What's a good check-behind range in this spot?

You don't want to see A, Q, T or a on the river. He might make a set too. You increase your chances slightly to get one more call, but you risk the pot doing so. What I am trying to say is that you risk the pot for a fraction of a bet, not 1BB, but just a fraction of a BB by checking on the turn because he might call more on turn than you think and he might not call river.

It would be a different story if you thought you were behind or only slightly ahead, but that is not, according to what you write, the reason you check behind now.

A good check behind range has several components:

• Hands that you actually give up
• Showdownable hands that have better value in inducing bluffs than betting for value
• Hands that pick up a draw that you normally (without the draw) would have bet. This can include both nonSD (which you now don' bluff with) and SD (say A + rag that picks up a gutshot, normally you might have fired a second bullet) hands
• Extremely rare: You crush the board completely and are 100% sure a bet will result in a fold. You check to induce a bluff/river call

If your opponent x/c the flop I always bet turn (K is a blank in this spot). You lose value from small pocket pairs like 66+ which may call you down and from some drawing hands like AQ, AT, QTs, etc. For me it's bet for value and for protection. If he will call the turn I will bet the river again. Sometimes some A high or pp may call me again. I don't want to lose value on that river. River is a blank.

Thanks for the help guys. I was just thinking that I didn't want my turn x range to give my hand away as being A-high or a small pair so I thought I should keep a few combos of medium-strength hands (J8s-JTs of only) in my x range so that my opponent doesn't have an easy bet on a non-A river with a hand like 88.

Is that a bad line of thought? Is checking behind a few 2nd-pair/marginal kicker type hands on the turn to keep my x range from being too weak a bad idea in general for any situation? It feels like I'm making my opponent's river decisions too easy if I don't play a few of these hands incorrectly once in a while.

Probably just fancy play syndrome (of sorts) on my part, though. I'm guessing that "Showdownable hands that have better value in inducing bluffs than betting for value"(as Yohan mentioned) are the hands that fill this requirement. (So maybe hands like A3 or 44 for the hand I posted?) Because then at least he doesn't have an easy bluff.

Thanks again for the input guys. My turn play really needs the help.

First of all you don't need to balance xb turn on that kind of limit. Nobody pick that up. You can start do it few limits higher and only with players who observe your game. You have iniciative, position and good value hand. It's a waste of value to do not bet on that turn (in my opinion).

Yohann already mentionedf some categories of hands that should be part of your checking back range. from hands you give up, till hands with decent showdownvalue and even some hands that you'd normally could easily go for 2 valuebets, you should sometimes checkback but just with a low frequency. With small Pocketpairs you should bet the Turn and probably fold to a checkraise but since he didnt checkraise the flop, he'll almost never checkraise the turn since he'D bet Kx and even in a scenario where you had the initiative, against most regs a c/c is a small pocketpair, AT AQ, Jx etc.

Your check here in the Turn was bad since his range is pretty much capped on the small Pocketpairs, AT and AQ that he's probably going to pay off with on all streets. You could Bet with a draw on the Flop ike QT and T9 or a flushdraw and once he did c/c the flop, he'll see the showdown if just blanks pop up so you could bet with draws for checking back but with most hands you bet on the flop, you're willing to bet turn and River as well.

Your hand is so strong with midpair and flushdraw that you can easily go for 3 streets of value. lets say it was an BU vs >BB Situation and he did check/call the Flop. What hands you're supposed to be checking back with? Especially on paired Boards, you'd bet/fold most of your small pocketpairs. You can become counterfeighted if the board gets double paired on the River and you may force him to do a false fold (just against your actual hand) with a gutshot type of hand like T9 and Q9.

With 99 TT i'd check back also most of the times and check back some of the weakest Jx combos, though , in a vacuum, you have 2 more valuebets but just for the sake of not just having air and so many weak hands when you check back. All Ax ui Hands i'D check and call a blank RIver like this River. Smallest Ax like A2 A4 A5 you can fold but the better Ax i'd call. It depends on how much he peels on the Flop and how likely he is to be betting his busted hands and how many draws he's checkraising on the flop and if he's capable of valuebetting lightly. Many aspects to considere there.

With flushdraws and no showdownvalue, as well as with QT, you should bet the Turn in order to not just have madehands and balance your madehands with a bunch of draws. T9 and would be an easy bet but just with T9 with a gutshot, i'd prolly take the Freecard.

Okay, I understand better now. Thanks very much everyone. This has been very helpful.

Im a bit surprised that no one mentioned that a good x/b range is designed so that you dont overfold/overcall the river on any possible card while you have nuff equity with the bottom of it to catch bluffs.

@Boomer: Isnt that counterfieted rather than 'counterfeighted' ?

You have to fold (and, rarely, bluff-raise) the bottom of it. Otherwise you never give up on turn, and that can't be good.

It's spelled counterfeited in civilized countries ♦