Check Raising

I had a friend that used to get extremely upset when someone would check raise him. He used to call it chicken raise instead of check and raise. He took it personally. That is a mistake because the check and raise is a important part of a poker player’s arsenal and one you can employ when playing at Black Chip Poker. One of the big reasons why check raising is so important is that if you do it once in a while, other players will think twice before betting into you after you have checked to them and this will give you a lot more free cards and show downs.

Check Raising And Slow Playing

Check raising and slow playing are both ways of playing a strong hand weakly. The one primary condition for being able to pull off a check raise is that you are confident that if you check, then a player behind you in position will bet. Check raising is a very powerful play and can sometimes be used to pull of a successful bluff because of that. Another important condition for being able to pull of a check raise is that you have been slow playing your hand in the earlier rounds of betting. This does not always have to be the case but a good check raise will wrap up a hand that you have slow played very nicely. In most instance check raising works out better on the turn than on the river. It is a great way to slow down an aggressive opponent. A very similar play to check raising is when you have a player to your left that always raised when you call his big blind from the small blind. In this situation you are actually calling and raising because from past experience and observation you know that if you just call from the small blind, the player in the big blind will raise. You will need a much stronger had to slow play than you would to check raise because slow playing give your opponents an opportunity to get a free card and make their hand, so you have to be pretty confident that your hand will beat whatever they make on the next community card. More than half of the time that you check raise someone, they will not call the bet allowing you to take the pot down right then and there.

Pay Attention to Position

If your hand is very strong you will be best served if the player that you expect to bet is seated to your immediate left. The reason for this is that he may get called by other players that will probably fold when you check raise and thereby maximize the size of the pot. If your hand is not quite as strong the you probably want the player that you expect to raise to be on your right so that when you check raise you will have a good chance of thinning out the field. Just like most actions in poker, check raising is not something that you want to use every time just as it is something that you do not want to never do at all. Check raising is an important weapon that you will need to have developed to have a successful poker career.