Poker Lesson 32: Check-Raise

Good players base their strategy on their starting hands. They are careful only to play the hole cards which stand a reasonable chance of winning. Because many players only put into play starting hands that have some power, it is a fair assumption that these players often have the best hand at the flop as well.

Not everyone is a good player though, and there will always be a percentage of players who stay in the hand hoping to get lucky by the time the river card comes about. What you want to do is make players who are hanging around and praying for a miracle draw to pay a lot of money for this style of play.

A good amount of time they will do the betting for you and you can just come along for the ride but you should still always attempt a check-raise if you feel it is very likely you have the best hand.

Why should you check-raise? Very simple, you don't want them to hang around until the last card is dealt. Luck is a strange thing and it sometimes favors the clueless. There will be that percentage of time when your good play is beaten by dumb luck.

Some players take the position that they are comfortable with their cards and take a "wait and see" position. This is the wrong thing to do because with a large number of people in the pot there are reasonable pot odds to make all sorts of wild draws against you. By check-raising you change the pot odds and take them from reasonable to bad. This is especially true if you are in very early position and someone in late position makes the first bet since you can force several people to call double bets.

Players who are working with a gutshot straight draw, or other such hand, are making a mathematical mistake by calling double bets after you. If they hang around at this high price, they may get lucky every now and then, but in the long run all they will do is lose money.