Slow of Fast Play When Flopping a Set

Wow, I just flopped a set. How should I play it?

It’s a hard question to answer. Should you play it fast or slow? Choose incorrectly and you’ll make less money. I guarantee it. Bet too fast and you’ll induce folds (and make no money). Bet too slow and you give your opponent’s a chance to improve their hand (and to take your stack). So you want to choose wisely.

Fortunately that’s a skill you can learn. You just need to know what factors to consider, how they’ll impact your decision and how to put all of this into motion while at the felt. The following explanation and examples should help you get started.

How to Know When to Slow or Fast Play Your Hand

Your decision on how to play your hand should be based on the following factors.

  • Board Texture – The wetter or more coordinated the board, generally, the more it connects with someone’s range. So on wet boards you should lean towards betting or raising. The drier the flops, the less likely anyone has a hand, which gives you the option to play your hand slower with fewer consequences.
  • Opponent Ranges – Your opponent’s range (when combined with the flop) will determine how likely it is they have a hand, or whether they’ll make one on future streets. If it’s likely that they have a hand (or can make one), you should be betting / raising for value.
  • Opponent Image – Your opponent’s image will give you an idea if you’re able to slow play your hand (because they’re aggressive and will bet for you) or if the only way to make money is to make the bets yourself.
  • Your Hand – How good is it? What types of hands can beat it, and what types of cards on future streets will make those hands? The worse your hand is, the more you should lean towards betting.
  • Your Image – Your image (how your opponent perceives you) will impact how your opponent plays against you. If you’re seen as aggressive, your bets will get more calls, whereas if you’re viewed as tight, betting will induce more folds.

This is a lot of information to process each hand/street that you play. To make the decision making process faster, I recommend taking notes and/or using a HUD.

A Couple of Examples

I want to provide a couple of examples to show you how I think when I’m deciding how to play my hand.

Example #1

In this example we have AKs at 100/200. The under the gun, a regular, opens to 500 chips. It folds to us on the button. Given that he’s a regular, I assume his range is 22s+/KQ+/AT+. I would opt to call for two reasons. One, we have position. Two, if we raise, a lot of hands we beat fold, leaving mostly hands that beat us.

The blinds fold. There is now 1300 in the pot.

The flop is A-9-2 rainbow. The UTG checks to us. What do we do?

First, consider our image. Chances are good that our opponent knows we’re a regular. So our perceived image / range is probably AQs+/JJs+. If we bet he’ll fold most under pairs. In other words, I don’t expect our opponent to call with a pair of 8s. All of my range beats that.

So with that in mind, I think betting here is too aggressive. Checking back will under rep my hand, maybe making it look like I have a smaller pair, too, possibly a hand as weak as KQ.

So say I check back, and the turn is a T. Our opponent checks again. What do we do?

I would bet. The ten now creates draws for KQ/KJ which we can get value from. KT might also call. Hands like JJs to KKs would also call here, seeing as we under-played our hand on the flop.

That’s how I would play this hand (in terms of slow/fast playing). What you do from there depends on your opponent’s reaction and the river card.

Example #2

For this example say you have 22 on a A-9-2 two-tone, multi-way flop. The under the gun is loose/aggressive, raised preflop and there were 3 other callers including you. He c-bets the flop, the 3 players fold. What do you do?

The first thing I suspect players think about is the flush draw. They’re afraid of it, so they immediately lean towards raising.

I think raising is the right play, but not because of the flush draw. What’s important to note here is that this player c-betted into a group of players, any of which that could’ve connected with this flop. What does that tell you? That he has a hand. A strong enough hand he was willing to lead with.

That’s all you need to know. I would assume that he has a (strong) Ax hand, was maybe c-betting with kings or he also (unfortunately) has a set. So I would suggest raising here so that we can build a pot and get stacks in on the flop or turn. Preferably as quick as possible, because 3 cards to a flush may damper the action and make it extract more money.

The Bottom Line

These are vague examples, I know. But what I want you to take away from these is the thinking behind them. I looked at factors like my opponent’s position, image and the board texture to make a decision that both extracted value and protected my hand. Train yourself to think along these lines and the decision to fast or slow play your hand will be an easy one to make.