Check-raising
Out of position, checking is most of what you do — and if a check can never become a raise, you're paying the maximum to every c-bettor at the table. The check-raise is what keeps your checks honest: check, let the aggressor bet, then raise. Without it, your checking range is one big target.
Two hand classes typically want the raise, and they sit at opposite ends of your range. Strong value — typically two pair or better, board depending — raises because the c-bettor's range just paid for the privilege of putting money in against it. And semi-bluff draws raise because they combine immediate fold equity with real outs when called. The thin made hands in between — one decent pair, a good kicker — typically prefer calling: they beat enough bets to continue but hate building a pot the polar way. Lesson 15's tier language applies to raises exactly as it does to bets.
Among the draws, prefer the ones whose cards block the continuing range or carry backdoor extras — Topic 13's combinatorics decide which draws make the best raises, because the best semi-bluff is the one that folds out the most hands that beat it.
One check-raise, three hands
The pinned spot: the button c-bets 2.75bb into 5.5bb and you check-raise to 9bb from the big blind. The three weights describing the bettor's response — fold 45%, call 45%, re-raise 10% — are stated inputs for this example; in grading, the engine derives them from the composed range instead of taking them as givens. Each EV below runs live through the grader's raise-pricing formula.
| Your hand | Equity when called | EV of the raise | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air | 10% | -0.37 bb | Fold equity alone — and it isn't quite enough. |
| Semi-bluff draw | 35% | +1.80 bb | Folds now, outs when called: the equity does the rescuing. |
| Strong value | 80% | +5.70 bb | The calls are the profit; the folds just end the hand early. |
Facing a check-raise as the c-bettor, the logic mirrors Topic 5: the raise sets a price, and folding everything makes your c-bets free money for the raiser. Continue with the top of your betting range and the draws that price in; fold the air the raise was built to target. One honest caveat baked into the model: even the strong-value row above mostly folds if the bettor comes back over the top — under this response mix the re-raise represents a range so strong that paying it off is the bigger mistake.
This app grades the raise you actually made against a bettor who genuinely responds — the fold, call, and re-raise slices come from the composed range, as the grading page's response model describes. It judges that raise on its own EV; the raises you didn't make aren't part of the grade.