What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker

1. What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Lingo
2. What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Terms
3. What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Room
4. What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Table

Checking is what one does if they wish to pass the action to the next player, but keep their cards. Checking gives one the option to raise, call, fold or even check again later on in the betting. Fold - give up your hand and loose all money you've already placed in the pot but with the intent of not loosing any more money. Check - place no bet, only an available option when no one has bet.

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While playing $20-$40 limit hold’em, you pick up the Q Q in middle position. You open-raise, the button three-bets, and you go to the flop heads up. The flop comes 10 7 3. You check, and, as expected, the button bets.

You figure that he has a pretty wide range here, including several pocket pairs, A-K, A-Q, and perhaps some occasional whimsical adventures. You decide to check-raise, for several reasons:

• You are way ahead of most of his range.

• You are out of position, which normally means that you have to take some chances to gain full value from your hand. If you just call here and check the turn, he will often just take a free card, and you will fail to profit when you are ahead. You want him to pay to draw out.

• Of course, you also may be behind, in which case you will most likely be three-bet, or raised on the turn. At that point, if it happens, you will have to assess your opponent and make a decision about whether to continue.

He calls your check-raise, and the turn is the 3. This seems to be as good a turn card as you could hope for, and you bet. He calls.

You probably are thinking, “No ace, no king, no ace, no king,” when the dealer burns and turns the A. Now what? If your opponent has a dreaded ace, you are going to lose. Your first thought is probably to check and call. But what if, instead of an ace, he has pocket jacks or even a loose hand like K-10 suited? He will probably check it back, and you will lose the chance to gain a bet from a crying call. You want to win those bets when they are available.

If you bet, however, he might raise. Then, you could lose two bets if you call, and kick yourself for not checking. Or, you could fold, in which case you lose if he was making a bluff-raise.

The right answer depends (surprise!) on how you assess your opponent. Against most opponents, who are reasonable, straightforward to bet, and if raised, fold. Very few opponents are capable of making a bluff-raise here. You already have shown considerable strength, the pot is fairly large, and he should be expecting a call. Plus, you bet fearlessly, which has to alarm him. After all, unless he has one, the ace should scare him as much as it does you.

However, some opponents are highly creative, and may be capable of making just such a bluff. Luckily, they are also the ones who will probably put in a bluff-bet if you check, hoping to convince you to fold. Against one of them, check and call. In the long run, you probably will pick off enough bluffs to offset the bets that you may lose by not betting when you have the best hand.

This choice — bet and fold to a raise, or check and call — comes up often when you are heads up and out of position on the river. You have a good hand, but the river card may have beaten you. You don’t want to give up the calls when you are ahead, but also don’t want to lose two bets when you got unlucky. Against average opponents, bet and fold to a raise. Against tough, tricky opponents, check and call.

Think through these two choices before you act. Avoid the other two: betting and calling the raise, or checking and folding. Remember, by checking, you are often inviting even some usually honest players to attempt a bit of larceny, or to somehow think their second-best hand is good, so you have to make that river call.

Another example: Later in the same game, you happily see red aces in early position before the flop. After one fold, you open-raise, and get four callers: a middle-position player, the button, and both blinds. The flop is 9 7 4. So far, so good. The blinds check, you bet, the middle-position player calls, and the button raises. Both blinds fold, you three-bet, and the other two players call.

The turn is the J. This makes a straight if either opponent started with 10-8, but you can’t worry about that. You bet, the middle position player folds, and the button calls.

The river is the disappointing 2. Was the button raising for a free card on the flop with a flush draw, or does he have a hand like 10-9 or even J-10, which flopped a gutshot with two overcards? If he has the flush and you bet, you will probably get raised. And, of course, you have pocket aces, and it is tough to lay them down. At least if you call, you can show them, and everyone can see how unlucky you were. Despite this pity factor, you should, of course, quietly fold to the raise.

All of this should not affect your primary choices. Against most players, bet, hoping to pick up a call from a smaller pair. Against tough, tricky players, check and call, hoping to pick off a bluff. Don’t forget that you would have made the same series of plays with the A K, so the flush card on the river can look as scary to your opponent as it does to you.

But what if you don’t know the players? First, you should always have some idea of how everyone plays, even if you just watched one round before posting to play. But worst case, it is always safe to check and call, even though you may have lost a bet if it goes check, check. I hope that this is an unusual default position, because betting is far more profitable against most players.

Conclusion: Bluff-raises on the river are very rare at almost every level of play, but calling river raises is quite common. After all, the pot usually is large, it costs only one bet to call, and limit poker doesn’t reward heroic river lay-downs. Nevertheless, you ought to be able to assess your opposition well enough to understand who is capable of making huge, expensive, and generally unsuccessful bluff-raises, and who is not. Play accordingly, and you will collect all the bets you are entitled to, while not losing extra ones.

Barry Tanenbaum is the author of Advanced Limit Hold’em Strategy, and collaborator on Limit Hold’em: Winning Short-Handed Strategies. Barry offers private lessons tailored to the individual student. Please see his website, www.barrytanenbaum.com, or write to him at pokerbear@cox.net.

Table Of Contents

What to Do When a Player Bets the Flop and Checks the Turn?

Many players routinely bet the flop with a good hand. Then, when the turn comes, they check. All the time.

They choose to call because they don't want to be raised by someone on the turn or river (when the bets are doubled).

I find this habit is prevalent in lower limit games. If you play mid-limit games, this flaw is not nearly as common.

In any case, it is worth considering, as some mid-limit and high-limit tables attract more than a few players who keep this behaviour in their game plan.

