Checking / betting blind

When a player checks or bets in the dark before the next street comes out, what do you suppose this means (in general)?

[4_2_it]

What is the situation? Is checker in the BB and called a raise from the button? Is this a tournament hand with three seeing the flop (1 player all in)? It could be the donk saw Hellmuth do it last night on the WSOP telecast. It could mean a number of different things based on the situation.

Ring game situation. The checking in the dark generally occurs when there was a raiser in late position on any street, and the betting in the dark generally occurs when the bettor bet/raised a previous street.

[Kyriefurro]

This is read dependent, of course. But in general, I think that the check means his hand is so bad, no card will improve it, and a raise means his hand is so strong, no card will hurt it.

Assuming that villain is not drunk, stoned, or just plain stupid.

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This is read dependent, of course. But in general, I think that the check means his hand is so bad, no card will improve it, and a raise means his hand is so strong, no card will hurt it.

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I think this is a good general analysis (of course combined with how likely the player is to deliberately make these kinds of moves to give off a certain impression). I think the bet in the dark is more often a sign of strength than not. It's the check in the dark that I think has certain strategic implications.

If the player was going check any card anyway, then checking in the dark avoids giving off a reaction to the card that came down, and defers her decision until after the raiser has acted (kind of an attempt to gain position on the raiser: "Okay, you act first on the next round."). Chances are this player has a good but not great hand (combined with the action of bet/calling the previous street) and you should continue betting in most cases.

[beekeeper]

I've always thought of this strategy, especially when checking in the dark, as a way of stealing position when you're in poor position because essentially you are forcing your opponents to reveal how the flop affected their hand first.

I have always assumed that someone checks in the dark with a medium strength hand, not a weak hand, especially drawing hands. The reason I've assumed this is because, especially with a drawing hand, the texture of the flop greatly affects the strength of the hand, and the disadvantage of acting first is perhaps greater than normal.

I've never played in a game where someone bet in the dark, except to go all when he is shortstacked, but it seems to me that this is similar to a blocking bet or a preemptive defense of a made hand, medium to strong, that is vulnerable.

Am I off target?