slow play demons

I have watched this site for awhile and I see most of people talk about how tptk should be bet aggressively. I try to play the tight aggressive game and get stomped by someone holding the set slowplaying their ass off. How do you tell if the player has the set or is smelling out a flush/straight draw if they'll only call everytime? These tables are so passive that half the time I beat them on the river and the other half I go bust. I realize that aggressiveness and playing pot odds are key and I'm not giving them the odds to chase but they do anyway. If they hit and I'm forced to fold I'm out 40xBB. I play aggressive and sometimes I win and sometimes I lose but this slowplaying trips is killing me. Is there anyway to draw this player out of their coma? Or do I make my bet let him call and just win some lose some :?:

people who slowplay sets are giving you free cards to beat them with a str8 or flush. this is good when you're playing drawing hands, and bad when you're playing tptk.

you want a general sense of what opps do PF with a pair in the hole. Failing any big difference between their pp play and their suited-connector play, you're just kinda stuck losing checks versus sets.

Last bit: someone with a set will put in a bet at some point -- a bet they REALLY want you to call. You'll need to sniff out the difference between this bet and a bet on a busted draw -- which they REALLY don't want you to call. It comes with experience, of course, but that's the gist of it.

I use to have a real problem with this same issue and I still do to some degree. This is how I partially solved it:

Bet big enough pre-flop so that you will scare out small and medium pocket pairs.

Distinguish between the players that will play with any suited high card and players that will toss Qxs.

Take note of players that like to sneak in with high pocket pairs like qq and spring traps on people with AQ.

If you are betting into a player and they keep calling you when there is no flush draw or obvious strait draw then they might have a set, especially if they are a good player. If they do have the set and a card comes on the turn for the flush draw they will usually bet back at you to kill any potential draw if they are a decent player.

Learn to respect reraises. From my experience most of the time they have you beat. But be aware of players that try to take advantage of this and bluff that they are holding a set when they know you have top pair. However, assume that anyone that reraises you thinks that they have the better hand.

Don’t underbet; but that doesn’t seem to be your problem.

Don't overbet. Don't make the pot so huge that a set will just call you all the way down. Why would he bet and warn you of his cards if you are adding in money with an inferior hand voluntarily.

Bet large enough to make the draw unfavorable, but no so large that someone with a big hand will just you let you bet for them. Also, by not overbetting you semi-encourage someone to try to unfavorably draw on you which can be profitable, especially against small stacks that won't have enough stack left to kill you with implied odds if they make their hand.

Don't make a huge pot or call a big raise with top pair decent kicker. You want a huge pot when you have a monster and top pair decent kicker is not a monster.

Ajo and AQo are good hands when there are no raises from other players and you can scare most of the people from seeing the flop. I would be very wary of betting at a 4 person flop with only a jack and kicker even if it is the highest card on the board. When there is an ace you may think you have the best hand but there is the possibility that somebody called your raise with AK or that someone that likes to play with Ax has caught two pair or one pair plus the nut flush draw. Use these hands at tables where you can narrow down the playing field to only one or two callers to see the flop. Bet if you get a pair and bet if there is no overcards with no flush draw even if you did not get a pair when there are two or one callers. Remember the players that like Ax or Axs and whether they are smart enough to fold to someone that probably has a better kicker.

Many people think that players that play with Kxs or something else similar are making bad plays. The truth is that in some situations they are making good plays because of the added implied odds of the flush along with the possibility that someone who thinks of themselves as a good player will refuse to believe that somebody may have made two pair to their one pair and end up betting the farm at them.

The truth is that you can only learn to play these situations properly by playing lots of hands. There are subtle nuances to this game that must be learned from experience that only comes with lots of hands. When you do this your brain will learn to recognize familiar patterns and how to play them even if you cannot consciously explain how. Get this experience in the cheapest arena possible that still has decent play.

The default bet for me is 3x-4xbb pre-flop and pot size post-flop, but ill often change this to the situation. This has the advantage of allowing me to apply a different strategy to the different situations but has the drawback of possibly giving away my cards to an observant player. I think its useful because I tend to play crappy players.

Also, be more willing to go into battle with your top pair top kicker when you have position for reasons you probably already know. An important thing that you may not know is to be more willing to get into it with a short stack opponent. They are generally weaker players and cant punish you as much on the river if they make their card. Try to lure them in so that each call is unfavorable but still tempting. They probably wont even realize how bad their calls are because they don’t realize that you have taken away their implied odds. Try to get all of their money by the river if the draw card does not land. Be less willing to do battle with your tptk against a good player with a big stack.

Thanks Lucid that helps clear up alot. Sometimes I forget to take the position factor into it while playing the Micro's. So many of these players will call down with middle pair UTG or Blinds that I forget that when they have position I need to have a stronger hand to win. And multi-way pots are what have been killing me lately. Four players call a re-raised pot. I hold AK and hit top two and the rag will give someone a set. Another player always seems to be drawing for a gutshot. Poker is fun...but frustrating.

And Lefou I know what u mean by the set making a callable bet. Sometimes (and I know this is a bad play but it seems to work at my tables) I'll underbet on the turn (i'm sure someone will preach weakness) to someone I think is playing a set (provided no str8 or flush draw) I've found that most sets will raise (very callable) here hoping for me to jump over them with TPDK. If I'm playing the draw hand I'll usually call if my odds justify. Even if the river gives no help the player is so programmed to slow play they'll usually check and I get a cheap look at their hole cards without having to show. I love buying info for cheap. :twisted:

Thanks