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Immediate flop checks from pre-flop raisers will mostly be useful for knowing they are unlikely to have air. With air, a pre-flop raiser has an incentive to consider if they should bet. They’ll tend to almost always think at least a little bit with the weakest part of their range. Also, with air, there’ll be an instinct to want to appear to think a little bit, so as to imply they may have something.
Here’s an excerpt from Exploiting Poker Tells with some more detail about this pattern:
Hand #50: Quick flop check from pre-flop raiser
$1-2 NLHE cash game
The UTG player raises to $5. A player calls on the button and I call in the SB with A♥ 5♥.
The flop is A♠ K♦ 5♣. I check and the pre-flop raiser checks immediately.
Immediate checks from pre-flop raisers will tend to define the player’s hand as either:
- A good but not great hand (in this case, QQ and JJ would qualify)
- A very strong hand (in this case, AK, AA, or KK)
For your average amateur player, though, this pattern skews more towards very strong hands, and this is because these players will often at least consider the situation with their weaker hands for a moment.
Put another way: if this player had QQ, JJ, KQ, or weaker pairs, or if he had a weak Ace, it’s probable he’d at least consider the situation for a second, even if he will usually end up checking. (One factor here is that many amateur players overvalue pocket pairs in general, so even with QQ on a flop of A-K-5, many players want to think about it for a few seconds.)
Experienced players are capable of quickly checking back decent-but-not-strong hands. For example, if this player were skilled, he would immediately recognize that he’s not betting a hand like KQ or QQ here, whereas many amateur players with those hands will think for a few seconds.
When this player, who struck me as very inexperienced, checked second-to-act immediately, I was very wary.
The turn is a 9♥. I check again. The pre-flop raiser bets $17 into the $17 pot. The third player folds and I call.
I’m far from confident that he’s flopped super-strong here, but one reason I check is that the board is quite dry. If I’m ahead, I will likely stay ahead, so there’s not much risk in giving a free card. If the board were more draw-heavy, I’d have to be much more sure of my read than I was here.
The river is the T♦. I check and he checks back with A♣ K♠, top two pair. (Don’t ask me why he checked.)
If he had made a decent-sized bet on the river, I’d be folding. For average players who raise pre, check the flop, and bet big on the turn and river, they’ll usually be very strong. The immediacy of his flop check is just one extra hint that he’s on the stronger side here.
Zachary Elwood is the author of the Reading Poker Tells trilogy of books, which has been translated into eight languages and sold more than 48,000 copies. See more frequently asked poker tells questions.