Stop Checkraising and THINK!

[Firefly]

I'm going to expand on Jasson Strasser's post (found here)

In my humble opinion, the check raise is the single most missused post-flop tool in MTT's. This is probally because most tourney players lack cash game experience that would quickly teach them otherwise but i digress.
To even the most dimwitted oponent, the check raise usually indicates a large degree of strength. However, people do it with the wrong hands in the wrong situations. I'm going to provide an example of an awful check raise:

Blinds 600/1200 Pokerstars Tourney. CO is a loose, and not a good player, he has about 40k. BB is completely normal, does not stand out in any way, he has about 35k.
Anyhow, CO open limps with two cards because he's loose and he sucks. It folds to the BB with 79o who checks.
The flop comes K 9 7 rainbow.
BB checks and CO fires about 1500 at the pot. BB then reraises to 6k. This is an awful check raise.
Consider CO's hand range, it will certainly be a very wide range, but after you check raise, what is he calling with? A king probally, but it's not entirely likely that he has one. A set, etc..will obviously call but such is life there. The correct play is obviously to call. BB has a monster hand (while two pair is not in itself a monster hand against this opponent in THIS situation it might as well be the nuts) and he needs CO to catch up (or even fire a second barrel) to get the most out of his two pair. The way BB played it, he let CO get away from his hand far too easily. BB won a meager pot when he could have won much more by calling.
Okay, then what is a good check raise then, one may ask? Check raising is good when you can pot commit an opponent to a hand that you have beat. This works well against people who cannot lay down TPTK when you have a set (though this is dangerous against people who can lay down TPTK). Another time to checkraise is when you want to blow people of hands with sometimes vulnerable hands.
Example
Pokerstars 100/200 (11 Rebuy)
Overagressive bigstack raises to 600 in MP3. (40k)
Decent player calls on the Button. (15k)
SB who is a tad of a calling station also calls (8k)
I call in the BB with 99.(12k)
Flop comes Qc Jc 9c (POT: 2400)
Check, Check, Bigstack bets 1800 (he will do this with wiiiide variety of hands) Button calls, SB Calls, I checkraise to all in.
The checkraise is good here because I want to blow people off their hands, i don't know what to do on a K,T,8 or club
turn, but my hand is so strong that i must raise. I'm also hoping that either the Big Stack or callingwill call with Ac Qx or Ac Th or something along those lines. Betting out is an option, but that will freeze the other players and the pot size remains small that i will have a tough decision on a scary turn. The Checkraise allows me to get money in the pot that i blow out with a strong raise.
So in short, the checkraise in this situation protects my hand the best (because of the big stack's agressiveness) and allows me to get the best value (because others can call the 1800 with a wide variety of hands, but they can't call my 10k reraise.)

To conclude: The checkraise is a very powerful tool, but it is one that is often misused. Ofter calling or even betting out can win the most money with strong hands. Also alot of players don't call enough- let people with worse hands bet into you. So before you get your poker ego going to check raise- THINK is there a better line to get more chips out of this?

Comments apreciated
Firefly

[rockythecat99]

Excellent post firefly. Very well thought out.

[Sam T.]

Some kind moderator should sticky this post in the original. Excellent.

[Firefly]

[img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] High praise indeed [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
This is what happens when Eurobet takes 48 hours to withdraw my money and i have no bankroll to play with..

[yabastid]

Firefly,

Thank you. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and it has really improved my game. Besides Jason's post, Irie guy had a great post in the STT forum on "betting impetus". I have become more "passive" with certain holdings versus certain opponents, allowing them to take the lead in a hand and trusting my reads. I also understand that the checkraise is much more valuable to protect my hand as in the example you gave rather than moving my opponent off his hand when he is behind. Funny, it's a simple concept but took me awhile to grasp.