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Major Check-raising events

Check-raising is done in two main events:

Either to get more money into the pot when you’re holding your best hand and you check-raise for value, Or you’re check-raising as a bluff to make your opponent fold when you think your opponent has the best hand.

Check-raising also helps in balancing your checking range, meaning that by raising some of the times when you check, your opponent won’t know that you have a weak hand when you check to them.

Check-Raising for Value

As a beginner, check-raise only for value most of the times. When you have the best hand, feel comfortable inputting all your chips at risk because when you think you have the best hand you need to get as many chips into the pot as possible. Check-raising for value is another way to lure your opponent into putting more money into the pot.

By checking and sensing weakness, your opponent will be enticed to bet a wider range of hands by trying to use position to win the pot with weak holdings. Check-raising will help you to force your opponent into making a mistake by calling with the worst hand and you can induce an all-in shove from drawing hands and second-best made hands. However, we suggest that you be the first to act in case of a check-raise, making sure that your opponent is aggressive enough to bet with a wide variety of hands when checked to.

Be cautious of overplaying your hand and enticing your opponent into folding before putting all his money in the pot, since the check-raising is an extremely powerful move and can force your opponent into laying down even moderately strong hand available.

Check-Raising as a Bluff or Semi-Bluff

Check-raising is one of the most effective bluffing tactics since it is a universally known powerful tactic. You can use the check-raise to knock players off pots in spite of the cards you’re holding by taking advantage of a few common Hold’em situations

The heads-up pot is the most common situation where the check-raise can be used as a bluff when you’ve called out of position. As, even the most amateur poker players know they should be consistent-betting for most of the time when they raise preflop, you can reverse the game through a well-timed check-raise.

You can use your opponent’s knowledge of c-betting to your advantage in this situation. You can check-raise as a bluff to represent a hand you’d be likely to just flat-call with preflop, if your opponent decides to c-bet a 4♥ 5♥ 6♠ flop. So, next time you flop a flush draw, check-raise in place of check-call and give yourself another opportunity to win the pot. Check-raising as a semi-bluff is also an amazing way to add strength to your way of playing your drawing hands.

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