At a glance
- On the HUD
- Flop XR·Turn XR·River XR
- Formula
raises / times they checked, then faced a bet and could raise- Typical range
5–16% on every street
- Where it shows
- Badge: players out of position to the lead (everyone, when nobody has it), players who checked and now face a bet, and the check-raiser. Panel on your turn: when you bet into a player who checked.
- Read hint
- Above: Check-raises often: bet a tighter range.
- Trust it after
- 12 chances. Below that the number is faded; reads need 12 chances and a number at least one standard error outside the typical range.
What it measures
A check-raise is the most aggressive answer a player has out of position (OOP): they check, someone bets, and they raise. The HUD’s check-raise stat is how often a player who checked and then faced a bet raised, out of the times they had chips to do it.
The spot has three answers, and each has its own stat: check-raise, check-call and check-fold. Together they describe what a player’s check means. A player who check-folds half the time and check-raises 3% is checking weak hands; one who check-raises 20% is setting traps.
Heads-up, only the out-of-position player can check-raise, because a check in position ends the street. In a multiway pot anyone who checks before the bettor gets a chance, including a preflop raiser who checked the flop. The stat counts raises against any bet: c-bets, stabs, bets from a third player. That makes it broader than raise c-bet, which only covers c-bets, and narrower than raise, which counts every raise whether or not the player checked first.
How it’s calculated
Check-raise = raises ÷ times they checked, then faced a bet and could raise.
- Chance: a street where they checked with no bet in front, their next action faced a bet, and they had chips behind to raise.
- Counts: if that next action was a raise.
- Excluded: spots where the bet put them all-in or left no room to raise, and streets where fewer than two players could still bet (not everyone all-in).
Two quirks matter. In a multiway pot, if one player bets and another raises before the action gets back, the spot still counts, and raising there is a check-3-bet. And because check-call and check-fold don’t need chips behind to raise, the three stats share almost the same chances but not exactly, so they add up to roughly 100%.
Check-raise is kept separately for heads-up and multiway pots on each street.
Example: Priya checked and then faced a flop bet 50 times. She had chips to raise in 48 of them and raised 6: check-raise is 6 ÷ 48 = 12.5%. She called 26 and folded 18, so check-call is 26 ÷ 50 = 52% and check-fold is 18 ÷ 50 = 36%. The three sum to 100.5% because of the two spots where she couldn’t raise.
Why it matters
The check-raise sets the price of betting into a player. Every bet into a check carries the risk of a raise, and against a frequent check-raiser that risk forces you to fold hands with equity or play a big pot with a hand that wanted a small one. It grows the pot fast: in a 10 bb pot, a 5 bb bet raised to 15 bb and called makes a 40 bb pot, four times the size before the bet.
For the check-raiser, the math depends on the bet they raise. With a 10 bb pot and a raise to three times the bet, a pure bluff needs these folds, and the bettor needs this much equity to call once:
| Bet faced | Check-raise to | Bluff needs folds | Bettor needs to call |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.3 bb (33%) | 9.9 bb | 42.7% | 22.1% |
| 5 bb (50%) | 15 bb | 50% | 25% |
| 6.6 bb (66%) | 19.8 bb | 54.4% | 26.6% |
Bluff check-raises work best against small bets, and the bettor needs little equity to continue (22.1–26.6% in the table), which is why the best bluff check-raises are draws that still win often when called.
A multiway check-raise has to get through the bettor and everyone still to act, so it’s far more value-heavy, and some players who check-raise 15% heads-up almost never do it multiway. The HUD keeps the two apart and shows the version that matches the pot.
Too low, about right, too high
The number says how often, not with what. A value check-raise (sets, two pair, a strong top pair on a wet board) wants a call. A semi-bluff (flush draws, open-ended straight draws, combo draws) wants a fold but has equity when called. A pure bluff needs the fold. Good flop ranges mix all three; most home-game ranges are mostly the first two. Showdowns, raise size and river bluff (shown) tell you the mix.
