I thought this would be a good topic to rap about for my first post. It is something I see all too often, people trying to get too cute in limit holdem and they end up missing bets which ultimately cost them up to a couple hundred a night if your playing for example some 5-10 action. Playing limit holdem in comparison to no limit is a different game. You only have a certain amount of bets to get as many chips as possible where as in no limit holdem, you can always raise on the river and bust someone. However in limit games, I see it all too often, a player flops a set or some other mac hand and they slow play it. This can work a lot of the time but you really have to know the table and your opponents. If your playing with a bunch of fish then it is a great strategy. However, if you are playing against some solid players, it will cost you money.

I was playing a game just last night and most of the players were solid. Yet, there were a couple of players who consistently cost themselves money by slow playing. Meaning, they had the nuts and a player betting into them. They check the flop and the other player bets into them. Player with the nuts just smooth calls and when the turn hit the player with the nuts checks again, but this time the other player checked also. Of course the player with the nuts bet on the river but the whole point to all this is over the course of two hours I saw this same player cost himself about $200 in missed bets. Some players think they are really doing something when the once in a blue moon they trap a player and get the extra $10 bet out of him. However, what they fail to understand is that the other 15 times you tried it and it didn’t work you cost yourself $150, not to mention the extra $75 you would have made by raising on the flop. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that your slowplaying was costing you money instead of making you money. I am not saying that you should not smooth call or check raise, only that it is imperative that you know your table and you need to be sure this strategy is making you money instead of costing you money. I use this strategy all the time, but only when it is working with the right players. I could elaborate a bunch on this topic, but I will save it for future posts. I just wanted to give everyone a glimpse of what to expect with this blog.