Blind Checking

Can anybody tell me one good reason to check blind before the flop, turn or river?

To induce an extra bet from an opponent, which you can then call or raise. "Checking dark", to me, is a variant of slowplaying, when you think your hand is strong enough to five away a free card. Also, VERY occasionally, a good bluff move, representing the condition just described

i check blind mostly if I would like to be in position for the next round of betting, it makes it much harder for your opponent to make the correct decision if they are essentially the first to act even though you would be

yes but you also give them the chance for a free card. I don't particularly like the move but mostly I see it done with drawing hands, low pocket pairs or suited connectors. That means the majority of the time they will have checked anyway, and when they hit big you don't know it, although that's just as easily done by checking regardless after seeing the flop.

Against someone you know will bluff less often than c/bet after you check, it might be a good move if you have a drawing hand. But really, it is a gimmick that can be useful in very precise situations (if you have very high implied odds against an opponent) and that really shouldn't be used too often, as you end up giving away free cards and keeping the pots small.

Example hand:

You are in MP a deep, agressive tight game with generous antes and get dealt JTs, you raise it and get raised back bt the BTN who you know won't do this with crap (AQo+, 99+, KQs+). Checking dark here disguises the strength of your hand (as you could have AA and be slowplaying, or have a small pp that hits a set, etc.) and may make your opponent make a mistake, give himself a free card wich can fill you up or bet into you when you hit hard, that he normally wouldn't make if he reads you right.

I don't see it having much use in your normal 100bb deep, normal blinds game since the incencitive to play drawing hands HU OOP just isn't there (YOU are giving away reverse implied odds by doing so).

it's a free form of value betting in easiet terms I think.

When you are doing it, you are saying that they have to bet in order to find out something about your hand. But they are really forced to value bet themselves. You can do it with aces on the flop being first to act, and push after they bet and feel confterable about it. You can do it with a low to middle PP and a decent read on someone and knowing thier patterns. You can know almost for sure if your pocket twos are good against the board cause they just cont bet and didn't really bet or show stregth.

There really are certin times where it is as good as a pot size pot on the flop. But knowing your oppenet(s) and the table pos and your stack vs the blinds really has to be in good standing for it to be of any effect, doing it as a big stack or SS is just asking for trouble.

quality.

Since your favourite poker variation is NL Hold'em, I will address the question to that game. On the turn and the river, I agree with reglardave (http://www.cardschat.com/members/reglardave/)'s explanation, quality indeed. On the flop is where I see more checking blind at my local casinos and this is my thinking...

Occasionally, checking blind gives you position in a hand where you wouldn't otherwise. Kind of a stretch, but while your opponent will have the last action on the hand, if they choose to make any, you can counteract, where before you couldn't. So, before they had the option of Check, Bet, Raise...where now they don't have the power to raise your bet. It works well against weaker players. The whole mind-game of checking-blind and raising is more effective then simply check-raising, at least at lower limits.

Unless you are a very strong live player with exceptional reads or in a short-stacked setting, I would not suggest checking blind on the flop with premium hands. Even if you put your opponent(s) on a range of hands it can cause some tricky situations. Most players see a check blind as weakness, so with a strong hand it becomes a very deceptive trap. But in a deep stack setting, I think it can be very dangerous especially when you do it to induce a bluff. Lets say you do it with aces out of position against one opponent...it can run you into a lot of trouble.

Scenario 1 - The flop comes j 10 9 and your opponent bets, now what do you do? Instead of finding out where you were at with a value bet (2/3 pot), now you either have to fold or make a raise for a larger amount, which commits you to a hand in a lot of situations. I don't personally like to make reads for huge amounts of money in situations like that.

Scenario 2 - The flop comes 4 5 K, with two hearts, your opponent pushes, you are either in great shape if he/she has something like AK or KQ, bad shape if they have something like K10 hearts, or horrible shape if they have 45, 44, 55. Now what if they check behind you, well now the situation you created through checking blind is reversed, and you let your opponent get a free card.

Now in a short-stacked setting, folding aces probably isn't profitable especially since players are more likely to push with marginal hands on flops where they sense weakness or with weaker drawing hands.