Slowplaying in poker is when you try to deceive the strength of your hand by playing it more passively or weaker than you normally would a hand of that strength. Slowplaying is also called sandbagging or trapping.
When is it a good time to slowplay? One example of a time when it would be a good time to slowplay is when you flop a set on a board without draws. If you are holding pocket 77 and the board reads K72 in 3 different suits and there are more than 2 players in the pot it is a very good idea not to play your hand too aggressively. You like to keep you opponents in the pot so that you get paid the maximum. On the other hand if the board is KT7 with 2 hearts slowplaying is more risky. On the other hand there is a great chance your opponent don’t give you credit for a hand when you go all in on the river when the draws miss. Very often they give you a missed draw and call you down with top pair or less.
Slowplaying is not recommended against passive players (callingstations). Slowplaying works a lot better against aggressive opponents that don’t like laying hands down.
In omaha slowplaying is a little different. Very rarely does it pay off to slowplay unless you have a hand that “can’t” get outdrawn. One example of such a hand would be if you are holding a set with the nutflushdraw. I would not recommend slowplaying in omaha.
