Very few poker hands are legitimate candidates for slow-playing before the flop in Texas Holdem. You might, for instance, choose to call rather than raise with poker hand like ace-queen suited, but what you’re doing is varying your texas holdem play so your holdem opponents can’t detect your betting pattern. The same holds true with poker hand like a pair of tens in early position when you’re first in the pot. You could raise five times the big blind, or three times the big blind, or you could just call, but the point of calling is not to draw more players into the pot but just to disguise your poker hand so you can’t be read so easily.

The only poker hands that are really candidates for a legitimate slow-play in Texas Holdem are aces, kings, and sometimes queens. Even with poker hands this strong.

We need several preconditions in place before we’re tempted to slow-play the hand:

1. We at a full or nearly-full poker table – 9 or 10 players.
2. We’re in early position, and no one has entered the pot before me.
3. The poker table has been generally loose and aggressive, with lots of raising and reraising pre-flop. The loose and aggressive holdem players are on our left.

What we’re seeking is a situation where we can call with a strong likelihood that someone behind us will raise. We need a full poker table and early position so that as many people as possible are eligible to raise. Obviously we want loose and aggressive players to be doing the raising. Less obvious but equally important is that we be first to act. If someone has raised or called in front of us, a call on our part will tend to dampen action (even at a loose poker table) since two holdem players have already shown strength. The right play after a raise or call is just to raise with our high pair. Remember that a series of limpers is a disastrous result for the high pair. As always in this case, your eventual goal is to get heads-up against one holdem opponent with as big a pot as possible.

Note that some poker pros advocates an unusual play which is worth mentioning here. They sometimes likes to limp with aces in middle position after a limper has entered the pot, the players are somewhat loose, and the stacks are large. A series of limpers may cause a late player to put in a big raise, or it may enable you to play a completely disguised set of aces when an ace falls on the flop. The occasional massive Texas Holdem wins from these situations more than compensate for the loss of equity when you’re forced to play an unraised pot against several limpers.

In order to make this play, however, you must be skilled at letting your aces go when the post-flop betting shows you’re in trouble.

Good luck.

Also recommended:

1. Slow playing After the Flop in Texas Holdem
2. Slow playing After the Flop in Texas Holdem: Candidate Hands
3. Slow-Playing in Texas Holdem
4. Playing high pocket pairs
5. Playing Hands from Middle Position in Holdem