In order to maximize fold equity and to utilize a powerful move to adjust for the shallow stacked situations, we recommend adding the check-raise to your overall game-plan in otherwise standard....... C-Betting spots.

Adding the Check-Raise to your overall game-plan will help maximize fold equity and give you a powerful move to adjust for shallow stacked situations.

When you're the preflop aggressor and you frequently follow up with a c-bet, it can be a very strong strategy as you can directly counteract attempts by opponents to exploit you on the flop. However, c-betting can leave you very vulnerable when you are betting out on the flop after being the preflop aggressor with your entire range or with a high frequency.

This strategy may give opponents behind you an opportunity to easily raise you, put you all-in, or simply raise a significant portion of your stack so that you end up being unable to continue against that aggression. So if you are c-betting with a very high frequency in spots where you can't continue because of stack sizes, your opponent can effectively get the last bet in and raise you so you're unable to create any further fold equity in the hand.

In order to prevent this from happening, you can adjust your overall c-betting strategy based on stack size and you can introduce the check-raise as part of your game plan, which can often reclaim fold equity that wouldn't exist on the c-bet. In order not to get exploited, you should utilize this strategy with an overall balanced range.

Consider this example that illustrates why check-raising can be a better play than simply c-betting:

The blinds are 500 and 1,000 with a 100 ante, it's a 9 handed table, it folds around to you in the Cutoff seat, you have 8♦9♦ and 21,500 chips in your stack. You open to 2,500 chips or 2.5 big blinds, the Button calls, both Blinds fold and the flop comes 10♣7♥3♠ rainbow, no diamond.

So now you have an open-ended straight draw, there's 7,400 in the pot and you have 19,000 back. Your stack size might leave you vulnerable, so if you bet 3,000 and your opponent puts you all-in for 19,000, there's going to be nearly 30,000 chips in the pot and it would cost you 16,000 to call so you would have about 32% equity calling this all-in.

However, you need more equity than that in order to call, as the real danger in this spot is flopping a hand that has a lot of equity. With this c-bet leaving you incredibly vulnerable, if you use a 100% c-betting strategy with this stack size you're going to be very exploitable.

Consequently, if your c-bet gets raised and if you can't continue even when you're flopping a lot of equity, that might mean that this is a bad spot to be c-betting with a high frequency.

Instead of c-betting, if you check, your opponent can check behind, or even more commonly, they would take a stab at this pot. In that case, if the Button bets out, you can see that you have a very natural stack size now to check-raise all-in.

You are now leveraging your stack size to create fold equity on this check-raise and you can get the last bet in on this flop, giving your opponent ample opportunity to fold a good portion of their range. If they don't fold, you still have 8 outs to improve to a straight.

So, when you're holding a draw on the flop and c-betting leaves you very vulnerable because of the stack size, you can opt to check-raise instead. When stacks start to get smaller in tournaments, having a very high c-betting frequency can often be a counterproductive strategy for you, especially against opponents who are aggressive, floating you or raising your c-bets frequently.

Against opponents who are very passive you should start c-betting these spots if they're playing fit or fold, calling preflop, or not putting pressure on you postflop. However, if you are playing against opponents who are raising your c-bets or floating you, introducing the check-raise into your arsenal will counter their strategy.

C-betting is one of the most common problem areas for both amateurs and Pros.

You will spend most of your time figuring out when you should c-bet or employ tricks such as check-raising. There are a variety of ways that your opponents might try to counter your c-bets.

They can call your c-bet on the flop with the intention of taking the pot away from you on the turn, which is called floating. To counter floating you can respond by betting again on the turn with an appropriate frequency.

Your opponents can also try to counter your c-bets by raising them in position or check-raising when they're out of position, so you should expand the range of hands that you're willing to take to a showdown against them.

You can adjust by calling their raise on the flop, or simply by calling with your top pair hands instead of folding them on the flop, which is going to punish those raises and you can continue to expand your range.

In addition, opponents might try to counter your c-bets by leading into you, so you should float them yourself, call them on the flop in order to take the pot away from them on the turn, or you can raise against this lead.

Implement these winning poker strategies in your own play and learn how to maximize value as the first-in raiser with these key adjustments!

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