'Check raising' a legit strategy

“Check raising” is one of those funny things that get people heated up. In case you haven’t executed this play or been victim to it, a check raise occurs when a player checks or does not bet when the opportunity arises, but then raises if a player acting after them does bet.

Pretty much every poker room in the world allows check raising and it’s often listed on the rules posted somewhere in the casino. There are occasions in home games where it is not allowed. Generally, this is the case either through local custom or agreed upon consensus. In reality, it makes no sense. Check raising is a very legitimate strategy and has a proper place in the game of poker.

So why does a check raise occur? There are a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s just to slow down an overly aggressive player and to let them know that your check is not always a sign of weakness. You’re hoping to keep them from bluffing and stealing too frequently. This can be an effective move to a player who tries to steal blinds every single time they are on the button. Sometimes it’s used as a strong bluff tool. It can also be used to try to get a free card on a latter street.

Say a player check raises a flop from middle position. There’s a decent chance he’ll get to see the next card for free since players may be concerned they’ll be check raises again.

In limit games, where it is a common strategy, the idea is to get more money into the pot.

Say a player has a nut straight with an AK and a board of KQJT and they think their opponent has a weaker straight, perhaps holding an 89 suited. If the other payer is showing signs of betting, maybe counting out chips or leaning forward with an interest in the pot or if they’re aggressive enough that they always bet when checked to, well, this presents an opportunity to the player with the nuts. Let’s say it’s a $10-20 game and the turn brought the 10 listed above. If you hold the nuts and are first to act, you can bet $20. You figure the other player is 90 percent likely to call and 10 percent likely to re-raise. If they call, you’re getting .9 times $20 or $18 expected value. If they re-raise and you re-raise back and they call, you’d be getting .1 times the additional $40 or $4. So the overall expectation is around $22.

Now, instead of betting, let’s say you check with the intention of raising. You figure the opponent is 80 percent likely to bet and call if checked to, if you raise his bet. That gives us an expectation of .8 times $40 or $32 If he’s only 5 percent likely to check if checked to, and 5 percent likely to bet and then fold if check raised, then we figure that for $0 and .05 times $20, or $1. So over all we’d be at $33. That’s a better-weighted expectation than $22, so if we’re right in assessing the situation, the check raise is more profitable.

Of course you aren’t going to do all this math in your head every time a situation presents itself, but you need to have a rough idea of what might happen depending on your actions. In most scenarios, you’re really trying to figure out how likely they are to call your check raise. If you want them to call the check raise and you think they are going to call, it’s almost always more profitable to make this play. If you think they’ll likely fold and you aren’t worried about giving a free card, then the better play may be to check and hope they catch something to help them, but not something better than what you’re holding. I’d never check raise and risk a free card, for example, with flush draws on the board if you’re holding a flush but not the nut flush.

Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.