Check Clips With Overbels: When Do You Have To Do It?

You look down on Q   Q  which is beautiful. You raise the preflope and be called by two players. Flop is all undercards, so you still have overpair. You start reaching the chip, but then you remember this article. What did the scenario say like this? You will get insight when it deserves to check the flop with Overpair to win optimally. Three points are included in this article:

• Multiway.
• Out of the position against a tight caller
• Bad clips in versus blind position
• Let’s get started!

Suppose you raise the preflope with Q and get some callers, one is above the button and the other in a big blind. Flop is handled t  9  5 . You should consider checking this scenario, unless you play against recreational players who tend to make mistakes versus bets. The reason behind the examination here is quite complex: Most are related to the fact that equity is divided between 3 players. This means your hands actually have fewer equity than those who oppose one player. In addition, the defense burden now rests on two players, which means none of them are forced to call with various hands versus your C-bets. In other words, they will call with the hands that lose your QQ more rare than they if it is a head-up pan.

One last important factor is that since you oppose two players, you are likely to oppose stronger hands greatly increasing. When we consider these reasons together, the decision between bets and checks will be closer than at first it might be seen. By plugging in the details of this hand into the latest 3-way breaker, we can see that the breaker chooses to check 100% of the time (yellow = check): Solver also calculates that expected value (EV) examination is 0.1BB higher than a 60% bet of the pot (you can see the second EV option in the middle of the image).

This section is complicated because it will depend on several things, including:

• The right range of your opponents.
• If the betting button.
• If the big blind calls the bet.
• Board texture.

Mostly, you must immediately check and continue carefully considering the variable above.

This is a situation played even by some of the best poker players out there. For example, you increase the middle position with A  and regular calls on the button. FLOP comes J  5  3 . 99% of players will immediately begin putting money into the pan, but it is a small mistake according to breaker. Don’t misunderstand, bet here is not -ev by a stretch of imagination, but it’s also not always the highest EV line. These are the downside bet: Even though your reach has more advantages of your opponent’s range, your reach is still weaker than hers. The range is very narrow / condensed, and thus, the set represents a much greater part of its overall reach.

What this means is that if you adopt a direct approach (bet your strong hands and draw while checking the middling part of your reach), your opponent will be able to start raising the C-bets very aggressively. This forces you to make decisions for your entire stack at high frequencies, and it won’t be easy for you to fight. This, of course, in theory, and it will only happen when playing against high-caliber opponents who realize this exploitation. Therefore, even by checking, you might exploit the aggression over-aggression against your check. We will discuss it in the next section.

What plans after checking?
This time the situation is not as complicated because you only oppose one opponent. You will generally want to be checked with your overpair unless the board is at least made straight, in this case you can go for an inspection call. You will find that most opponents will play too aggressively versus your check, try to represent very strong hands, but they will often give up on the river.

By failing badly, I mean the board is very connected like 9  7  5 , T  9  8 , or 7  5 . This board really supports the blind range because he will have a more straight and two pairs than you. On 9-7-5 flops, for example, Piosolvers choose to check on very high frequencies with overpairs (middle position vs. Big Blind): Notice how higher overpairs are checked more often than lower rabbits. AA checked more often than KK, which was examined more often than QQ, which was examined more often than JJ and TT. The frequency of checking is driven by each vulnerability. There are no cards that can switch to make AA less than overpair, so you can gladly check and let other cards come.

Conversely, there are 4 cards that can make KK less than overpair and 8 cards that can make QQ less than overpair, so this hand must bet more often than AA. They should still be examined, because they maintain their absolute hand strength very well. If you oppose the jelly and skilled opponents, betting with your overpair on the connected board can make your life hell. If you don’t check quite a lot, your opponents can put you in brutal places by increasing their aggresses on your bets and checks. He can play more aggressively for the same reason for spot # 2: he has more dirty hands (two or better partners) compared to the overall reach than you.

Checking makes your life very simple. You will call versus the probe bet on each turn, even if it puts four straight on the board (but usually folds on the river in the case). If the turn doesn’t put four straight, then you will call every river except those who finish four straight. It’s easy enough, right?

Applying checks with the excess these spots will give you encouragement of confidence (because you will have a strong hand in your range where you won’t). Plus, this examination will make the whole hand much easier to navigate. That’s all for now! I hope you like this article, I really enjoy writing it! If you have questions or feedback, please leave a comment below.