Too low: under 5%
What it says
Their checks are calls and folds. A player who almost never check-raises plays strong hands by check-calling or leading, and draws by calling. Rocks, Stations and many recreational players live here, along with players who think check-raising is “tricky” and save it for the nuts. When they check, you’re rarely facing a trap; when they do raise, you are.
How to exploit it
- Bet more of your range when they check, and value bet thinner: second pair and weak top pairs can bet against their calls without fear of a raise.
- Use small sizes with your whole range on boards that favor you, such as 33% on dry ace-high flops.
- Fold one pair to their turn and river check-raises, and most one-pair hands to a flop check-raise too.
- Check their check-fold to decide how often to bluff: a low raiser with a high fold rate is the easiest player at the table to bet into.
About right: 5–16%
What it says
They check-raise selectively: strong hands and good draws, now and then a bluff. Most competent players sit here on the flop, often with the turn and river lower in the band. Inside the range, the mix matters more than the number, and board texture can skew it: a player can check-raise 12% overall by raising every low, wet flop and never a high, dry one.
How to exploit it
- Check which version the tooltip shows: heads-up and multiway check-raise rates can differ a lot.
- Bet hands that can call a raise or that you’re happy to fold; check back the hands in between on boards that hit their range.
- When they check-raise and you hold a strong draw, continue: a 3x raise of a half-pot bet only asks you for 25% equity to call once.
- Check your own fold to check-raise. Against a normal raiser, folding too much is your leak, not theirs.
Too high: over 16%
What it says
They raise a wide range after checking: draws of every kind, middle pairs, overcards and pure bluffs. Some are good aggressive players who know most bets into them are weak; many are LAGs and Maniacs who use the check-raise as their main weapon. Their checks are dangerous to bet into with marginal hands, and their raises are much lighter than “the nuts.” The HUD’s read here is “Check-raises often: bet a tighter range.”
How to exploit it
- Bet a tighter range: hands that can call or re-raise a check-raise. Check back marginal made hands and weak draws.
- Size up your value bets. They raise a multiple of your bet, so a bigger bet gets more money in when you’re ahead.
- Continue more against their raise with top pair, overpairs and strong draws; folding those to a 20% check-raiser is the leak they’re counting on.
- With a strong draw and a short stack behind, re-raise all-in; much of their raising range can’t call.
On the flop, turn and river
Flop: check-raise
Most flop chances come against a c-bet, and the flop is where check-raising is most frequent and most bluff-friendly. With two cards to come, flush draws, open-ended straight draws and combo draws have plenty of equity when called, which makes them natural semi-bluffs. Value check-raises are sets, two pair and, on wet boards, strong top pairs that want protection. Pure bluffs are rare at low stakes.
Board texture moves the number more than anything else. Low, connected, two-tone flops (8-7-5 with two hearts) hit the out-of-position caller’s range and give them lots of draws, so check-raising goes up. Dry high-card flops (K-7-2 of three suits) favor the preflop raiser and offer few semi-bluffs, so it goes down.
Sizing: against small c-bets, raises of three to four times the bet are common; against big bets, a smaller multiple puts in enough. Exploit: against a high flop XR, c-bet less on low, connected boards and keep betting the dry high-card ones, where their raising range is thin.
Turn: check-raise
The turn check-raise is a stronger action. With one card to come, a draw has roughly half the equity it had on the flop, so semi-bluffs need more fold equity, and the pot is big enough that a raise commits a large part of the stack. In most low-stakes games, a turn check-raise is two pair or better far more often than not.
Watch for the delayed check-raise: a player calls the flop c-bet, checks the turn and raises the second barrel. If their turn XR is high while their flop XR is normal, they’re often floating flops to raise turns, with draws that picked up equity or with sets they slowplayed.
