When Not To Check
Just like how there’s a right and wrong time to bluff, bet or call, there’s also a right and wrong time to check. Experienced players with a strong hand can effectively use a check to trap and extract chips from an opponent, but on the flip side, weak players often check far too often in the wrong situations, allowing the other player to catch a card that beats their hand.
Just because you can trap an opponent doesn’t mean you should. If you check and they check, you’ve just given them a free card and it’ll be very hard to know whether the next card dealt helps their hand or not. Only when you flop a monster like a full house or a high flush can you be reasonably assured that there is no way an opponent can beat you in that particular hand, but other than that you need to know how to protect your medium strength hands.
Lets say you have KQ unsuited and the flop comes K-10-8 with two hearts and it’s heads-up between you and another player. If you check, hoping that the other player bets so that you can raise them, but they instead also check, and the next card is heart, you’ll have a tough time figuring out if that third heart gave the other player a flush. Trying to get the maximum amount of chips out of your opponent is always a good idea, but at the same time you don’t want to give them a cheap chance to beat you. The correct move in this situation is to bet almost the full amount of what’s already in the pot, forcing the other player to gamble away more of their chips if they want to try and catch that heart if they are on a flush draw, but more likely than not they will give up their draw, securing you the win for that hand.
The same applies when you have top pair or a set and there are straight draws on the board. Anytime that giving a free card to the other player can easily result in them getting a better hand than yours, you need to bet. Now, if you yourself haven’t made your hand yet, then of course you can check with hopes of getting to see a free card for yourself, that is one of the times it is ok to check.
Checking when you’ve made your hand should typically be reserved for only the biggest of flops. Doing so with two pair when there are no straights or flush draws on the board should be the absolute riskiest chance you take when it comes to checking a strong hand, any other weaker scenario should require you to bet.
