Almost every poker article written within the last three years will try to emphasis how important it is to be aggressive at the poker table in order to become a winning player. Whilst this is true, all winning players are also aggressive, there are times when you need to rein in the aggression and slow-play your hand.

The term slow-playing does not refer to the speed of which you play your hand instead it implies you have slowed down the aggression and are allowing your opponent to do the betting for you. Do not get it confused with slow-rolling, which is where you take a long time to make a decision at showdown whilst holding the nuts, something that is definitely frowned upon when playing online Texas Holdem.

You should only ever slow-play when you have a very strong hand, one that ties up most of the board and on one where there are very few draws possible. For example if you raised preflop with AsKs and the flop comes AhAdKc then you have the mortal nuts and no hand can beat you, unless they hit a runner-runner Royal Flush, so betting does not achieve much as you will almost fold out every single hand out there.

Many players moan about having their sets beaten by straights and flushes and almost always it is because they have slow-played their set on a draw heavy board, which is just asking for trouble as whenever you slow-play you give your opponents a chance to take a free card and out-draw you.

For this reason you should also refrain from slow-playing against passive players who will simply fail to take the initiative and will just check behind you. These players are everywhere in low stakes poker cash games both online and live so beware of them and just bet into them instead.

So to recap, slow-playing can be a powerful play to make, especially when you have a strong hand against an aggressive player who is likely to bet a hand weaker than yours or make multiple bluffs. Do not slow-play on draw heavy boards or against passive opponents and you will not go far wrong!