Re: Anyone else do this?
[ QUOTE ]
Very few online low limit players will give you a free card because they're afraid of you check-raising them. They may give you one out of being just passive but most of your opponents won't be thinking that hard.
[/ QUOTE ]
You may just not be doing it enough. Many low limit players are oblivious to nearly everything but their own cards, but if you check-raise them a couple of times, they remember it for the rest of the session. This can lead to numerous advantages for you in both early and late position since not only will your opponents fear to bet their marginal hands, giving you a better chance to draw out on them when you miss, but they'll bluff much less frequently than is correct and fail to extract full value for their winners. You definitely want a strong image in limit hold 'em and frequent check-raising of your strong early position hands helps build that image.
Blind defense / stealing can work the same way. After one or two strong blind defenses and/or steals, I will frequently see the CO or button player pause for a moment as if preparing to raise and then fold their hand instead to my big blind. Maybe this means nothing, but I get the impression they hold a hand they are thinking about limping or raising with and then decide it's just not worth it against me. Since I'm holding random cards out of position, this is a very good thing for me on average.
|