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Make Observations

As a PokerNews reader, I'm sure you know that looking at how your opponents play is of the best poker tips to follow if you intend to go far.

In the following scenario, you are playing no-limit hold'em with a few regulars and a new face (we'll call him Player 'X').

You don't know much about Player 'X' — so you need to keep your eyes open and try to take mental notes on his style of play.

As the game develops, this hand happens:

What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Lingo

• Player 'X' has and the flop is .
• Player 'X' bets the flop and two other players call.
• On the turn, a appears on the board.
• Player 'X' checks.
• As soon as one of the other players decides to bet, Player 'X' calls.
• On the river, Player 'X' checks and calls again.
• At the showdown, Player 'X' shows .

Taking things out of context, Player 'X' would appear to be a 'weak' or 'weak-tight' player.

What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Terms

But — is this the correct assumption to make?

What if this was a recurring behaviour? What if more observation would help you recognise a pattern and give you precious insights on your opponent's hands and style of play?

To discover if this an isolated episode, lock on to Player 'X' and watch how he plays the same situation in future hands.

If this behavioural pattern continues, it's time to implement the right poker strategy to exploit his weakness and use all this knowledge to your advantage.

SEE ALSO: I Played a Tournament Without Looking at the Cards. And This Happened

Why Does He Do That?

Keep in mind the motivation for this behaviour.

If he is weak and 'tight'ish', he is not betting the flop and checking the turn simply because he's given up on a bluff or thinks he has been outdrawn on the turn.

He is afraid of being raised on the turn or river when the bets are doubled.

As such, he checks with the intention of calling all the way to the showdown. It's usually that simple.

How to play Against This Sort of Opponent?

Whenever you find yourself at the table with a Player 'X', you should use your observations and findings to implement two important changes into your game plan.

First, you can call with more marginal hands preflop. In fact, you can do that on the flop as well when you are in a late position and he is sitting within two or three seats of your right.

READ ALSO: How to Play Marginal Hands in Poker

Let's look at an example.

What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Room

If you have 6-7 off-suit in a late position, you should probably not play this hand unless a big multi-way pot is brewing.

However, if it is a medium-size pot and your Player 'X' calls preflop, you may want to call.

If you hit any sort of draw on the flop, there is a good chance that this opponent will give you a free card on the turn.

This is why you can play more drawing hands against this sort of opponent, even if your draw is not stunning.

Need another example?

Let's say that there are five callers (including yourself and this opponent) before the flop and you have 6-7 off-suit.

The flop is K-8-4 and it's checked to this opponent. He bets.

As a result, you must call one small bet to win the six small bets in the pot.

Additionally, one or two other opponents may call behind you on the flop. But let's say you are only getting pot odds of 6-1 on the flop.

Should you call?

The chances of hitting a 5 on the turn or river are approximately 5-1.

However, if you fail to hit the five on the turn, you will probably have to fold, even if you called the flop.

Your odds of hitting a 5 on the river are 10-1 against and you probably won't be getting those sorts of pot odds on the turn.

SEE ALSO: WPT GTO Trainer Hand Review: Three-Betting From the Big Blind

So in reality, you are only calling on the flop to see if you can spike a 5 on the turn, since you won't continue to the river if you miss.

Therefore, the only odds of significance are the odds against hitting a 5 on the turn only.

Since you are approximately 10-1 against hitting a 5 on the turn card, you are not really getting the correct price to call on the flop.

However, if you know that your opponent will bet the flop, then check the turn and give you a free card, you should call the flop by all means.

The odds of hitting a 5 on either the turn or river are approximately 5-1 and since you will be getting a look at both cards for the price of a call on the flop, you can take those 5-1 odds because you are getting 6-1 from the pot, not to mention the large implied odds on offer and the possibility that some other early position opponents will call the flop behind you thereby increasing your pot odds.

This approach comes with three caveats based on the same reasoning.

• If this particular opponent bets again on the turn, you must fold. If it seems that this opponent is unreliable, or becomes unreliable, at automatically 'betting the flop then checking the turn' you must abandon this strategy.
• If another player at the table picks up on this opponent's behavioural pattern as you have and starts messing up your plan by putting in fancy check-raises on the flop and betting our of position on the turn, stay away. Wait for the right time. This fancy player may soften up this opponent further, resulting in more free cards in subsequent pots.
• If this opponent is in an early position, this strategy won't be as effective. If he bets the flop and checks the turn, middle and late position players between you and him are probably going to bet the turn more often which disrupts your free card strategy.

Aside from the free card aspect of this sort of opponent, you should also never try to bluff or semi-bluff him on the turn.

SEE ALSO: How to Play Pocket Aces in Poker

In my opinion and experience, I have won much more money from players giving me free cards (when they shouldn't) than I have won by semi-bluffing.

This comes back to the motivation for his behaviour: he has a good hand but checks the turn to avoid being raised when the bets are doubled.

Therefore, he intends to call to the showdown and probably has a good enough hand to do so. Don't bluff a caller.

When to Use This Approach

Finally, you should use this bet the flop and check the turn strategy yourself when you are heads-up against a maniac with a reasonably good hand.

Let's say you have A-Q. The maniac raises, you call and it's heads up.

The flop is A-8-6. If you bet here (which I think you should), he will probably raise. In this case, you should simply check and call the turn and river.

This way you avoid losing big bets when you are genuinely behind and avoid being moved off the winning hand.

What Does Check Bet And Fold Mean In Poker Table

_{This article was originally published by Matthew Rochman in July 2005. Last update: February 2020.}