Tao of Poker

Theory of Poker Excerpt: Check Raising

There is a nice read on 2+2.com from Sklansky's book: Theory of Poker. Check it out. Here's an bit: "Check raising and slowplaying are two ways of playing a strong hand weakly to trap your opponents and win more money from them. However, they are not identical. Check raising is checking your hand with the intention of raising on the same round after an opponent bets. Slowplaying, which we discuss in more detail in the next chapter, is playing your hand in a way that gives your opponents no idea of its strength. It may be checking and then just calling an opponent who bets, or it may be calling a person who bets ahead of you. When you slowplay a hand, you are using deception to keep people in for a while in order to make your move in a later round. Clearly, then, a hand you slowplay has to be much stronger than a hand with which you check raise. Check raising can drive opponents out and may even win the pot right there, while slowplaying gives opponents either a free card or a relatively cheap card..."