Www.paddypowerpoker.com – Implied weakness of checking
www.paddypowerpoker.com brings you this great strategy guide on checking during a poker game.
As we all know "checking" means you do not want to bet at that point, no matter how you check, or even if you pull your best "don’t mess with me" face, while your checking, it is still going to be seen as a sign of weakness in your hand. For me I only really check a hand if I?m either ready to throw it away when someone raises, or if I’m setting a trap, I certainly feel it is most often a bad move when you are drawing to a big hand. As tempting as might be with one card needed to make a flush, to sit there and think, "I’ll check and with any luck the other players will too" well, It might work when your sitting round the table at home with some friends or family, but it is extremely unlikely to when you are faced with some serious poker players.
In that position of needing one card to make a very big hand, I sometimes like to put in a smaller bet, if I am called by a player and I miss my flush, I often make a larger raise if I feel my opponent is weak. Often you will find that the second bet to compound the information given by the first, that being that you raised fairly small because you have a hand and want to keep the other player in the pot, will convince players more of your strength.
The second bigger bet is sure to scare your opponent off quite often if their hand wasn?t strong enough to reraise you on the first bet. If of course your opponent calls this larger bet, then you go to the river with the following things in your favour, you have taken your big draw to the river and may have just made your hand.
If you miss and decide to make one last bluff at the pot then your previous bets gaining in size show significant strength in your opponents mind, and better your odds of such a move working, although it’s very risky considering the first two calls. The important thing to remember if you do decide to check your hand instead of betting it at any time, is that it shows weakness, you can use this to your advantage too though given the right situation.
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