Internet Texas Hold'em: Poker Concepts II (pg 51-72)

[uw_madtown]

RAISING / CHECK-RAISING

- Five reasons to raise in Hold'Em
- Raising forces mediocre or drawing hands to either fold or call without odds to do so
- The nature of bad beat hands (sign of bets being earned when opponent does NOT make their hand)
- Reasons to check-raise vs. betting or check-calling
- Check-raising requires confidence that an opponent will bet behind you
- Benefits of check-raising
- Internet considerations



Reasons 1 and 2 are fairly intuitive. Raising with a hand like top pair, top kicker has both these goals in mind -- you usually have the best hand, and if there are draws, you want to force them to make a mistake odds-wise to stay in the hand. I think Hilger's 3rd reason (good pot odds to try a bluff or semi-bluff) is a concept that is less applicable to internet play, especially flop play. A raise on the flop, even heads-up, is less likely to fold a better hand.

In fact, thinking about it, I think his reasons can be boiled down to two scenarios. Reasons 1 and 2 apply to good, made hands -- you want to get money in there if you likely have the best hand without much draw, and also want to force draws to make a mistake by calling. Reasons 3-5 apply to weak hands and draws. Reasons 3 and 4 especially applies to 3-handed or heads-up flop play with, say, a four-flush. Raising with this hand, you may force someone betting overcards like AK to fold to your semi-bluff (not applicable to a multi-way pot -- SOMEONE will call 2 bets, unless you're at higher limits). Also, if the person calls your raise, you still can usually take a free river card if the turn leaves your draw unimproved.

Reason 5 applies to second pair (something like JJ on an AT3 rainbow board). If you raise on the flop, then a reraise signals aces or better. A weak ace may simply go into check-call mode, in which case you can bet the turn and maybe the river, depending on your read (will this player fold a weak ace to strong betting? would this player call a river bet with just a pair of tens?). Your read may dictate checking behind on the river is best -- the ultimate question to ask is, is a weaker hand going to call my bet? Original point being, by raising the flop instead of check-calling down, you allow yourself a cheaper way out against an ace, and may steal the pot from a weak ace (or, if not, you are only going to end up losing an extra SB from the extra aggression).

I feel as though I should refrain from discussing check-raising too much, as it is easily the weakest aspect of my game. Most important though is to make sure someone has shown aggression and will bet out if you check. For example, a pre-flop raiser. Secondly, do you want to drive people out, or trap people for bets? If you're driving people out from early position, you want this potential raiser to be in late position (on your right). If you're trapping for bets, you want this raiser to be on your left. If you imagine how a check-raise would affect flop betting with the bettor being in each of these positions, it should make sense.

I think the benefits of internet tells is usually overvalued by most beginners. However, the insta-raise can be enough of a tell to make a questionable call into a fold. But don't be folding something like JJ to an insta-three bet or AQ to a insta-two bet preflop. The amount of weight you give internet tells should be tempered quite a bit.



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