Leading instead of check-raising

Poker Strategy / Matthew Pitt / 05 July 2011 / Leave a Comment

Leading into a preflop raiser can be an extremely profitable play to make in low stakes games, even more profitable than check-raising them. The reason the play works best in these games is the fact they are often frequented by weaker players and these players often struggle to cope with being bet into and once they have money invested in the pot they find it difficult to let go of their hand if they have any piece of the flop.

Imagine you are sat in the big blind with a pair of sevens and decide to call a raise from the cutoff and the flop comes down 2d-7c-Jd. A popular play to employ here would be to check, hope that the preflop aggressor makes a continuation bet and then check-raise this bet. However, this particular scenario lends itself perfectly to leading into the raiser, especially if the raiser is a weaker than average opponent.

The reason for this is the fact the weak player will be expecting you to check to him so that he can make a continuation bet, after all this is the unwritten rule of No Limit Texas Hold'em. By betting into the preflop raiser you not only stand a chance of completely throwing them off-guard and out of their comfort zone, you also increase your chances of getting your opponent to call or even raise with a much weaker hand than they normally would make such a play with simply because they do not want to lose the momentum of being the aggressor in the hand. Many players who have been bet into on this flop will either attempt to raise you off a weak jack such as Qs-Js or maybe a hand such as pocket nines, which is a great result when you are sat there with middle set.

This particular play also works against stronger, thinking players but against this type of player, especially one who you play against on a regular basis, you need to be able to mix up your play and lead into them without a hand as strong as a set otherwise they will never give you action when you lead into them. Although you will often lose money by bluffing into them or being forced to play a top pair type hand out of position, it will be more than made up for by the fact you will get action from your much stronger hands.

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