Are Your Check Raises Costing You Money Or Making You Money

It’s an interesting question isn’t it? And perhaps one that tends to
be overlooked by the majority of average poker players. It is important
for players to understand as well as accept that you can play a certain
poker strategy against players at one table and make money, while
playing the same strategy at another table it may cost you money. A
good poker player realizes this and will be able to adapt to their
surroundings and play many different styles of poker in order to pull
an acceptable return for time spent at the tables. While other average
poker players stick to the same predictable strategies and cost
themselves money in situations where they should really be making
money. Knowing your table and their tendencies is extremely important,
and in this article you will find a perfect example of a player who
failed to adapt to his surroundings, and ultimately cost himself over
$150 in a 2 hour session of playing limit texas holdem.

Let us first try to understand the difference between playing no
limit texas holdem versus playing limit texas holdem. When playing no
limit poker, you always have an opportunity to take most if not all of
your opponents chips on the river. Versus limit texas holdem, you only
have a certain amount of bets to take as many chips as possible from
your opponents. So it is imperative that you know the tendencies of the
players at the table and which strategies will work against such
players, so you can adapt when a particular strategy isn’t making you
money.

Now let us take a gander at what a check raise is. A check raise is
basically when the betting is on you and no one else in the hand has
raised the pot yet. You check it in hopes that someone else will make a
bet, and then you can raise him when the betting comes back around to
you within the same round, thus called the check raise. This is a very
good strategy and can make you a lot of money if you’re playing with a
bunch of fish. However, if your not paying close attention it may be
costing you money instead of making you money if you are playing
against a better group of players.

Let’s take a closer look at some specific examples I saw last time I
was playing a $5-$10 limit ring game. I always pay very close attention
when I play online poker. One of the things I noticed during this
particular session was a player that was continually costing himself
money by trying to check raise the other players at the table, but they
weren’t falling for it.

We have 8 players at the table, and player A who we will call John
who is first to act just calls the blind, then it comes around to
player B who we will call Brian and he raises $5 preflop. Everyone else
at the table drops out including the big blind, so we are left with 2
players. John and Brian with Brian being in position. Now I am going to
tell you what each player is holding in order to better illustrate this
concept. John is holding 3d 3c and Brian who is in position is holding
Qh Jh. Now the flop comes out 10c 5h and 3s. John has now flopped a set
and has a player that raised preflop hopefully betting into him. It is
the perfect situation for a check raise right? Well normally it would
be, but not in this situation and I will tell you why in a moment.
Let’s continue the hand. John checks his set and Brian who raised
preflop bets $5. John just smooth calls and the turn is 8d. John checks
again hoping Brian would bet so he could check raise him, but instead
Brian checks this time. Now the river comes, no help to anyone and John
bets, and he of course Brian folds.

The reason John played this hand wrong is simple, but you would not
realize it unless you were paying close attention at the table. This is
the 5th time I had seen him attempt to trap a player to no avail. The
players that were at this particular table were extremely sharp and
were very tough to trap. So over the course of about 2 hours I saw John
cost himself nearly $150 in bets by trying to trap the player instead
of betting his hand strong. Some players think they are really playing
good poker when the once in a blue moon they are able to trap a player
and get the extra $10 out of him. What they fail to understand is the
other 9 times it didn’t work and they cost themselves $90 by missing
the bet on the turn, not to mention the extra $45 they missed by not
raising on the flop. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist here to
figure out that John’s playing strategy for the check raises was
actually costing him money instead of making him money. John probably
makes money most times with this check raise strategy as a lot of us
do, but he failed to understand and accept that his strategy was not
making him money at this table, therefore he should have adapted to his
surroundings to find a strategy that would work, such as betting his
hands strong.

I am not saying you should never smooth call to set your players up
for the check raise. This is actually a very good strategy and with the
right players at the table you will make money time and time again.
However, if it is not working you should be betting your hand strong
and not missing any bets. For poker players such as myself who are in
it to make money, $150 is a lot of money for 2 hours work, and this is
what I saw John cost himself if not more over my 2 hour session. That’s
$75 an hour just in mistakes. You just have to study and know the table
and be able to accept that if a strategy is not working and making you
money, you need to switch it up to find a strategy that will.