To check raise on the River you need to be in early position and the player behind you must bet when you check to him. Unless you are in a no limit game and your check raise on the River is extremely large, it is very likely that your check raise on the River will either be called or re-raised. Because of this you should rarely consider using a check raise on the River as a bluff. As you can see, I did not say always because based upon all of your observations there may be situations where you believe that check raising on the River will win you the pot. No matter what decision that you make on the River, it needs to be based, in large part, upon the previous betting action and the knowledge that you have gained in previous hands of the other players that are in the pot.

Advantages of check raising on the River

If you have either been slow playing a monster hand or you made a monster hand on the River card and you have a player behind you in the hand that has been aggressively betting the whole hand, then a check raise on the River can earn you a much bigger pot.

Disadvantages of check raising on the River

Probably the biggest disadvantages of check raising on the river are that the player behind you just checks to your check and you miss an extra bet and that your check raise on the River is followed by a re-raise or 3 bet and you are put in a decision position. You may find yourself in a position where it does not even make sense to call the 3 bet and had you just called the initial bet instead of check raising it, then you would be showing down cards right now.

Good times to check raise on the River

The factors that make for a good situation to check raise on the River are when you have a really good and well concealed hand and you are playing against a very aggressive player. If you are trying to buy the pot the best time for you to check raise on the River is when it brought a very scary card, one that could have made you a really good hand. For it to be a good hand to check raise on the River with a bluff, you must feel that you have developed a pretty conservative table image.

Bad situations to check raise on the River

Bad situations to check raise on the River are when the player that has been betting behind you is a player that you normally know to be a very conservative one. In this situation you better have the nuts to check raise on the River. Another bad situation to check raise on the River is when your hand is not strong enough to call or re-raise a potential 3 bet.

For you to be check raising on the Turn or any other street, you need to be in early position. The most likely scenario for this is when you are raised by another player when you are in the small or big blind. To consider check raising on the Turn you need to consider the betting action that occurred pre flop and post flop. To be a successful, skilled and winning poker player, you need to be able to build up a store house of knowledge about the other players that you are playing with and be able to integrate this information into the betting action that has taken place on the previous streets.

Check Raising the Turn for Pot Control

If you allow an aggressive player in late position to bet into you pre flop, post flop and on the Turn, then you are letting him completely control the betting action. If this player is playing his position instead of his hand then with a check raise on the Turn you can switch control of the betting action to yourself.

Check Raising the Turn on a draw or with nothing

One of the many things that you need to consider here is how the other player has been running. If you are up against a player that has been getting a lot of his hands cracked recently and the Turn brought a “Scare” card, a card that could have made you a flush, straight, or another better hand, then by check raising him on the Turn he may be thinking that it just happened to him again. In this situation, of course, this is exactly what you want him to think, that someone drew out on him yet again. Hopefully with your check raise on the Turn the other player will just throw his hand away in disgust thinking that yet again his excellent starting hand that he played perfectly was cracked by another stupid donkey that drew out on him. The game of successful poker is not about looking good, it is about winning. So if, by him thinking that you are another idiot that drew out on him again, you win the pot with a check raise on the Turn, then that is absolutely great.

Check Raising the Turn to take down the pot

The majority of times when a player check raises on any street, they have a powerful hand. Because of this check raising on the turn is a powerful move that makes you represent a very powerful hand. Unless you have the absolute nuts then it is always better to take down the pot right then and there, so check raising on the Turn is a very viable option. By doing this all of the time it will make it be very costly and ineffective proposition so you must use this technique judiciously.

Check Raising the Turn in preparation for the River

When you check raise on the turn there are 3 possible outcomes. The other player can fold in which case you take down the pot right then, the other player can raise you back, or the other player can call. If the other player raises you back you then have the choice of calling, folding, or re-raising, and this will depend on how aggressive the other player has proven himself to be and the hand that you hold. If you believe that you can not win this pot in a show down then, at this point, you should probably just fold and save some chips. If you have a really good hand and/or a hand that can improve on the River, then you may want to just call to see what the River brings with the intention of check calling on the River if you do not improve. The third scenario is that you either believe that you have a better hand than the other player or that he is the type of aggressive player that would 3 bet because of his position. You can call and see what develops on the River or you can 4 bet. If the other player 5 bets then you have a pretty good idea of where you stand in the hand.

