Poker Tournaments - Building pots with big hands

Far too often, players play big hands slower than they need to be played. I see over-slow playing happen all the time in live games and online on sites like free poker games and poker tournament specialist NoPayPoker.com. I'll admit that I also make the mistake of trying too hard to trap opponents when a more straightforward manoeuvre would probably work best.

It is definitely dangerous to slow play big hands for many the reasons—not the least of which is getting outdrawn by your opponents. However, there is another even more important reason why slow playing is a bad idea. Slow playing is oftentimes less profitable than playing your hand fast.

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.

Practice this approach on free poker games and poker tournaments at places like NoPayPOKER where you can get a feel for what’s OK without messing it up bigtime with proper 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

There will be occasions when it is best to slow play. For example, it's a smart move to slow play when you flop a royal flush, a straight flush, quads, a full house, the nut flush, or the nut straight. Those are very strong hands. There's little chance to you'll be beat. You want to give your opponent every chance possible to bet his second 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. As I say practice playing free poker games and poker tournaments sites such as NoPaypoker where you can get a feel for what will work and what won’t. That way when you get into a higher stakes cash situation you’ll play it right and hopefully scoop it up!

Online Tournament Poker Guide & Tips

If you are new to playing poker and want to get involved in playing tournaments, then our Poker Tournaments Guide is here to help you.

A ‘poker tournament’ is a tournament where a set number of players play a specific style of poker against each other, until eventually there is only one winner left at the end.