Check-raising OOP on the turn after betting flop
I was reading NLH for advanced players by Matthew Janda and was confused by one example.
Hero: HJ open with 88
Villain: BTN call
Flop: Qh8h5d
Here, he c-bets OOP on the flop and then checks the turn, hoping to check-raise if villain bets. Why do we check-raise the turn instead of continuing to bet with 88?
1 Reply
It's hard to answer your question since you didn't even say what the turn was or what effective stack sizes were. I will attempt to give a brief explanation though.
Your HJ opening range is relatively wide in comparison to the tighter button calling range. Their range is condensed with a lot of medium connected cards that are nailed pretty hard by this flop. Once you bet flop the button will fold out their trash hands and only the hands that somewhat connect with the flop will continue.
So in this formation your opponent will have a range advantage on a lot of turn cards. As a result you will want to check a lot with your entire range, and you will want to check with some strong hands to protect your weaker combos.
Your opponent will also have a lot of weakish flop floats like gutshot straight draws that will stab when checked to on the turn. So by checking turn you get an extra bet out of a lot of weaker combos that would fold if you barreled.
When they have a strong hand that would have called your bet, they also likely bet when checked to. So by check raising you get more money in compared to if you just bet yourself.
Hopefully that helps.
