The Art of Check Raising

The Art of Check Raising!!

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The Art of Check Raising!!

Check Raising can be a very powerful move in poker.  Check-raising can be refered to as the play of checking your hand with the intention of raising your opponent on the same round after they bet.  This is a variation of choosing to play a big hand by making it look weak with the check by trapping your opponent into betting and getting more chips into the pot.  These are chips that you may not have gotten had you lead right out at the pot.

In addition to these benefits, check raising can often be used to exclude other opponents from further competing in the pot, while also giving you the chance of a free card on the turn.  A check raise will often demonstrate strength and deter your opponent from making another bet on the turn and you might be able to see the river without having to put any more chips in the pot.  This can be of great value if you have a really big drawing hand, ie. nut flush draw.

For Check Raising to be correct, a couple thing need to be considered:

1. Think that you have the best hand or are drawing to the best hand (though you wouldn't necessarily want this to be a slowplaying hand)
2. Be very sure or at least quite sure that one of your opponents left to act behind you will bet after you have checked.

Example Situations when Check Raising is probably a good move:

1.  You are holding QK in early position and have limped in with 4 other players viewing the flop.  The flop comes KQ4 rainbow.  With this many players in the pot you can be nearly 100% certain that at least one of these players has a piece of that flop and will bet.  Checking here would be a great way to get some more money in the pot before you put any chips in.  Then the raise is almost necessary as this is a board with a straight draw and it will also be difficult for AK to fold here as well and forcing them to pay to draw out on you is the best way play the hand.

2.  You hold A4 hearts in middle position and the flop comes 239 with two hearts.  This is a good opportunity to check raise because you are drawing to the nut hand if a heart hit and a very big hand if a 5 hits.  The check raise will get more money in the pot for you for when you do hit and will also give you a chance to see the river most of the time without having to put any more money in on the turn if you miss.  The only time that will not be the case is if your opponent has a monster hand like a set in the situation.

Two things generally happen if you are checking a lot of good hands on the flop.  First, your opponents will tend to shy away from betting at future pots which will give you a chance to see a lot more cards with much more marginal hands.  Second, it will give you another way to win the pot on the turn by leading out and stealing the pot because your opponents will put you on much bigger hands then you actually might be holding.  They will not very often suspect a bluff becuase you have been making the check raise move with big hands and might actually feel that they are getting away from you trapping them.

Some players would then show a bluff in this situation when you dont actually have a big hand.  I would strongly encourage you never to show a bluff in this spot.  It will take away from the strength of the check raise in the future that you have built up and will open you up to having to set them up all over again.

Remember that by checking on the flop a lot you are giving your opponents the chance to check behind you and see the turn for free and sometimes that will result in them catching up and drawing out on you sometimes costing you the pot.  You need to be able to identify cards and hands your opponents might hold that will give them a superior hand and be able to get away from them if those cards were to appear on the turn.

Remember to mix in some check raises into your game every session and look for opponents that often continuation bet and take advantage of them by reapplying the pressure with a raise of your own!!

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