put all their chips in on". There is soooooo little danger of you getting out drawn...
DeV.

If you're holding KQ and the board is 88JKQ and some one is betting into you then you're going to drop it. The range of hands that beats you is huge. Any 8, and big pair, A10, 9 10, and flush. On a board like that two pair (even top two pair) is a terrible hand.

A flop like 88J in a multiway pot is the perfect flop to slowplay if you've really really hit it. Thats why with a flop like that there's rarely any action (everyone's slowplaying if they've hit it!) until the river, so many times I've seen hands like this that get checked down.
In some cases whoever bets it, wins it. If you bet small on that flop you could get action from Any J, another 8, 9 10, a 4 flush, an overpair, or whatever. If your J8 full house is so bullet proof I'd prefer to try to make some money on it from the flop and turn then waiting until the river and betting to win a smaller pot.

I'm not saying its always bad to slowplay, it has its moments especially against certain types of opponents, but lately I've seen the (better) value in betting a flopped monster instead of checking the flop and check-raising the turn or river.

Dub13

It looks like my inexperience shows big time in this post/question.... I hope that I dont stick out like this at the table :eek: