The check raise is a valuable weapon when trying to extract the most money possible from players. Generally speaking a check raise is most effective when you are holding a very strong hand against a loose opponent. The check raise will allow the other player to make a bet of his own, and then force him to a decision for an even larger bet when you raise him. Since the player is loose he will be prone to calling you off lightly. It is easy to see why the check raise works so well against loose players, but what about tight players? Tight players by nature are scared money. They are very afraid to put much money in the pot if they are holding anything less than the nuts. Because of their tight play you will be able to exploit them every single time that they don’t have the nuts. This may be a bit of an exaggeration; they don’t need the absolute nuts, but any time that they don’t have an extremely strong hand. Think about the ratio to which you get mediocre hands vs. the times you get very strong hands. Tight players are no different; they will encounter their fare share of mediocre hands too. The difference between tight and loose players with mediocre hands is that the loose players hate to fold them while the tight players can’t dump them quick enough. The check raise is a great way to push a tight player to a fold. To cover all of the bases we have a strategy article on check raising loose players, be sure to check it out.
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Texas Hold'em Articles:
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Pre flop check raise against tight players
Pre flop check raising is never a good idea. I shouldn’t say never, but 99.99% of the time. Tight players will realize that you have an extremely strong hand and will dump theirs. If they decide to come along it is likely that they themselves have a very good hand. Neither of these situations play to our advantage. Either you will be folding out worse hands or getting calls from better hands. Throw the pre flop check raise out the window.
Flop and turn check raise against tight players
The flop and turn are the ideal spots to check raise a tight player. This is the time where they are most likely to lay down their hand, and in effect give you the pot. It is not a requirement that you yourself have a good hand, just that the other player has one weak enough that they will fold. The ability to pick good spots is vital to the success of any flop or turn check raise. Make your play believable and know that the other player is indeed capable of folding their hand.
River check raise against tight players
The river is the most difficult time to pull off a check raise against a tight player, especially of you are trying to get them off of their hand. It may seem odd that the river is the toughest time to force a fold, but once tight players call your flop and turn bets it is unlikely that they will decide to give up once they have gotten to the end of the hand. The few circumstances under which a river check raise would work include times where they have missed a draw or the high card on the board has been counterfeited.