Checkraising With a Draw in No Limit Holdem
It’s an oft repeated maxim that everyone eventually gets the same cards in holdem - it’s how you play those cards that determines the winners and losers. A similar maxim can be applied to drawing hands - over time, everyone is going to flop and make the same number of draws. To be really successful with drawing hands then, you need to find ways to win without ever making your draw. One of the riskiest yet also most rewarding tactics for achieving this goal in no limit is to employ a tool generally only used with strong hands - the checkraise. In this article, we’ll review some of the benefits to the play, potential drawbacks, and outline scenarios where a checkraise is most likely to be effective. Standard disclaimer [that should accompany all poker articles] - this is general advice with general guidelines and scenarios. Your view of your opponents and the view your opponents have of you should always be a huge factor in your game time decision making. This article is also primarily focused on checkraising the flop, although many of the concepts are transferable to later streets.
As far as benefits go, the checkraise comes chock full. To start, the deceptive quality of checkraising with a draw works on two levels - first, it represents a completed hand and may win you the pot right there if your opponent[s] fold. Second, if you do get a call, your hand is wonderfully masked if you hit and, as such, you are far more likely to get paid off - a contention bolstered by the fact that your checkraise increases the size of the pot and makes it even harder for opponents to get away. Another benefit is that a checkraise has the potential to earn you a free card on the turn if you miss your draw and decide to check. Checkraising on the flop is also a great play against opponents who back down when you show aggression but will bet out when given the lead - the problem with check and call drawing against such opponents is they rarely give you odds to call with your draw on the turn. Finally, it’s just a great way to vary your play and keep your opponents off balance - when one of the hands where you pull this play goes to showdown and others at the table see what you checkraised with, future checkraises [and bets in general] will get far less respect from opponents who don’t realize that checkraising with a draw is a calculated aggressive strategy and not some loose and crazy play. Think of it as a total setup play - trust me, if you checkraise a draw and then check the turn and your opponent gives you a free card and the hand goes to showdown, s/he is going to remember that [especially if you make on the river!]. Next time you have a monster against them, checkraise the flop and check the turn, and watch them bet your hand for you with even marginal holdings [and then generally go on a massive tilt when their top pair loses to your set].
Ah, if there were just the good side to checkraising draws on the flop. The drawbacks are very real and, for the most part, very obvious. First up: the re-raise. Remember, your checkraise only represents strength - it doesn’t mean you actually have strength, and most times your hand cannot stand the heat of a substantial re-raise - so your bet gets swept into the pot, and the draw dies before it even had a chance to make. Very sad. Second, depending on your opponents, checkraising on the flop and missing the turn can be a bit of a tricky proposition. Your less astute or less stubborn opponents may give up that free card, but the astute and stubborn may jump on your check as a sign of weakness and fire away - again, you can’t call the bet in most cases odds-wise.
Basically, the turn is a tough situation either way. Checking comes with risk and so does following up with another bet. A full follow up bet on the turn can cost you a decent amount of money, and you may have to commit to calling a raise if the price is right. Bottom line - checkraising in this spot can cost you a lot of money, force you into some borderline decisions, and increase your variance dramatically.
So, as with any variance increasing play, we want to deploy it with caution. It can be a powerful tool that strengthens our image at the table [or at least cultivates a profitable image] and wins some pots we shouldn’t win. Overused, it can force us into marginal situations where we’re more likely to make some poor on the spot judgments that will unnecessarily waste chips. While the following is far from a complete list, here are some factors you should consider when deciding whether or not to checkraise the draw on the flop:
1) The number of callers in between you and the bettor: There’s a fine line here - with a few callers, the checkraise becomes a more attractive option simply because there’s more money in the pot to win if you can take down the hand right there. As the number of callers increases, however, so does the likelihood that one of them has a hand they will be unwilling to lay down.
2) The strength of your draw. I mean this is two senses - both the number of outs that complete your draw and the strength of hands you can make if you complete. I’m of the thought that the more outs you have, the more willing you should be to checkraise since with a strong enough draw [pair and flush, flush and straight] you a) actually don’t mind callers and b) can stand the heat of a re-raise in many situations. As for the strength of your hand, I offer some possibly counter-intuitive advice: I am far more likely to checkraise with a non-nut draw than a nut draw. The basic reasoning is that a strong enough checkraise with a non-nut draw may actually convince some weak draws that are stronger than yours to fold, giving you an advantage over the long run. With the nut draw however, you want to keep potential second-best draws in the hand, since it will be much harder for them to get away, for example, from a completed flush than a flush draw.
3) Stack size. If you or your opponents don’t have enough chips to make folding to the checkraise a reasonable option, there’s little point in the play. The edge you gain from the potential to pick up the pot without a fight is huge, and you give it up if you or your opponents are pot-committed before the raise comes into play.
4) The board. Simple enough - some boards are more likely to make hands for your opponents that they won’t want to fold. Likely candidates include any flop with an A and any flop with two face cards. Pay attention to what hands your opponents are playing preflop and stay away from checkraising draws when boards that match those hands hit. Also, you’d want to follow basic guidelines for betting draws found in an earlier article.
Checkraising draws is a strategy that certainly isn’t for the queasy or undisciplined, but selectively adding it to your playbook is one way to help ensure that while you’re getting the same cards as your opponents, it’s their chips that are ending up in your stack regardless.
