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In heads-up limit Hold'em, I called a button raise with K-10 in the big blind and flopped top pair (K-7-2). Bet out or check to raise?
Heads-up, PokerToast's limit Hold'em solver checks with K-10 on a K-7-2 flop in the big blind, first to act 74% of the time, and bets 26%.
The spot
- Game: heads-up limit Hold'em, Flop.
- You: K♥ 10♦ (your hole cards): K-10 offsuit: top pair with a weak kicker.
- Your opponent: raised on the button before the flop (you called); the pot is 4 small bets and you act first after the flop.
- Board: K♠ 7♣ 2♦.
- Pot before this street: 4 small bets.
- Pot size and the numbers: the solver groups pots by size: its numbers here are averages over every pot of between 2.5 and 6 small bets at this point, so in exactly this pot they would be a little different.
The solver's numbers
| Play | How often (strategy) | Worth from here on (EV estimate, small bets) |
|---|---|---|
| Check | 73.7% | +4.73 |
| Bet | 26.4% | +4.70 |
Measured on 13,584 play-outs of this situation. The highlighted row is the play that measured best.
If you check and the button bets
| Play | How often (strategy) | Worth from here on (EV estimate, small bets) |
|---|---|---|
| Raise | 97.4% | +4.66 |
| Call | 2.6% | +4.56 |
| Fold | 0.0% | +0.00 |
Measured on 5,951 play-outs.
If you bet and the button raises
| Play | How often (strategy) | Worth from here on (EV estimate, small bets) |
|---|---|---|
| Call | 59.1% | +4.40 |
| Re-raise | 40.9% | +4.34 |
| Fold | 0.0% | +0.00 |
Measured on 975 play-outs.
On the turn (K-7-2-5), first to act with 6 small bets in the pot
| Play | How often (strategy) | Worth from here on (EV estimate, small bets) |
|---|---|---|
| Check | 65.7% | +5.82 |
| Bet | 34.3% | +6.04 |
Measured on 221 play-outs.
Why, in plain words
Check and bet are worth about the same here (0.03 small bets apart, within the measuring noise of about 0.10), so neither is a real mistake; mixing them keeps you hard to read.
What popular strategy articles say
Top limit players check-raise about 90% of the time in this spot; betting out shows less strength and is easier to counter.
What strategy articles found by web search said on 2026-10-08 (PokerNews, Card Player, PokerStrategy, pokerskill and similar; mostly written between about 2007 and 2015, and mostly for full-ring games with several players in the pot).
Heads-up, the solver agrees: its main play is check (74%).
But it also bets 26% of the time, at about the same value, which the common advice doesn't mention.
Heads-up vs multiway
The numbers above are for heads-up play (two players). Most published advice is written for full-ring games with several players in the pot, so part of any difference can come from that.
How these numbers were made
From PokerToast's own heads-up limit Hold'em solver, trained 9,047,710 iterations, exported 2026-10-07 01:24:47, 63,797 situations (version H-9047710-20261007012447). It learned by self-play (Monte Carlo counterfactual regret minimization) for limit betting, at most four bets a street.
- How often is the solver's average strategy for this situation.
- Worth (EV) is an estimate measured after training by playing the situation out many times against the solver's own strategy: small bets won or lost from this decision on, compared with folding (0). It assumes an opponent who plays like the solver.
- Hand groups: the solver groups similar hands, so the numbers are for the group (here:
1|b|TPw/r|Mo|), not only these exact cards. Before the flop it knows all 169 starting-hand types and your position (button or big blind). After the flop it groups your hand by how it uses the board (for example an overpair, top pair and its kicker, or a draw), the board's texture (paired, two or three of a suit, connected), the pot and the betting so far on this street. - Looked up when this page was built (2026-10-19); a newly trained solver changes the page and its version number.
Practice it
Your equity with these cards Today's Hold'em Daily Spot Open PokerToast
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