Check Raising on the River

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 08 June 2009 / Leave a Comment

River check raising is one of the most useful plays in no limit hold'em and pot limit Omaha, yet one that is under used on the whole, probably due to players being worried about hands being checked behind them when they have a monster.

What these people fail to realise though, is that even if the hand is checked behind you, the fact that your opponent sees you checking big hands to try and set up river check raises pays big dividends in the long run.

This is simply because your opponent will be very loathe to make thin value bets if they have seen you check big hands on the river. As they know that you could well be trapping them, they will often check relatively big hands behind you on the river, a point which makes the strength of their hand when they bet the river much easier to ascertain.

River check raises are also a great way to take advantage of bad loose aggressive players and habitual bluffers. As these type of players are looking for any excuse to bluff you, river checks with the intention of check raising can be perfect for setting up situations where they will think you are weak and fire at you.

Say you hit a set of eights out of position on a board like 10s8c5s. As the board is reasonably draw heavy, you fire out and are called by a bad loose aggressive player. The turn is the 2h and you bet and are called again. The river is the 5c. Here is a great situation to check and make it look like you fired two barrels, have missed with a hand like two big cards, a small pair or a draw, and have now given up.

As it is likely that the bad loose aggressive player has something pretty marginal (if anything at all), they will be looking to move you off the hand with the force of a bet, as much of their range is missed draws or weak pairs which may not stand up at show down. As a result, checking extracts extra value, as if you fired again here it is unlikely you will get called by the other player's range, yet by check raising you gain an extra big bet on the river.

As poker is simply a game where you are trying to extract the maximum amount of value from each situation as possible, sometimes you have to make moves which might make you look like an idiot (it always stings in situations like the above when your opponent checks behind a hand like top pair which they would probably have called a final river bet with) to maximise your long term expectation. Always remember that in the case of river check raising even if it goes wrong it will drastically help your future river decisions against the same opponent, and as a result it is a must have play in your tool box when up against a thinking player.

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