Check/Raising is a potentially lucrative poker strategy when applied in the right circumstances. It requires that you have a good idea about the betting tendencies of players on the table behind you in the betting and should only be used in situations when you have a very strong hand.
The concept behind the strategy is that you are in (say) mid-position with a good opening hand or top pair on the flop, and you are aware that there are a one or two players behind you who may try to steal the pot.
In this situation you simply check through your turn (or call the blinds if pre-flop) and wait for a raise from a player in late position. You then re-raise them with a substantial bet and either take the pot yourself or hold the advantage going into the later rounds of betting.
This strategy is much like slowplaying, but you are not waiting until you get to the river to execute it.
To be effective, you have to be fairly certain that you either have top hand or plenty of outs, and that the pot is worth taking. You do not want to risk a significant number of chips to win just a few – particularly if your boy in late position was not bluffing!
To make this strategy work, you need to raise by enough to take the strong players out and keep the one or two hoping to make their straights or flushes interested. A bet of twice the size of the pot may often be enough, although you do not want to be betting two thousand chips to win two hundred. As long as you have the top hand or the best selection of options, value will be on your side every time.
The downside of this strategy is that if you are holding a strong hand and the players still in the game check through to the end (i.e. nobody bets at all). Then you are allowing all your opponents to get a card for free and run the risk of somebody catching a better hand than you.
Check/Raising can be used in any round of betting. It is probably more effective immediately after the flop and does rely on you having a fairly solid idea of how the other players around the table are going to react.
You have to accept that you are going to get burnt a couple of times, but used sparingly, check/raising should win you a few pots over a period of time.
