Slow-playing a big hand creates the situation where you might allow your opponent to draw out on you. In trying to trap your opponent, you might get trapped yourself.
Doing it from out of position makes the strategy and its execution more acute.
But ultimately, slow-playing is about building a big pot, if not taking down your opponent’s entire stack, so your most important decisions are when to make your move and how big a move to make. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
At the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event, with blinds at $250-$500 plus a $50 ante, a player in middle position open-raised to $1,500. Action folded to Men “The Master” Nguyen in the small blind.
“He’s a tight player,” Nguyen said of his opponent. “I was sure he had A-J or A-10.”
Nguyen looked down to find A-K offsuit. He elected to just call.
“He’d never put me on that hand because I just called,” said Nguyen, winner of six WSOP bracelets.
The flop came A-K-6, two hearts, giving Nguyen top two pair. He checked, hoping his opponent would read weakness.
“I was looking for action,” Nguyen said.
His opponent bet $2,000.
“I knew he had an ace, so I called,” Nguyen said.
The turn came the 8 of spades, putting two flush draws on the board. But Nguyen had both nut draws, strengthening his slow-play strategy.
“There were two flushes out there, and I had both cards blocked with the ace of spades and the king of hearts,” Nguyen said. “If he had the spade draw, he can’t have the nut draw because I had the ace, and if he had the hearts, I had the king with the ace of hearts out there.”
Nguyen checked again. His opponent bet $4,000. Nguyen chose to make his move with a check-raise. He had to decide on an amount. He came with an overbet of $14,000 into a pot worth around $12,000.
“I was trying to raise him enough to give me action,” Nguyen said. “I thought $14,000 would look like I was trying to steal it so he’d push all in.”
The check-raise was such a big percentage of Nguyen’s opponent’s stack that he couldn’t just call, but would have to put all his chips in the middle.
“But he thought too long,” Nguyen said, “and I thought, ‘Oh, I bet too much.’ “
Indeed, he did, as his opponent folded. In trying to trap his opponent to gamble, Nguyen had forgotten his initial read that he was a tight player who was unlikely to gamble his entire stack.
“I might’ve gotten more if I had check-raised less,” Nguyen said. “He couldn’t put his tournament life at risk. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong.”
Men Nguyen
ACE OF SPADES, KING OF HEARTS
The flop
ACE OF HEARTS, KING OF SPADES, 6 OF HEARTS
The turn
8 OF SPADES
– – –
Table talk
Nut draw: Holding the best possible card(s) on a particular board.
