Slow Playing is a Vital Strategy

According to Phil Helmuth, slow play is a critical skill to master before entering the tournament rooms. After winning 11 WSOP bracelets it is highly recommended you head his advice.
 
Act weak when you are strong

Essentially slow playing can be compared to bluffing, by concealing your strong hand from your opponents you are technically playing slow.  For example, lets just say you are holding a pair of ten’s and the flop comes 10-7-7. Congratulations! You just flopped a full house.

The only problem here is if your opponent so much as gets a tiny whiff of your hand, he will fold faster than a tortilla with cheese.

In order to play it right off the bat it is imperative you conceal your strength by showing some weakness to lure your opponent into wagering more money.

How do you do this?

Very subtly give off signs of weakness. Look a little bit troubled, glance at your cards, hesitate with your chips, even scratch your head, or check instead of betting. You can even simply sigh and shrug your shoulders. Note that this type of acting will only work with players who are unfamiliar with you. Once again professionals usually have finely tuned senses that detect your fake signals so be careful and don’t overdo it.

Knowing your opponent or Categorizing

If your opponent likes to bet is the type who likes to bet then let him. Whatever you do don’t raise, just call it and let him do the push. Re-raise on the river and see if you got what it takes to get some extra money out of him.
When an opponent is timid, it may still be hard to get any money out of them whether you slow play, bluff it or not. They may simply be not the betting kind and you may have to encourage them with some smaller bets. Hopefully, they will have made something on the flop, because if not they are simply going to fold and you are going to get precious little value out of your full house.

Watch out for the board

One thing to watch for is not getting caught in your own trap. When playing slow you are automatically passing initiative to your opponent. He can easily take free cards by simply checking. Because you are going to check to act weak, it is possible the board may give him a bigger full house – thus you get caught in your own trap. Watch the cards and get ready to pounce. In poker, it is all too easy for predator to become the prey.