anatomy of a slowroll

Slowrolling has long been an integral part of the poker community. For many years, it was seen as objectionable. However, in the last few years, it has seen greater social acceptance in the poker community due to Ganktober (a month where slowrolling is encouraged) and acceptance among many top online poker players. In order to slowroll effectively, however, certain criteria need to be met. I hope to enlighten you to these criteria and help you achieve an effective slowroll using the B.E.C.K. system for slowrolling.

Build-up

Build-up is a crucial part of the very best slowrolls. Though not 100% necessary, build-up makes any slowroll better. This build-up usually involves some sort of history with the slowrollee, but it can also simply be how deep the tournament is. A slowroll at a final table is far superior to a slowroll at 10/20. That said, any slowroll is better than no slowroll.

For the example we will use, the build-up consists of two parts. First, this occurred at the final table of the $18,500 $55+1r+1a on Full Tilt. Second, while no direct exchange of words has occurred between myself and the opposing player, he has been three-betting me fairly often (and I’ve had to fold each time). In addition, I rooted for him to win a pot when he got 63 all-in preflop against AK early at the final table simply because I assume someone who gets 63 all-in in that spot is horrible. He’s probably not horrible as he has had some success, but he certainly has some leaks (as we’ll see shortly.)

Expectation

By expectation, I mean that the slowrollee expects that, when you flip over your cards, you will have a hand far worse than you actually do have. If someone knows they are being slowrolled, the slowroll is nowhere near as effective. This makes it especially difficult to slowroll veterans like The Lab Rat, who slowroll often and expect to be slowrolled. To counter-balance this, you have to balance your slowroll range (sacrificing some of our next key) to make them believe they actually do have the best hand. For the novice, I suggest waiting to get some experience before going after an experienced slowroller.

In this example, I had raised and folded multiple times prior to this hand. Further, I raised preflop and was called out of position by the villain in an earlier hand. I c-bet the flop, checked the turn, and folded to a river bet. Undoubtedly he believes that, when I am time banking, I am considering whether to make a stand with a hand like A5 or 88.

Seat 4: rubbarose (312,252)
Seat 5: murp1956 (317,236)
Seat 7: dpottz (119,512)
rubbarose antes 600
murp1956 antes 600
dpottz antes 600
dpottz posts the small blind of 2,500
rubbarose posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dpottz [Jh Jd]
murp1956 folds
dpottz raises to 12,499
rubbarose calls 7,499
*** FLOP *** [Jc 4s 5h]
dpottz bets 13,500
rubbarose raises to 299,153, and is all in
dpottz has 15 seconds left to act
dpottz has requested TIME

Certainty

Certainty requires that, in order to slowroll, you be almost positive that you are going to win. There is nothing more disappointing than attempting to slowroll only to see your top set lose to a backdoor straight. The better your chances at winning when the chips go into the middle, the better your slowroll is. As discussed previously, against experienced slowrollers, you might have to slowroll a hand that isn’t so certain to win (QQ preflop, for example) in order to balance your slowroll range and surprise your opponent even more when you show up with the abso-nuts.

Here, I got in with top set against top pair. However, the turn brought a very, very, very scary card, creating a four-card straight for my opponent. Thankfully, he blanked the river.

dpottz calls 92,913, and is all in
rubbarose shows [Js 6s]
dpottz shows [Jh Jd]
Uncalled bet of 192,740 returned to rubbarose
*** TURN *** [Jc 4s 5h] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 4s 5h 7c] [4d]
rubbarose: slowroll?
rubbarose shows two pair, Jacks and Fours
dpottz shows a full house, Jacks full of Fours
dpottz wins the pot (239,624) with a full house, Jacks full of Fours

Kaput

I spent a lot of time trying to find a word that started with K that could best describe the next step. Kaput is close enough. Essentially, your opponents chances of winning, ideally, will be kaput. They will be so flustered by the slowroll that they will punt away their stack. The longer your opponent hangs around in the chat after the slowroll, the better.

In this case, rubbarose was done. Even though they still had a workable stack, they punted it away a few hands later:

Seat 4: rubbarose (202,040)
Seat 5: murp1956 (307,336)
Seat 7: dpottz (239,624)
rubbarose antes 600
murp1956 antes 600
dpottz antes 600
rubbarose posts the small blind of 2,500
murp1956 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to dpottz [Ac 7h]
dpottz: is the word you’re looking for
rubbarose: seriously
dpottz raises to 12,499
rubbarose raises to 201,440, and is all in
murp1956 raises to 306,736, and is all in
dpottz folds
murp1956 shows [Ad Qc]
rubbarose shows [Ah 8s]
Pokerlusky (Observer): wat a douche
Uncalled bet of 105,296 returned to murp1956
rubbarose: i think I love you
*** FLOP *** [9s 2d 7c]
onebadbeat_1 (Observer): bye A8
*** TURN *** [9s 2d 7c] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [9s 2d 7c 9h] [9d]
murp1956 shows three of a kind, Nines
rubbarose shows three of a kind, Nines
murp1956 wins the pot (417,179) with three of a kind, Nines

Certainly not the worst jam in the world, but I have no doubt they’d do likewise with worse hands. If it didn’t happen on this hand, it would happen against him a few hands later.

Not only did he bust, though, but he stuck around until the end of the tourney (I lost HU). He continually told me how I wasn’t classy. Meanwhile, his friends threatened me. I don’t mind people claiming they’ll pray for bad things to happen to me (happens all the time), but asking for my full name and saying they’ll “take (me) out on Lake Mead and do what we do” seemed to be crossing the line. In any case, it all speaks to the effectiveness of this particular slowroll. He even went so far as to make a Pocketfives thread about it. That’s a winner.

So follow the B.E.C.K. system and you’ll be slowrolling with the best in no time. Best of luck!

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