I am going to assume that some of you do not know what is slow-playing in Texas Hold’Em. For those of you that do not know I will explain this as clearly as possible.

When you have a very strong poker hand and instead of betting or raising, you check or call in hopes that the opponent will stay in the game, this is known as slow-playing. Basically you are playing it cool and getting him to put as much money in the pot as possible.

Let’s have a look at an example in order to understand this better. Let’s say that on the flop you get a full house. You will want to hide the value of your poker hand by checking, instead of raising. You want the opponent will stay in the game and hope he will catch something on the turn or river.

Note that slow-playing is the most overused trick in poker playing.

I recommend that slow-playing be used in limit Texas Hold’Em games when all the conditions presented below are met:

- Use slow-playing only in Limit Texas Hold’Em games;

- Use slow-playing only on the flop. Losing a small bet is worthwhile if you are losing it in favor of a large bet.

- You must have a very strong poker hand. I do not advise using slow-playing unless you have at least a full house. There is nothing worse than slow-playing with an opponent that has a stronger poker hand.

- Use slow-playing only when the pot is very small. When the pot is large and your opponents keep raising and re-raising pre-flop, chances are they have a strong poker hand. In the eventuality that the pot is large enough to cover their pot odds, you are advised to bet. This is because not many players will fold on such a pot.

- The free card you are giving must have a good chance of giving the second best hand to your opponent. Let’s say that on the flop you get a full house and the opponent is looking for a straight draw or a flush draw. You are advised to try slow-playing and give your opponent a chance to complete his hand. He will be confident about holding the best poker hand, but in fact he is holding the second best hand.

- Loose-aggressive players are the ones on which you must use slow-playing. A tight and aggressive player may pick up on your slow-playing.

- If you play aggressive, do not use slow-playing.

Remember that slow-playing and check-raising are not the same thing. Check-raising is when you play soft, but you intend to raise later on.

Beginner players are well advised to avoid slow-playing. This is because most of the times slow-playing is not done right and an experienced, skilled poker player will easily pick up on it.