Explanation of Slowroll
While slowrolling doesn't provide any real benefits beyond perhaps rattling our opponent, it is generally viewed as an unethical maneuver in poker. It’s crucial to differentiate between 'holywooding', which is deemed acceptable, and 'slowrolling', which is not. Holywooding involves taking your time to act with the intent of obscuring the real strength of your hand. The main distinction is that slowrolling occurs when a call would conclude the action in the game.
Consider a situation in a Hold’em cash game where our opponent goes all-in preflop and we are holding pocket Aces. If we are the only one remaining to act, there’s no justification for delaying our call. The decision is straightforward, and dragging it out serves no strategic purpose since our opponent has already acted. Taking excessive time in this instance is seen as disrespectful.
On the other hand, if multiple players are still to act after us and they have the option to call the all-in, we have more leeway to take our time (as long as it’s within reason). Even though it's an easy call for us, we may want to create the impression that our hand is not very strong in hopes of encouraging those behind us to also make calls. We can thus use this opportunity to pause, making it seem as though we're deliberating more than we actually are. This tactic, known as 'holywooding', can be strategically beneficial through deception and is considered both an ethical and legal practice in poker.
Slowrolling can also refer to being deliberately ambiguous about one’s hand strength during a showdown. An opponent might think we are discarding our hand when, in reality, we reveal the winning hand at the last moment.
An illustrative example would be to state “I have a pair of deuces” and then, after a delay, add “along with a pair of Queens.” Here, we’ve intentionally misrepresented the strength of our hand as we should have immediately declared that we have two pairs.
Example of Slowrolling used in a sentence -> It’s best to steer clear of slowplaying others at the table, as it tends to create a negative reputation.
How to Incorporate Slowroll into Your Poker Strategy
Holywooding can be likened to a form of ‘reverse tell’. The strategy involves making our decision appear as if it’s a difficult one even though we hold a strong hand. If we consistently act swiftly when we have strong cards, it could inadvertently reveal too much information to our opponents.
It’s important to exercise caution, though. Prolonged holywooding can be interpreted as unethical behavior and may sometimes verge into angle shooting territory.
Slowrolling itself might occasionally be used as a strategy to unsettle opponents, but generally, respectable players shy away from this tactic. It also carries the risk of being asked to leave a live casino if the dealer or floor manager perceives it as crossing a line.
See Also
Tell , Hand Reading , Preflop , Angle