In order to check raise on the flop you need to be in early position and a player in later position must have put in some action pre flop. A good example of this is when you are raised in the small or big blind by a player in late position. You know that many players will almost always raise in late position if there has not been any raise in front of them. So even if you are holding a premium hand, you just call the flop and conceal the strength of your hand. After the flop, being in early position, you check to the raiser and he bets. Now is a good time to check raise if you have a good hand or if you think you have just seen a continuation bet following a position raise. Doing this can switch control of the future play of the hand to you. If you are just called then on the next street you need to either follow up with a bet or set up another check raise.

Advantages of check raising the flop

The main advantage of check raising the flop is that this is a very strong move and may just take the pot down for you right there or with your next bet on the Turn.

Disadvantages of check raising the flop

If the player that you just check raised on the flop is holding a strong hand then you may get re-raised. This might even happen if the other player does not have a strong hand as long as he is an aggressive player. When this happens you are put in the position to decide if you are going to call the 3 bet, make it a 4 bet, or just throw you hand away. To make this decision you will need to consider your own hand and the remaining cards to come, your previous experience with the other player and the possible range of hands that you put him on, and the texture of the board.

Check raising with a good hand

When you check raise with a good hand you are doing this to build the pot. You have to make the decision whether check raising on the flop is better than check raising on the following street. If you believe that the other player is just being aggressive and betting his position rather than the quality of his hand then you might want to just call and put off the check raise until the next street. This would give you the opportunity to gain an extra bet or two. Also if this is a no limit game then the Turn bet is usually much larger than the Flop bet.

Check raising without a good hand or on a draw

As stated earlier in this article, check raising is a very strong move. Check raising on the flop is a very good way to buy a hand against an aggressive player that made a position raise and a continuation bet. You need to use your previous experience with this other player to help you determine if he is more likely playing his position or playing his hand. The texture of the Flop should also be a consideration because if the Flop is all small cards without straight of flush possibilities then the other player probably did not improver his hand and since you only called from the small or big blind pre flop, you could be representing that you have two pair or a set of small cards.

This is it, the final street and the final stage of the hand. If the pot comes down to a showdown then the best hand will win. That is not always the case however, because this is also a betting round and part of what makes poker such a game of skill. At this point you no longer need to be calculating outs because there are no more cards to come. The factors that you need to consider that should influence your course of action on the River are the best hand that you can make, the size of the pot, the other players still in the hand and their possible range of holdings, and the action that has taken place on the previous streets.

What do the other players in the hand have?

You have to use your knowledge of the other players in the hand that you gathered from previous hands that you played with them or watched them play. You also need to consider their betting actions during this hand on previous streets so that you can determine a possible range of hands that they could now be holding. The better you are at this skill, the more success that you will have in the game of poker. Remember that other players in the hand will be trying to figure the same thing out about you so you need to also consider what your own table image is and how your betting actions on the previous streets of this hand look to the other players so that you can determine what possible range of hands that you think that they are putting you on.

Should you call?

To answer this question you have to ask yourself a few questions. What do you think the chances are that your hand will win in a show down. Balance this with the amount of money in the pot to determine if it makes sense to call. How did the river card change things? If you have been betting through previous streets with top pair and the river brought a third or fourth of a suit, or a straight possibility, then your hand may no longer be any good. Remember that at the end of a poker session, your winning or losing is not just based upon how much money was in the pots that you raked in, it is also based upon how much money that you put in to pots that you did not take down.

Should you bet or raise?

This depends on how the action has transpired so far in the hand, the cards that you hold, what you believe that the other players in the hand have, and your position at the table. If you are in late position and it is checked to you then you need to decide if you want to bet for value, bet to take down the pot, or check to see if you can win in a show down.

Should you try to bluff?

Bluffing at this stage of the hand is possible but only if the other players in the hand missed a draw or the bet that you make is big enough to make it not worth their while to make the call. The more money that there is in the pot, the more likely that a player with a marginal hand will call. They will figure that if the pot is 4 times the amount of the call then they would only need to win with this call 1 out of every 4 times to break even. If you are playing in a lower stakes limit hold em game then you should just forget about trying to bluff at this point at all. In that kind of a game someone will call you, you can count on it.

The Turn brings the fourth community card and there is one more to come on the River. With the two cards in your hand, you have six cards from which to make a five card hand and one more to come on the remaining street. At this point you are most likely going to be reevaluating the strategy that you had on the flop. You should have had a pre flop and a post flop strategy, by this point, and those strategies need to be considered at this point. Your valuation is going to be based upon the two cards in your hand, the four cards on the board, the pre flop action, the post flop action, your position, the other players in the pot and your estimation of the possible range of hands that they have, and the action by the time it gets to you after the Turn. Poker is a thinking man’s game and you should have already been considering various possible scenarios after the flop that will affect your strategy on the Turn.

