Value Checking

A lot has been written about the importance of value betting. A value bet is usually a moderately sized bet made on the end. It is designed to elicit a call from a worse hand. Weak players are often afraid that a river card that didn’t help them may have helped their opponent, and so they check too often the end. Good players are willing to take the slight risk of being raised, in order to gain extra value from their hands by betting. A typical example of a value bet would be the situation where you raise from middle position with A Q and get one caller. The flop is A 7 2. You bet again, and are called again. The turn is the 6. Once more you bet and get called. The river is 3. There is now the possibility of a backdoor flush, if your opponent has two hearts and even a very unlikely straight if he holds 4-5. His most likely hand, however, is a worse ace. A-J, A-T, A-9, A-5 or A-4. If he had flopped two-pair or better he would have already raised. Bad players check in these spots, while good players make one final bet, which is usually somewhere between one third and two thirds of the size of the pot. This often entices their opponent to make a losing call. The money gained from these calls can be quite substantial over the course of a year.

There is, however, a slightly different situation which calls for a different type of play. I call this play a value check. Let’s modify the situation a little. Now you are in the big blind with K T, and several players limp. The flop comes K T 4. Since there are both a straight draw and flush draw on the board, you decide not to risk giving a free card. You bet out with your two-pair, and again get one caller. The turn is the 2. You bet again and are called again. The 4 comes on the river, pairing the board. It is unlikely that your opponent has a four, so you might think that value betting your top two-pair again is the best plan. It could easily work out. You might be called by any king. It is much more likely that your opponent started with a flush draw, like 9 8, or a straight draw, like Q J. If he has one of these hands and you bet, he will promptly fold. This is the time for a value check. After your check, he will probably put you on a weak pair or a missed draw. This means he will bluff all of his missed draws (a good player should also make a value bet with a reasonable king, like K-J). Now you can happily call. This value check enables you to win a reasonably large bet that you never could have won by betting yourself.

It is hard to overemphasize the importance of getting maximum value from your good hands. You won’t get many great hands, so you have to get as much out of your good hands as you can. The extra value gained from these maneuvers is how good players manage to win more with their winners. They also lose less with their losers because bad players don’t manage to utilize these value creating moves. When you think your opponent has a reasonable second best hand – value bet. When you think he has missed completely – value check. ♠

Steve “Zee” Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A — Nice Guy Eddie’s at Houston and Doc Holliday’s at 9th Street — in New York City.