Part: Part Eight - Making Moves
Slow-playing to induce
Flop
You opened and an aggressive big blind called. Flop 8♥ 3♣ 3♦ - you flop a full house on a bone-dry board. He checks.
A near-unbeatable hand, dry board, aggressive opponent who loves to bet. Best?
WhyCheck behind. Almost nothing can improve to beat you, so there's nothing to protect. Checking shows weakness and induces an aggressive opponent to bluff or barrel into you on later streets - betting now only folds out the hands you want to keep in.
What happensYou check behind. Pot stays 2,400 (6 BB).
Turn
Turn J♠ - and now, reading you for weakness, he bets into you.
Your check induced a bet. With the full house, best?
WhyCall. He's barreling because your check looked weak - just call to keep his bluffs coming on the river, where you can raise. Raising now ends the action; slow-playing means letting him hang himself.
What happensYou call, he barrels the river, and you raise - he's drawing dead. The slow-play pays off.
With an unbeatable hand on a safe board you slow-played, inducing an aggressive opponent to bluff into you. Slow-playing is a move too - used only when your hand is huge and a bet would chase the action away.
Slow-play a near-unbeatable hand on a safe board against aggressive opponents - checking induces the bluffs a bet would have folded out.