Still Drawing

If you are still on a draw the first thing that you need to do is to figure out how many outs that you have. Once you have figured out how many possible cards could make you a hand then you need to divide the number of outs by 46. In case you are wondering where that number came from, it is the 52 cards in the deck, less the 4 on the board and the two in your hand that you know about. The only exception to using the number 46 after the Turn is if cards were inadvertently exposed earlier in the hand. So if a player threw his hand away after the flop and his hole cards were exposed there would be two more cards that you knew about. If either of those cards were one of your outs then you need to remove them from the outs that you have calculated that you have and then you would reduce the number 46 to 44, because there are 2 more cards that you know the disposition of in this hand., If you have two hearts in your hand and there are two on the board, and no cards have been exposed, you have 9 outs (13 hearts in the deck less the 2 in your hand and the 2 on the board). 46 unknown remaining cards divided by 8 outs equals 5.11. Add 1 to this number and you have a 6.11 to 1 chance of hitting your hand of the River. Consider these odds against the amount of money in the pot and the additional bets that you believe that you would win if you hit your hand on the next street. There needs to be either a great enough reward to compensate for however many chips that you are going to have to put in to the pot in order to see the final community card. Even if you are still on a draw at this point, you need to consider if the actions so far has indicated that the other players in the hand are still drawing to their hands or have weak holdings, then in a limited amount of cases you should try to bet out and see if you can take the pot down right now.

Drawing dead

If you are drawing to the middle or bottom pair, the bottom straight, or less than the nut flush, you need to seriously consider the possibility that if you make your hand it will be second best. If this is a real possibility then you either need to make a play for the pot right here and now, take a free card if possible, or throw your hand away and live to fight another day.

Already there and want maximum value

If you are holding the nuts (best possible hand) after the turn, you need to figure out the best possible way to get maximum value from you hand. Keep in mind that what are the nuts on one street can be second best on the next and if this is a possibility, then you want to make certain that anyone drawing to beat you has to pay dearly for the privilege. If you slow played your hand pre flop and post flop and a player behind you has been forcing the action and you have been calling, then you may want to go for the check raise on the Turn. If you are in the lead position and have check raised the turn then you can come out betting on the final street.

Making a move

The Turn is a very good street to make a move and try to bluff the other players out of the pot. As with any other facet of poker, you need to time this properly and not overdo it. If you bluff too much you will get called too often and will lose money. If you never bluff then you will lose money because you will get a whole lot less action so this needs to be closely watched and kept at an optimal balance.

The strategy that you employ on the flop is predicated upon a number of different factors. There is not one particular way to play the flop. Even if all things are the same, same position same hand, same number of players in the hand, same amount of money in the pot, same limit and type of game, and same flop cards, you will still want to have more than one way that you would play the hand after the flop. You never want to become too predictable or other players will pick up on the way that you play and it will cost you money. The important thing is that you have a strategy going in to the hand and that it is a strategy that you are able to modify based upon the action at the table during the hand.

Flopping a Draw

It is usually a good idea to represent a made hand, after the flop, when you are on a good draw. By playing the hand strong you represent that you have a hand and may be able to pick up the pot right then and there. If you are in early position it makes sense to lead out with a bet as if you had a made hand. This will, often times, let you take the pot down right then and there. If you have an aggressive player behind you then making a check raise is a very strong move that will give you some other options on later streets, including the possibility of giving you a free card on the turn. If you are in later position with a draw and the pot is checked to you a bet is almost always indicated. If a player gets in to you after the flop and you know that he is a very conservative player then you may want to just call, as long as you have a decent draw and the implied odds make sense.

Flopping a Monster

When you flop a Monster hand you need to consider how you can get maximum value for it. Slow playing a hand like this is what many players will do and it is a viable option. However a skilled player will not take long to realize that you come out betting with a drawing hand and slow play a made hand and this will , not only cause you to lose action, it will cause you to lose pots. You have to mix this up and handle same situations differently.

Flopping a mid range hand

When you flop a mid range hand you need to be able to draw on your experience with the other players in the pot and be able to put them on a hand. You need to be able to let go of this hand if you feel that you are beaten and the implied pot odds do not justify you taking a shot at drawing out on someone.

Missing the Flop entirely

If you called from the big blind and the flop is a bunch of small cards, it is easy to represent a hand like two pair. If you raised in late position pre flop then this same flop may not convince anyone else that you have hit it at all because they will be thinking that you were drawi8ng to AK or something like that.

Be sure to also read the Basic River Strategy and the Basic Turn Strategy.