Check-raising is naughty. It’s poker’s bad boy move. It’s telling a lie. It’s setting and springing a trap. It’s big, it’s hard and it’s clever. And as an old lady in the Excalibur hotel casino, Las Vegas, once told me, ‘It’s part of the game but it’s kinda low – I’d never do it to you.’ Check-raising in no-limit Hold’em tends to be a big deal.

Usually you’re committing a lot of chips, sometimes your entire stack, to your hand and the pot. For some players trapping people with check-raises is a big part of their game, while others do it very rarely, but you should definitely consider making it part of your arsenal.