Now that October is upon us, many poker players are already aware of what lies ahead, as Ganktober is now in its fourth year! If you are still wondering what the hell Ganktober is and how it started, I would like to give you a brief history of poker’s most controversial month. In October 2007, I posted a thread here on PocketFives declaring that October was officially National Slowroll Month, a time to embrace what had traditionally been labeled as taboo.

There are several reasons why I support the slowroll. There is not one other legal move in poker that will evoke so much emotion from your opponents, than the slowroll. It is built into some players’ mindsets that it is wrong under any circumstances, and because of this mentality, these are the exact players that I try to target with my slowrolls!

In fact, any time you can make your opponent emotionally involved while playing poker, it will at least give you an opportunity to exploit a future mistake, because now your opponent will be calculating unnecessary variables into their decisions. The beauty of the slowroll is really not in the hand that you actually slowroll with, especially since your opponent in all likelihood will be ‘disappearing’ after you beat him in the hand, but in the lasting emotional effects that some players can not let go of. Some of these players may not even need to be the target of a slowroll, as just slowrolling at their table will make you a target for them, again this only increases your Expected Value (EV). The effects of one slowroll can literally last a lifetime.

Poker is as competitive a game or sport as any, and because money is what we use, it is cut-throat at the higher levels. To me, it makes little sense to show mercy to your opponents — emotionally or monetarily. If someone loses respect for me, because of how I play the game, I am okay with that, and I will be aware and hoping that translates into mistakes on that opponent’s end later. When I look at poker players, the ones I respect the most are the ones that play the game the hardest, using every legal play in their arsenal to manipulate their opponents psychologically and emotionally… without mercy. This is why I have given my full support of this beautiful play called the slowroll!

We all grew up with people telling us something or another was bad only to later find out that their opinion was different than ours, so to those skeptics out there, I ask you to use National Slowroll Month to give some of my home-cooking a try, it may not be for everyone, but you may find yourself coming back for a second helping!

2010 Ganktober National Slowroll Month Thread

Brett gank Jungblut is a lead instructor at ProPokerSchool.com.

Also see: Gank’s Guide to Las Vegas: WSOP EditionMay 2009

* The opinions expressed in this article and all member-submitted content do not necessarily reflect the views of PocketFives.