Slow playing is one of those areas that divides players.

When you have a good hand and don't bet strong from the start it's the icing on the cake when you can squeeze some more money from an opponent.

However there are few things more demoralising than when your opponent capitalises on that chance to draw cards that you offered them.

Remember the old adage is that is better to win a small pot than lose a big one.

As a general rule of thumb if there is a draw play fast as not only could your opponent hit the draw to beat you but also the draw can stall any future action.

This is particularly true for many of the hands that a pair of pocket Aces beats and also pertinent if you are committed to the pot even if the draw arrives.

With a hand like Queen, Jack you might call a raise on the flop but will fold to big action on the turn if the draw gets there.

And it is even more relevant when calling a standard raise as it should commit your opponent to the pot with whatever hand they have.

To cover your big hands you should also play your draws fast as well. The hands that call your raise are going to be ahead on average and the hands that are behind are going to have more outs on average than you will so your goal should be to get as cheap a showdown as possible.

If you have pocket rockets, not raising the flop here is something you should only do maybe one in ten hands as a change-up.

Say you have a pair of Aces and your opponent calls. The flop comes down with a Queen and three of spades plus a nine of hearts and as they take the lead on the flop, you decide to let him have his head and raise back on the turn after the King of spades comes down.

The river is a Jack of spades and you lose to a flush as your opponent's pocket cards were Ace, King off-suit. In hindsight hitting them hard on the flop was the right move to make as you take a chance to get him to hang himself.

On that flop slow playing was a big blunder, raising heavily - assuming you are playing No-Limit - would take the pot down right there.

It just underlines that by trying the change-up and extracting a little more, you can come unstuck. There is certainly a tendency to chase money when you are down for the day, week, month whatever but if you are up, you are likely to do nothing but raise the flop big.

But of course you could be lulled into a false sense of security by a passive player. If you're playing for 30 hands and this was the first time he leads on the flop it would indicate that a draw was very unlikely.

However by raising the flop you can scare an opponent into giving away their money even if they hold Ace-King, Ace-Queen or pair of Queens.

By just calling you have no idea which cards will give your rival a better hand on the turn and there could be plenty of them.

Also flat calling the flop and raising on the turn makes your hand look much stronger than raising the flop so it may help him get off a hand like King-Queen as in the example above.

So as a rule keep your slow playing for a couple of scenarios.

Slow playing works best on an aggressive table as the focus stays off you as you call and everyone else bets and raises.

Also when you are clearly ahead in a hand and the only hands that could potentially beat you are an opponent flopping a set and then following with a pair on the board or the incredibly rare case of drawing quads.

And of course slow play works better in No Limit because you can take so much more money at the end and because of the bet size, you have the option to wait until the river to make your betting really count.

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport