Using the Clock to Your Advantage

If you are new to multi table poker tournaments, you may wonder why players constantly use the maximum amount of time available to make their betting actions – if they make any at all. There are several reasons for this deliberate slow play, and your opponent could be using one or more of those listed below to use the clock to their advantage.

Pissing People Off – This is the least “sporting” reason for deliberate and protracted slow play. You will often see in the chat boxes (particularly in low stakes games), comments which berate a slow player for taking the maximum about of time. The person making those comments is doing exactly what the antagonist wanted – starting to lose their focus – and although the slow player often becomes a target for their tardy betting actions, they are using one of the edges available when playing online poker to their advantage.

Saving Blinds and Antes – Slow play, particularly when a tournament has got to the stage where antes are paid in every hand, is designed to slow down the rate at which the player is paying chips into the pot. At the later stages of a tournament, a much smaller percentage of hands go all the way to showdown, and are therefore over much quicker than in the early stages of a multi table poker tournament. Slowing the game down now, particularly when playing short-handed, saves chips (for all the players on the table) for when the blinds and antes are even higher.

On the Fringe of the Bubble – Everybody will have witnessed this, and if you have ever been short-stacked on the fringe of the bubble before, you will understand why it is done. Players with a limited amount of chips will use the maximum amount of time available to make their betting actions (usually a fold at this stage) in the hope that players on other tables bust out before they do. This enables them to cash almost by default, and although infuriating to players with prospects of finishing a tournament in a much deeper position, most players are sensitive to this player’s actions – and often help out by slow playing themselves.

To Keep Other Players Guessing – A good poker player will never indicate what they have in their hand by the time it takes to perform a betting action. Some new players, who have been dealt premium opening hands, cannot wait to get their chips on the table or, should they connect with the flop after limping into a hand, will take all the time in the world to calculate the maximum bet a table can handle. Experienced poker players, although not necessarily using the maximum time available, will use the clock to their advantage by always making their betting action with (say) 8 seconds left. This makes the time element of their betting action impossible to read.

Whereas using the maximum time available to upset your opposition may not make you many friends, it is an effective means of stirring emotions in a game best played unemotionally. Conversely, if you are short-stacked and on the fringe of the bubble, you might need friends on your table to help you creep into the cash! Therefore, the best way of using the clock to your advantage is to use the timer to determine when you are going to make your betting action. If all your opponents know about your hand is that they are going to have to wait another 12 seconds until they find out what you are going to do, it gives you an element of control over the table . That element of control can be integrated into other poker strategies used at the table to ensure your betting actions are respected and to enable you to play more profitable poker.

Click here to visit Bodog Poker – Still accepting US Players!

Click here for more Poker Strategy articles