A check-raise can be a very powerful tool when used at the right time but you do have to use it with the utmost care. This is for the simple reason that you are risking at least as much as what is in the pot in many instances if not more. For example if the pot is say $10 and you check and your opponent bets $6 then the pot is $16. A pot sized raise would be to $34 and even a three times raise would be to $18 with only $22 in the pot. This is why many players raise much less than the pot when they bluff.
If your opponent is bluffing or betting with a very weak hand then a pot sized raise isn’t necessary. A raise to 2.5 times to 3 times their bet will suffice to take them from the hand. Then if you do happen to catch them with a strong holding then you have lost less money. So which times are better for check-raising? Well when you have a combination of pot equity and fold equity is a pretty good start.
Let us look at a hand example here to highlight what I am talking about. Let us say that it has been folded around to your opponent who raises on the button to 3.5bb. In nearly all cases this player will have a fairly wide range. Now let us say that we have the Jc-10c and call in the big blind. The flop comes 9h-8d-4c and if our opponent has overcards or any other type of hand that hasn’t connected with that board then we do not need to have the best hand to take this pot down.
Let us look at the hand from our opponent’s perspective. They know that the hand is heads up and they also know that they only have to get through one opponent to take the pot down. They have also seen that we have merely called pre-flop and then checked the flop which are actions that are indicative of weak holdings. So if we check then they will likely bet with most of their range if not all of it in some instances. We have already ascertained that our opponents range is very wide and so they will have an awful lot of weak hands and fresh air.
So the combination of pot equity and fold equity and the fact that our opponent is likely to not only fire a c-bet but also fold to a check-raise means that check-raising is a very profitable play. However we can still go wrong and the reason as to why we can go wrong is to do with our bet sizing. It is one thing to know that our opponents range is wide and it is one thing to know that if we check that they will c-bet. However there is still a risk-reward ratio at work here and we need to get that right.
If our opponent truly has a weak hand then we don’t need to check-raise all that much. Some player’s min-raise as a check-raise but that can fall flat against good players or even players who do not respect min-raises. So if your opponent bets $6 into a $10 pot then a raise to $15-$18 should be more than enough to take them from a weak holding. There is no need to check-raise more than $18 when a check-raise of that size will be more than strong enough to have the desired effect and make an opponent fold.
If your opponent calls then this is the first warning sign that they are more willing to stack off. They have raised pre-flop and then c-bet the flop and then called a check-raise. The call of the check-raise is the first sign that our fold equity is less than we expected. This means that we may have to make our hand to win. This will be especially the case if we barrel the turn and that bet gets called as well.
Many weaker players that have premium pairs may be looking to commit to the hand and this is where we need to either back off or continue on with our betting if we make our straight. This advice is sound against unimaginative solid players but it obviously falls short against sophisticated opponents. You have to be careful with the check-raising line because if you get your bet sizing wrong then this is the easiest way to go astray. The key thing to remember here is that check-raising is a very effective play at the right time but only if you get your bet sizing correct. You will have numerous weapons at your disposal in poker and check-raising is a very formidable weapon.
Carl Sampson is an online poker pro and 888poker ambassador
