Type of deceptive play in poker
Slow playing (also called sandbagging or trapping) is a
deceptive play in poker where a 🧲 player bets weakly or passively with a strong holding.
It is the opposite of fast playing. A flat call can 🧲 be a form of slow playing. The
objective of slow playing is to lure opponents into a pot who might 🧲 fold to a raise, or
to cause them to bet more strongly than they would if the player had played
🧲 aggressively (bet or raised). Slow playing sacrifices protection against hands that may
improve and risks losing the pot-building value of 🧲 a bet if the opponent also
checks.
David Sklansky defines the following conditions for profitable slow plays:[1]
A
player must have a 🧲 very strong hand.
The free card or cheap card the player is allowing
to his opponents must have good possibilities of 🧲 making them a second-best hand.
That
same free card must have little chance of giving an opponent a better hand or 🧲 even
giving them a draw to a better hand on the next round with sufficient pot odds to
justify a 🧲 call.
The player must believe that he will drive out opponents by showing
aggression, but can win a big pot if 🧲 the opponents stay in the pot.
The pot must not
yet be very large.
Seven-card stud example In a seven-card stud game, 🧲 Ted's first three
cards are all fours. Alice with a king showing bets first, Ted raises and Alice calls.
On 🧲 the next round, Alice catches another king, and Ted miraculously catches the last
four (making four-of-a-kind). Ted suspects Alice has 🧲 two pair or three kings, and Alice
suspects that Ted has two pair or three fours. Alice bets again, and 🧲 Ted just flat
calls. Ted decides to just call for next round or two, and maybe even check if Alice
🧲 doesn't bet, rather than raising, for several reasons. Ted's hand is so strong that the
chance of getting beaten is 🧲 negligible, so he doesn't need protection. If Alice just
has two pair and Ted acts strongly, Alice may think Ted 🧲 has three fours and fold if she
doesn't improve. By allowing Alice to continue for smaller stakes, Ted hopes that 🧲 Alice
will improve to a very strong (but second best) hand that will induce her to bet,
raise, or at 🧲 least call in the later betting rounds.
Relationship between slow playing
and bluffing [ edit ]
Against observant opponents, the frequency of 🧲 bluffing affects
the effectiveness of slow playing, and vice versa. If a player's table image is that of
an aggressive 🧲 bluffer, slow playing is less important because his opponents will be
more willing to call his usual bets and raises. 🧲 Similarly, if a player is perceived as
a "trappy" player (uses frequent slow plays), his bluffs are less likely to 🧲 be
respected (i.e., more likely to be called) because his opponents expect him to slow
play his strong hands.[2]
Check raising 🧲 as a slow play [ edit ]
A check-raise is not
necessarily a slow play. Often, the purpose of a check-raise 🧲 is to drive out opponents
from a pot, which is the opposite of the goal of a slow play.[1] However, 🧲 within the
context of a single betting round, check-raising can be employed as a slow play.
Draw
poker example Alice, Bob, 🧲 Carol, and David are playing draw poker. After anteing, Alice
starts with a pair of aces, and opens the betting 🧲 forR$2. Bob raises an additionalR$2,
bringing the bet toR$4. Carol folds. David calls theR$4, and Alice puts in an
additionalR$2 🧲 to match the raise. Drawing three cards, she receives another ace, and a
pair of fives. Since her aces-full is 🧲 almost certain to be unbeatable, it does not need
the protection of a bet. Also, Bob earlier raised, and David 🧲 called a raise, so they
likely have strong hands and one of them will bet if Alice doesn't. Finally, since 🧲 Bob
and David earlier showed strength, and they know that Alice knows this, Alice betting
into them would be seen 🧲 as a bold move likely to scare one or both of them off,
especially if they weren't as strong as 🧲 they seem. Alice decides conditions are right
for a slow play: Alice checks. As she hoped, Bob betsR$2. David thinks 🧲 for a minute,
then calls theR$2. Alice now springs the trap and raisesR$2. Bob calls the
additionalR$2, and David (who 🧲 now realizes that he is probably beaten) folds. Bob
reveals three sixes, and surrenders the pot to Alice. If Alice 🧲 had just bet her hand on
the second round, it is likely that Bob would just have called and David 🧲 may or may not
have called, earning AliceR$2 toR$4 on the second round. But with the slow play, she
earnedR$6.
Even 🧲 in games (such as California lowball) where the check-raise is not
allowed, one can make other sandbagging plays such as 🧲 just flat calling instead of
raising with a very strong hand and then later raising.
Fishing for the overcall [ edit
🧲 ]
Fishing for the overcall occurs when the last card a player is dealt makes him a very
strong hand, an 🧲 opponent in front of him bets, and there are more opponents yet to act
behind him. While the player might 🧲 normally raise with his hand, just calling may
encourage the opponents behind him to overcall when they would have folded 🧲 to a raise.
For this play to be used profitably, one or more conditions like the following must be
met:
The 🧲 original bettor is all-in and therefore has no money to call a raise.
The
player is confident that the original bettor 🧲 was bluffing and would not call a
raise.
There are several opponents yet to act. If there is only one opponent 🧲 yet to
act, then getting the overcall would gain no more money than raising and having the
initial bettor call.
The 🧲 opponents are likely to overcall the initial bet, but not a
raise. This play sacrifices the profit that might have 🧲 been made from opponents who
would have overcalled a raise.
A common example of fishing for overcalls occurs in
High-low split 🧲 games like Omaha hold 'em. If John is confident that Mary is betting a
high hand, then John might flat 🧲 call with his low hand to fish for overcalls rather
than make it more difficult for opponents to call. If 🧲 John were to raise, he and Mary
would gain no profit at all if no other opponents called.[3]
See also [ 🧲 edit ]
