Slow Playing Pocket Aces:

Slow playing aces really is a taboo of Texas holdem poker. Poker players see professionals on televisions slow playing aces all the time. After seeing it on television Texas Holdem poker players tend to copy what they have seen their favourite poker professional doing. This is where it all goes wrong because most players don’t understand that it is only profitable to slow play pocket aces in poker in a few situations that don’t arise too often. A poker player should note that they should not slow play aces every time these situations arise. If an experienced poker player wishes to slow play they should do it rarely as a way to mix up their play and range with aces.

Now in low stakes poker slow playing pocket aces is probably not advisable because a poker player’s opponents are generally not thinking players. This does not mean that slow playing can be ruled out all together. If a poker player is in position and is confident his opponent will commit himself on the flop it is worth simply calling rather than raising and possibly making his poker opponent fold.

For example if a player is on the button looking down at aces. His stack is 100 big blinds and an opponent to his right has raised to 3 big blinds. He re-raises to 9 big blinds, the poker opponent on the big blind now decides to re-raise to 27 big blinds. The initial raiser folds and the poker player is now left with decision whether to raise or call. If the poker player raises he could scare off his opponent because he is obviously representing a very strong hand. If he calls and slow plays the strength of his hand to some extent his opponent is most likely to bet the flop for the majority of his stack and commit himself. Even if he doesn’t bet the poker player can raise a good deal of his stack and still be in with a good chance of getting called. It can be seen that in this poker example a quick thinking player can slow play aces for maximum value.

A second time to slow play aces pre-flop would be if a player is on a very aggressive table with a lot of raisers each round. If a player raises in early position they may put off their opponents from coming into the pot. If the poker player slow plays by simply limping in early position he knows one of his opponents is more than likely to raise it up. At this point the poker player can re-raise his aggressive opponent and show the strength of his hand. If for some reason no opponent raises however there are a number of limps a poker player must be able to give up aces if played back at a lot on a dangerous board. This play should only be attempted if a poker player is very confident one of his opponents is going to raise after he has limped in.

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