If you have a good hand, BE AGGRESSIVE. Shoot everything you’ve got. Check-calling? No way – that’s for the fish.

This is what most poker “experts” say and what most newcomers believe that play is like at the top level. Because it is so strongly ingrained into the average player’s psyche, there are benefits to switching it up to the slow-play style of days long gone.

First, let’s understand it.

Most low and mid players who are influenced by loose high-stakes players think the key to victory is aggression, and they usually play in a way that expresses that. They raise close to 50% of the hands pre-flop, they fire cont bets on all flops no matter what, if they’re called on the flop they can’t resist another shot on the turn, and if they have enough guts they will bluff on the river.

Now I have to say – in your standard game, it is smart to raise/reraise with just premium hands, particularly against players who have a huge raising range and call re-raises no matter the size. Like everything else though, it’s good to shake it up.

Imagine you sit in the blinds with something like pocket rockets. The loose-aggressive player raises like always.

Now you just call. You check the flop and the button makes a continuation bet. If you then take some time and call, you’ll be thought of as weak. Your opponent will think you’re on a bad draw or have a small pair. On the turn you check again and it’s followed with another bet. You call and head on to the river. If you’re up against a player capable of bluffing every street, you can check-call or check-raise the river too. If you think you’ve got the winner but are afraid your opponent might check behind, bet for value. It looks suspicious, especially with a blank river. Your opponent will sit there, thinking you’re an idiot and wondering how that card could’ve helped you, when in reality, you likely extracted the max value in the hand.

If your efforts are met with success, you won’t be presented with as many hard decisions later on. Think about how hard it is to play small and medium pairs from the blinds against such aggressive players. If they raise up pre flop and you call with a flop that is something like J62, he probably won’t think you’re very strong if you check-call. He’ll put you on a weak pair and make it really hard for you with a big bet on the turn. However, if you instill him with enough doubt, he’ll think twice before betting on the turn and let you pay less to see the river with something like a pair of 7s.

Like all other tactics, slowplaying shouldn’t be overused, but it can be a deadly weapon because of its unpredictable factor. Not only can you extract plenty of value from the over-aggressive types, but they’ll also play softer against you in the long-run.