Check raise

Contributed by: Paul Sandells
Updated: Jun 21, 2005
Views: 5088

One of the best ways to get paid in a game of Texas Hold'em is to use the “Check-raise” move. Here's how it works.

Lets say you are dealt Ad,Ah and are first to act. You raise a standard amount of three times the big blind. You get one caller and the rest of the table folds.
The flop: 5h, 9c, Ac

This is a dream flop for you, you started with the nuts pre-flop and have continued down the same road on the flop. You check. Your opponent bets half the pot.

Your opponent could have the other Ace, maybe even a set of sixes or nines but to raise at this stage would seriously worry him if he only had two Queens or Kings. So, you call.
The turn: Kd

You still have the nuts. Again, a bet would probably worry your opponent at this stage unless he had AK or a set of sixes, nines or kings. You check. He bets the pot. Now we can assume he has made a hand. Would he call your pre-flop raise then bet into you twice? Perhaps, if he was a maniac! So now is the time to come over the top but not with so much as to make him second guess himself and fold.

You minimum raise. Experienced players will have alarm bells ringing in their heads now but the average Texas Hold'em player will not fold unless they are a maniac and have been on a complete bluff from the outset.
Two things should occur:

He will be worried and just call, if he does you can assume he only has an Ace or perhaps A,6 or A,9 . If so, you are not going to get paid a huge amount on the river and so should bet conversatively.
Or, he gets excited and re-raises you. If this occurs he has a set or perhaps AK. You should then move all-in as you will almost certainly be called.

There is, however, a third situation that could occur from slow playing our Aces and this should be our only worry. Our opponent could hold four suited cards after the flop. It is quite common for players to bet a drawing hand like the flush draw in an attempt to end the hand then and there, if they are called they can still hit the flush card and continue betting. If their opponent folds they take down the pot.

When we made the minimum raise on the turn, a player holding 4 parts of a flush should still call because we have given him good pot odds.

So a river of any club would be a scare card for us if our opponent simply called our turn raise. A river of any other card, unless our opponent makes four of a kind or a miracle straight, will still see us out in front. If the river does show a club, it would be best to check and then call your opponents bet, or make a small bet to see where you stand, if he bets or raises your entire stack you will be faced with a difficult decision as you no longer have the nuts. There are situations where you might fold your set of Aces here, perhaps in a super satellite where qualification is the key or perhaps if you are just a few places short of the money in a tournament. In a cash game, if you are playing within your bankroll, you should call.

The upside to slow playing a big hand and then check-raising is obvious. You allow your opponents to make a hand or simply bluff at the pot and increase your winnings. The downside is they may catch a better hand, as we outlined above with the flush scenario, leaving you with a tough decision and perhaps a big loss.
Always check-raise carefully and if situations change, as they can in poker on the turn of one card, try and realise when your winning hand has turned into a loser.

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