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It is a common misconception that by playing your hand slower you will win more games. Sometimes this may be true, but in many cases it isn’t, especially when you have a big hand. I see slow playing happen so much more often than necessary when I am playing both live and free poker tournaments online but I think that playing a more simple tactic works better.

In my opinion it is pretty risky to play big hands slowly. First of all, you are pretty likely to be outdrawn by the other players, and more importantly slow playing is actually, in most cases, much less lucrative than playing a hand faster.

Better Betting

If you want to build a big pot with a big hand like a set, you need to be betting. You need to raise pre-flop, bet on the flop, bet on the turn, and fire your last bullet on the river. In other words, you want to gradually get all-in.

You may think you’ll scare away opponents with continuous betting, but this won’t be the case if they hold a reasonably strong hand. Big pots happen when a big hand runs into an even bigger hand. If your opponent folds before you get all your chips in the middle, it simply wasn’t meant to be.

What you don’t want to do is scare your opponents away with ridiculously large bets or raises. Nobody will call you if you bet $800 into an $80 pot. Nobody will call you if you raise it up to $1000 after an opening bet of $40. You want to keep your bets and raises small.

A good idea is to give this approach a go when playing free online poker and free poker tournaments. This way you can gain experience in this type of play without losing real money.

You want to convince your opponent that he or she may possess a strong enough hand to stay in the game. You want your opponent to make mistakes.

You want your opponent to be pot committed. You can’t do that with an oversized bet. You’re basically declaring that you own the best hand.

There is also a downside to not betting and just checking. Obviously, you can get outdrawn on. That’s a common concern.

However, checking also fails to build up the pot. You may eventually get your opponent to bet at you, but you he or she may just check behind-and thus, you’ll be losing some profit from winning one less bet.

Exceptions to the rule

With most things in life, there is always an exception to the rule and there are times that slower playing is going to be advantageous to you. For example, if you flop a royal flush, straight flush, full hand or any other very strong hand, you are pretty certain that you are not going to be beat, so give your fellow players as much opportunity as you can to get their next best hand.

You may also consider slow playing against a characteristically loose and aggressive player. Their first instinct is to bet when players check. You can take advantage of that aggression.

Yet, in most cases, you do want to bet out or raise. You want to build big pots slowly by betting every chance that you get. Remember, its well worth practicing these tips by playing free poker tournaments sites, such as NoPayPOKER.com where you wont lose any of your own money but can still win real cash. That way when you get into a higher stakes cash situation you’ll play it right and hopefully scoop it up!

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