Translated with the help of AI. We apologize for any errors and would appreciate your help in correcting them.
Translated by order of the educational portal university.poker
Article author: PokerStars Learn, original source: PokerStars Learn
There are not many things in life more exciting than a raise against an opponent when you know that you have a very strong hand. But sometimes you can win more by doing less. In this article, we will look at three situations where you should think about slowing down with your strong hands, not about a raise. What do we mean by “sloppy” in poker? The poker vocabulary is full of jargon that can confuse those unfamiliar with it. True, in this case there is no bizarre jargon.
1. What is called sloppy poker
Slow play literally means slow hand play.
In other words, instead of a 3bet with a very strong hand, you just call a raise. Or instead of making a bet when the villain makes a check, you can make a check behind. This masks the strength of your hand, and gives your opponents the ability to continue betting regardless of whether they have a hand or not. In other words, we do not polarize our range, leaving it wide enough and creating the illusion that we still have enough combinations to knock out with a bluff.
- A good known example of sloppy play is the final hand of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event hand in 1988, when Johnny Chan trapped Eric Seidel during the final heads-up (this hand was immortalized in the 1998 film Cheating) hand
- Chen received a nuts straight from the flop with his
on the board 
and decided to make a return check on the turn when Sidel made a check in front of him. - This move prompted Sidel to go all-in on the river
with his top couple
– just music to Chen's ears. He competed and won the WSOP Main for the second year in a row.
This slow play clearly worked for Chen, but in what three common situations in poker tournaments should you consider sloping with your strong hands? Let's take a look at them.
2. Examples of effective use of slowplay
Consider 3 situations when slow play in poker will allow you to earn more than an aggressive hand play.
Very aggressive opponent
If you are playing a position against an opponent who has demonstrated a tendency to invest a lot of chips in the pot, in certain situations you may consider sloping with a strong hand. Read about how to correctly determine the type of opponent in this article. This may seem counterintuitive. Of course, if the villain is aggressive and not afraid to make big bets in big banks, then we want to increase the pot by making raises, right? Of course, but this is provided that our opponent has a hand with which he can continue.
He can fold if we raise the bet, which would be a disaster if we have a strong hand. Perhaps by equalizing the opponent's bet without increasing the number of chips he has invested in the pot, you will win more chips in the long run, as he can continue to bet on the turn and the river. If you still feel that you have the best hand on the river, it's time to make a raise. Not every hand will have a bet raise up to all-in, no matter how much we wanted it to happen when we have a strong hand. Instead, just think about how you can win as many chips as possible in each hand. Sometimes it's a small amount, but it's better than nothing.
Push stacks in progressive knockout tournaments
Another situation where you might consider sloping a strong hand in poker is in a progressive knock-out (PKO) tournament where you have a lot of push-fold stacks on your table (20 big blinds or less).
- Let's say a player on the UTG opens and you are dealt a pair of Pocket Ladies, Kings or Aces in the middle position. Katoff, button, small blind and big blind have short stacks and generous bounty.
In this case, although every cell of your creature wants to raise and disperse the pot, in fact, it may be preferable to call open raise. By doing so, you simulate weakness and make it more attractive for players with a short stack to push in an attempt to win the pot right away. pot Because usually, when you squeeze in such a situation in the place of a shorty in late positions, you only worry about what the initial raiser will equalize you. And if he is a foldit, then most often he is a foldit and a caller (you are a caller in this example).
So, suppose one of the players with the short stack makes an all-in and the original racer resets. Depending on the size of their stack, other players may now feel that they are in a great position to go all-in and isolate a player who has gone all-in. Now you have a light call here. Simply by collating the initial open raise, you can see a lot of action while you wait on the sidelines. If you did a 3-bet instead, players with short stacks could wait until they find a better situation, as they don't have as much fold equity anymore.
Bubble
The third situation we are going to consider is related to the bubble before ITM. When you participate in a poker tournament, you always dream of winning it or at least going deep enough to get interesting prizes. The goal is rarely just to make a minimum of money. However, the reality of tournament poker is that regular payouts in tournaments are very important to maintain your bankroll.
If you always “play to win” by increasing your aggression or taking high variance spots as you approach the bubble, your bankroll may suffer.
At the same time, if you play in a tournament that fully matches your bankroll, and getting the minimum money is not so important for you, then you are striving to win by all means. After all, big money is at the top, and if winning a coin flip leads you to a chip leadership stack, then go for it. But what about those bubbles where the minimum win is really important? Let's say you qualified for a big event through a satellite. This is a buy-in tournament that you would normally never play, and a good result will have a major impact on your bankroll, perhaps even your life outside of poker. In such cases, it is perfectly normal to play the bubble carefully. And this can mean the slow play of your strong hands. By using slow play, you help control the size of the pot and do not put your tournament life at risk. Then, as soon as the bubble is over, you can return to your normal game.
