Quote Originally Posted by bjsaust
Slowplayed and let opp catch up - 8
Post some of these hand histories of slowplays. Just cause you stacked when someone caught up doesn't necessarily mean that they were bad.

You should calculate the EV of the slowplays. (ie: X% of the time they hit some card and you get paid off A more, and Y% of the time they hit some miracle to stack you and you lose B more) and see if X*A-Y*B is greater or less than zero.

I do this kind of play a fair amount when someone calls a big flop bet on me, and I end up stacking to their turn insider. I like to see if their call was good or not.

For example this hand was from my blog:

$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 26, 03:58:14 ET 2008
Table Wadsworth (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jobelu ( $1741.92 USD )
Seat 2: Hero ( $1154.00 USD )
Seat 3: JanneGul ( $1015.00 USD )
Seat 4: Ultgamb ( $702.00 USD )
Seat 5: rollDbone ( $1658.76 USD )
Seat 6: loibedo ( $932.99 USD )
loibedo posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
jobelu posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ac As ]
Hero raises [$30.00 USD]
JanneGul folds
Ultgamb raises [$90.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$90.00 USD]
loibedo folds
jobelu folds
Hero raises [$190.00 USD]
Ultgamb folds
rollDbone calls [$130.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, 6d, 7s ]
Hero bets [$290.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$290.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
Hero bets [$644.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$644.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
Hero shows [Ac, As ]
rollDbone shows [4h, 5h ]
rollDbone wins $2410.00 USD from main pot

Assuming I always bet flop shove turn, and he stacks me when he hits and folds turn if he misses.

approximately 84% of the time I win his flop bet and he folds the turn, and 16% of the time he hits his straight on turn and stacks me. When he misses turn I win $290 from him, and when he hits turn I lose ($290+$644 always)

ev of my play = .84*290-.16(290+644)
= 243.6- 149.44
= $94.16

So we can on avg 9.4 BB's from this hand.

But lets say we bet flop, always slowplay on turn and check (and assume he always checks through) and then we bet river and always stack if he hits. Now 32% of the time we end up stacking off.

ev of our play = .68*290 - .32(290+644)
= 197.2 - 298.88
= -101.68

So we lose 10 BB's on avg from playing the hand this way.

So clearly that turn check is a really big mistake in this particular spot, if we always stack off when he hits.

(granted, there are a lot more variables to this. Sometimes he bets turn when he misses and we get extra money off him yada yada.. so this is just a simplified example)

Just shows how giving an opponent a free card, when we intend on stacking no matter what, could possibly make a really big difference.