Check Raise, the Biggest
Indicator of Strength
This article is aimed at the use of a check
raise vs. a tight player. The check raise is
indeed the biggest indicator of strength, so you
don’t want to give away your hand’s strength to
tight players who will inevitably pick up on
this. You should use a check raise sparingly,
but if done correctly you can make the check
raise quite effective against tight players. You
will see that tight players are extremely easy
to put on a tight range, and once you are able
to do that check raising becomes much easier.
They may be tight, but tight players often hate
to let go of their hands. They become attached
to this tight range. This is not always the rule
of course as some players will play extremely
tight and then fold at the slightest signs of
aggression.
The flop, the ideal time to get tight players
all in with a check raise
The best time to get a tight player all in
is, without a doubt, on the flop. The reasoning
Is simple. The further into a hand the less
hands they are willing to stack off with. Tight
players by nature fear that they are beat, this
is where their weakness comes in.
When the flop,
turn, and river are dealt they only fear even
more because it is increasingly possible that
their opponent has overtaken their hand. Because
of this you want to play tight players
cautiously pre-flop, as their range is so tight,
and then get them all in on the flop, because
they are more apprehensive on later streets.
If
you have a pair of 8s and the tight player has
AA, they will raise pre-flop, you will call and
then the hand will play out one of two ways.
Either you will flop a set and stack them or you
will miss the flop and give up. There is not a
whole lot of in between vs. a tight player. You
either get lucky and exploit his tight range or
you miss and must fold due to how tight his
range is.
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How this example would play out
You are dealt 88 on the button. The tight
player opens from EP or MP.
You call his 3x BB raise of $3, at .50/1.
The flop comes 8xx. The two x’s representing
any random cards in the deck because they are
irrelevant.
He will either bet out or check to you. If he
bets out you raise. If he checks you bet.
This does not lead to a check raise by you,
but instead your opponent check raising.
He will raise your bet and then you can
comfortably get all in on the flop.
Lets take this example one street further.
Say he checks the flop and you check back.
He bets the turn (because he has a strong
hand and now wants to get value out of it). You
raise and he either calls, folds or re-raises.
It is most likely that he will call your raise,
and less likely that he will fold or re-raise,
thought he will sometimes elect to fold or
re-raise.
So he calls your raise. The river comes and
he checks, you of course bet again with your set
and get called. Your hand is good and you win
the pot, but had you bet the flop you could have
gotten much more of the player’s stack, if not
all of it.
It all comes down to how much you can
possibly win on the flop against a tight player
vs. how much you would get on a later street.
There are exceptions to every rule, but
generally the flop is the best time to exploit a
tight player who can’t let go of his small range
of hands.
Check raising the turn and river
While you will find players who can’t let go
of their hands on later streets or the flop, it
is better to force the aggression on the flop.
The less cards you give your opponents to worry
about when you have a strong hand the greater
chance they will stack off with a weaker hand.
