Guide to Slow Playing (Intermediate)

The Slow Play is a tricky move that can be useful in particular situations,but it is often overused, especially from beginner-intermediate players.
Against certain opponents slowplaying is always a big mistake,especially against loose passive ones,that won't build up the pot for you and will often call your bets.
The most important reasons not to slowplay are:
-You may not build a big pot as you were hoping to;
-A following card may hit that allows him to outdraw you, otherwise scare him away from the pot.
Betting with strong made hands is profitable against draws,as they will not put more money in the pot if they miss their draw.
Checking against draws with hands like sets is a big mistake,because the draw will have incredible odds to improve,and you'll end up winning small pots and loosing big ones.

So when is slowplaying correct?
Slowplaying is correct if you have the board completely monopolized so that your only chance to win some money is to induce your opponent to bluff you or letting him improve his hand in the following streets.

One example of this situation is when you flop quads.
If you have a hand like 10 9 and the flop comes 10 10 10 , then your opponents may only put more money in the pot if he has a pocket pair or he makes a full house in later streets, so slowplaying here is the right move.

Tend to don't slowplay with sets (you might solwplay with top set if the board is not particulary drawy) as they are hands with which you will make a bigger profit betting out against top pairs.
You can slowplay a larger amount of hands against maniacs,they will often bet many times even without a real hand, so let them do so.

Here is a last advice: loose aggressive players should slowplay less than tight aggressive players, since they play many hand aggressively, a slowplay might actually seem suspicious to their opponents, while betting out ,as the loose aggressive player always does, will build a bigger pot while hiding the true strenght of the hand.

So always slowplay following theese rules, and the Slow Play will be a very useful weapon in your game!
Hope you liked this article, many more are yet to come!