Now the next thing to consider is when you have a big hand is slow playing always the most profitable way of playing it ? Sometimes there is no need to slow play. If you hit a very good hand just bet it and assuming you still believe you are winning on the turn and river keep betting it. Another way of trying to attract "business" is to overbet a pot, ie put in a bet that looks ridiculously large and appears if you are trying to "buy" the pot. Someone may misread this and call or even play back at you and land themself in deep trouble. Then there is of course the underbet, where you only put in a little and try to feign weakness. Astute players might pick up on this as you trying to pot build but others might call thinking you don't have much. It's a question of knowing which will work best on various opponents.

Don't always play your big hands the same (in fact don't always play any hands the same!), if you do you are easily read. If you flop a monster hand, sometimes bet it, sometimes check-call it, sometimes check-raise it.

Be wary of check-raising, this is usually considered a proclamation that you have a monster hand and even some of the loosest players will consider folding decent hands to a check-raise.

A good example of when check raising could be questionable. Say you have called with 77, someone ahead of you raises 4 x BB. A healthy raise. As I have said before pocket pairs are the kinda hands you want to be calling with against big hands like AA, KK etc. So you call. You flop a set 1 in 8 and have huge implied odds as many people can't throw away AA. Now say the flop comes: 2 7 J - a set of 7s, perfect. You have to assume you are winning, ok he could have JJ but that's just a cold deck. The idea here is how to play this hand to get most profit. If you are first to act do you check or do you raise ? I you check it is almost guranteed a hand like QQ, KK or AA will bet that flop....now you can check raise. Is this the best way to play the hand ? Personally I think no. As I said before even loose players are wary of check raises. They may pass the hand. The idea is to get as much of the persons money in as possible at this point as you must believe you are ahead. If you check raise that is only one bet in from him and he could fold.

Now if you are first to act, come out betting. The QQ, KK or AA will more than likely raise you - more of the persons cash in the pot when they are behind. You can of course re-raise or just call. But this way you are far more likely to get their cash in. If you bet and they raise, you already have twice as much of their money in the pot than if you check raised them....another factor which might stop them from throwing the hand. Of course there will be situations where a check-raise is a better play, but that is all about judging on what your opponent will do. Check-raising is a play you should have in your poker arsenal but you have to know when to use it and make sure you don't over use it.

Summary:
The more people in, the more dangerous it is to slowplay.
The more people in, the stronger your hand must be to slowplay.
Slowplay is not always the most profitable way to play a monster hand.
Vary your play, don't always slow play monsters, mix it up with under-bets, over-bets and check-raises. Try to always keep your opponents guessing.