Check-Raising the Turn

Several years ago, a play called “stack-a-donk” was very popular. This is where you raise pre-flop, bets the flop, check the turn to induce a bet, and then raise all in (usually with an overpair). It was extremely effective back then because players kept betting with their top- and mid-pair when checked to on the turn. They also couldn’t fold them to a check-raise. Once pot control became the new mantra, it became less effective because players started checking behind more often with marginal holdings.

In micro- and small-stakes games where your opponents aren’t as observant, you can have an unbalanced turn check-raise range with only the nuts and monster draws and get away with it. However, as you move up in stakes, you will realize that constructing a balanced turn check-raising range is very difficult. It makes it very difficult to two-barrel effectively if your opponents know that you have a tendency to check-raise the turn with the nuts. Even if you don’t check-raise the nuts often, your opponent may misread your frequency and call your two barrel lighter. Of course, the way you adjust is to stop betting the turn with air. However, I want to make my life easier by having a simpler overall game plan. I would bet the majority of my nut hands to balance the times I’m betting with air. For borderline situations where my hands are marginal, I can bet, check-call or check-fold, depending on my opponents.

If my opponent floats a lot, I will check-call the turn more often than folding. I will also check-call the turn with the nuts instead of check-raising, and will check-call or check-raise the river, depending on whether I still have a strong hand by the river. If my opponent has a tendency to pot-control, I will check-call the turn as well because that means his betting turn range is polarized to floats, draws, and nut hands. If I check-call and don’t improve on the river, unless I have a specific read, I will check-fold to a river bet.

Having said that, there are spots where a turn check-raise is applicable as you move up. They usually involve deep stacks.

For example:
You Continuation Bet with 9s 8s on 7h 6c 5d. The turn is a Js
You should highly consider check-raising here to get more money in so you have about a pot-sized river bet.

Opponents rarely float on such a flop. If they will call your turn bet, they will bet if checked to with the majority of made hands such as two pair, sets, straights, and sometimes overpairs. Of course, there are times when opponents will check back with hands such as 88-TT and 87, and you can get value from those hands with a river bet. Usually, if you check the turn with a strong hand and it gets checked through, you should check the river as well. Betting the river after checking the turn seems like an obvious value-bet. However, this flop hits a decent part of Your Opponent’s range, so he almost always have a hand that will call a river bet but would check behind a lot.

Posted by Joel on Aug 3 2010. Filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry