In this lesson, we’ll focus on finding the best check-raising flop spots. To start with, you should make it a point to check-raise with a polarized range, putting yourself in a situation to play big pots with big hands.
Of course, to balance things out and make it harder on your opponents, you need to have some draws in the mix as well. What draws are good enough to include will depend primarily on the stack depth, ranging from the strongest ones to the ones that are as weak as an over-card and a backdoor flush draw.
All examples in this article will cover specifically 40 big blind scenarios, featuring big blind vs. button dynamics to keep things as uniform as possible. That said, many of the concepts will still apply at higher stack depths as well.
Before we dive into specific examples, here are a couple of general pointers as to what constitutes a good check-raising opportunity:
- When the flop is great for your range and bad for your opponent, i.e. a 7-6-4 flop when you defend from the big blind against a UTG raise.
- When facing a tiny continuation bet – these bets usually indicate medium-strength hands, while larger c-bets tend to be much more polarized.
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Example #1 – Small Connected Boards
Let’s look at the first example, where the button opens and the big blind calls. The flop comes 6♠3♠2♥. The big blind checks and the button c-bets for 3.5 big blinds.
The button’s hand range will be pretty wide here. Button should not be betting here small very often as the flop favors the original raiser, so we won’t be check-raising all that often.
We are still check-raising some of the time, though, using a small sizing of 8.7 big blinds. As you can see, our range consists primarily of the strongest top pair combos (A6, K6, Q6), as these are some of the best hands we’ll have in this spot.
In terms of draws, straight and flush draws are the most logical candidates. You can see in the picture below that we have a big segment of hands (on the right side) that are raising a small percentage of the time – these are flush draw combos. On top of these, we have some gutshot combos like K5, Q4, and A4.
A lot of people miss the spot with A6, K6, and Q6, failing to realize that these are some of the best hands that we have in this spot since we’d be 3-betting all our over-pairs before the flop facing a button open.
Example #2 – Paired Boards
Let’s now turn our attention to paired boards, starting with an example of the Q♠Q♥2♦ flop. On these textures, the button usually c-bets small, for one or 1.5 big blinds. As already mentioned, facing a tiny bet, you want to raise very frequently.
As you can see below, we are check-raising a ton here because we have a lot of very strong hands in our range. Because of this, we can use a small sizing since we don’t mind getting called.
You’ll notice that we also have a lot of deuces in our range. As it turns out, they are strong enough to go for a raise in this scenario. Our hand is almost always good but very vulnerable to being outdrawn, so it benefits from some protection.
We also want to check-raise with some draws. Hands that make the most sense are the ones containing a backdoor flush and/or straight draw potential: JT, J9, T9, as well as J8 and T8 with backdoor flush draws.
Similarly, hands that wrap around the deuces for a straight draw potential are check-raising a lot.
However, because we have so many super-strong hands containing a queen in our range, we also get to do a lot of raising with some pretty junky hands, like J4 with a backdoor flush draw, K3, K4, etc.
As for our nut hands, like Q2, we are doing a lot of calling and not much raising. When playing just 40 big blinds deep, we want to keep the opponent around when they have very little equity.
Boards Containing Small Pairs
How do things change when there is a small pair on the board, like 6♠3♥3♦?
The button should not c-bet every single time as they don’t have a lot of 3s in their range while we do. So, when they do c-bet, they’ll use a small sizing of 1.5 big blind.
You will notice we are raising with a lot of sixes and a lot of treys, so it is a very similar pattern, where we are raising with strong hands but a lot of draws as well, like 54, 75, 74.
As for our bluff candidates, these are hands with 4 or 5 that have a lot of backdoor equity – especially when they have a backdoor flush draw plus an over-card (like 9-5).
Example #3: Three-Flush Boards
For our third example, let’s look at a monotone board like K♠9♠3♠. In these spots, the button will usually bet small after the big blind checks, and they will bet around 75% of the time.
In this spot, we have to worry about made flushes, so we don’t get to check-raise all that often. Our best candidates are primarily flushes (all but the nut flush, which we want to just call with). With other flopped flushes, we should mix between calling and raising.
Two pair combos like K9 and K3 are also good enough to check-raise and get it in with at the 40 big blind stack depth.
Finally, there are a few random bottom pair combos, as you can see in the picture – these are hard to find, which is why working with solvers can really help elevate your game and teach you about spots that most players simply won’t know about.
As for the bluffs, we’ll be using various off-suit hands that contain a spade, like Qs8x, Js8x, Ts8x, Qs7xQs, 6x, etc.
In terms of sizing, we don’t need to go big. Making it 5 big blinds is fine, as we have some very strong hands (made flushes and two pair) in our value range.
These are a few of the most interesting examples of check-raise situations that you should be aware of. Feel free to check out the video for a few more common spots.
Once again, remember that you want to check-raise with the polarized range to make it hard to play against you, and always keep studying to find new spots that your opponents will not be aware of!