Turn sizing usually follows the stack. When the remaining stack is about one pot, a check-raise is all-in or close to it. Exploit: against a low turn XR, fold one pair to their raise. Against a high one, don’t double-barrel thin value or weak draws; bet the turn with hands that can call a raise and check the rest.
River: check-raise
The river check-raise is the most polarized bet there is. With no cards to come there are no semi-bluffs, so every river check-raise is a strong value hand or a pure bluff, usually a missed draw. At low stakes it leans heavily toward value; many players never raise the river as a bluff.
A river XR under 5% means a raise from them is near the nuts, so thin river value bets are safe and you can fold strong one-pair hands to the raise. A river XR over 16% with a real sample is rare and points to a player who bluffs river check-raises: call down more with hands that beat their bluffs.
Size tells you something too. In many home games a small river check-raise, a min-raise or close to it, from a passive player is the nuts asking for a little more; aggressive players use bigger raises for both value and bluffs, so size says less with them. Exploit: against a rare river check-raiser, value bet thinner on the river, because their check is a call or a fold.
When it’s your own number
Your check-raise percentage is on your badge for anyone with a HUD, and the read for a high number tells them to “bet a tighter range into you.” If yours is above 16%, good players will check back marginal hands, bet only what can handle a raise, and stop paying you off with medium pairs. If it’s under 5%, they’ll bet freely into every check and fold to your raises.
To check yourself, split the number by street and by heads-up and multiway. A common healthy pattern: highest on the flop, lower on the turn, lowest on the river, and much lower multiway. If your river XR is high, count how many of those raises were bluffs that got called. If your flop XR is near zero, add semi-bluff check-raises with your best draws on boards that favor you.
Using it on the HUD
Check-raise appears in more places than most stats in PokerNow HUD Advanced. Before anyone bets, it shows on the badges of players out of position to the player with the lead (everyone, when nobody has it). Once there’s a bet, it shows for every player who checked and now faces it, in the heads-up or multiway version that matches the pot, and on the check-raiser’s badge after they raise. On your turn, when players have checked to you, the panel shows how often each of them check-raises next to their fold rates for your bet sizes.
Gold means over 16%, blue under 5%, and faded means fewer than 12 chances. Raise rates are small numbers, so the sample has to be big: 10% over 30 chances is ±5.5 points, wide enough to cover most of the typical range, and over 100 chances it’s ±3. The read only appears for a high number with at least 12 chances; turn and river reads name the street.
Read it with check-fold, fold to c-bet and aggression factor.
Questions
What is a good check-raise percentage?
Between 5% and 16% is typical on each street, the range the HUD leaves uncolored. A good player usually sits toward the top of that band on the flop in heads-up pots and lower on the turn, the river and in multiway pots. Over 16% means a wide, bluff-heavy raising range; under 5% means their raises are almost always strong.
Is a check-raise usually a bluff?
At low stakes, usually not. Most check-raises in home games are strong made hands or draws. The exception is the player whose check-raise is well above 16% over a decent sample: their raises include draws, weak pairs and air, and folding everything to them is a leak.
How big should a check-raise be?
Against a small bet, a raise to about three or four times the bet is common; against a big bet, a smaller multiple puts in enough. As a pure bluff, a raise to three times a half-pot bet risks 15 bb to win 15 bb in a 10 bb pot, so it needs 50% folds. Raising a third-pot bet the same way needs only 42.7%, which is why small bets get check-raised more.
Is a turn check-raise stronger than a flop check-raise?
Usually, yes. Draws have one card to come instead of two, the pot is bigger and a raise commits more of the stack, so most players save it for two pair or better plus their best draws. A player whose turn check-raise is as high as their flop one is either very aggressive or slowplaying flops on purpose.
How many hands do you need for a reliable check-raise stat?
Count chances, not hands. At 10%, 30 chances still leave about ±5.5 points of error and 100 chances about ±3. A player only gets a chance when they check and face a bet, so the flop number usually needs a few hundred hands to settle, and the turn and river take longer.