Tape to Tape How to Poke Check

If you searched Tape to Tape how to poke check because the control screen never lists it — you are not alone. A May 2023 Steam thread asked the same thing. The short answer for default / classic play: poke check is positioning-based, not a dedicated face button.

Default behavior: overlap sticks

Cross-checked sources (Miraheze Checking page ∩ Steam discussion replies):

• Move your stick so it overlaps the puck-carrier's stick.
• The game plays a poke-check animation and can knock the puck loose.
• Success can steal possession; talents such as En Garde! are cited on community pages as poke-related (talent availability Unverified per patch).

That is why the bind list looks "empty" for poke — there is often no separate poke button in the default ruleset.

Body check is different

Body check is an explicit input. Miraheze documents it as B in its checking notes (controller-oriented). Outcomes depend on speed, size and the Checking attribute; talents like Bonecrusher appear in community lists. Confirm the bind in your Settings → Controls for keyboard vs pad (Unverified across every platform SKU).

Use body checks sparingly. Missed hits create odd-man rushes; poke lanes steal pucks with less recovery risk.

Modern Squad and manual poke (Unverified details)

1.0 community coverage (tposegaming summarizing hotfixes / Squad rules) says some opening Squads — including Modern — use manual pokechecks, offsides, and other "realism" twists, unlike the default auto-overlap feel. Exact Modern binds were not captured from an official control sheet this research pass. If poke suddenly "does nothing" after you swap Squads:

1. Open Controls for that Squad/session.
2. Check patch notes / Squad description text in-game.
3. Spend two minutes in Practice Mode overlapping sticks and testing candidate buttons.

Until confirmed, treat "Modern = manual poke on [button]" as Unverified, while "Modern changes poke rules" is directionally supported by community 1.0 writing.

Practice drill

1. Load Practice.
2. Let the CPU carry through the neutral zone.
3. Angle your stick onto theirs — wait for the poke animation; do not spam body check.
4. After a successful strip, make one outlet pass — reward the habit of possessing after the steal.
5. Switch to your campaign Squad and repeat. If the feel flips, you likely hit a manual-poke ruleset.

Common failure modes

• Skating parallel without stick overlap — you look close, never trigger
• Spamming body check while the poke animation would have worked
• Switching to Modern (or similar) and assuming auto-poke still exists
• Trying to poke from behind at full speed with no angle

Fix by slowing down in Practice until you can trigger three pokes in a row without hitting. Then add speed.

Sources

Miraheze Checking; Steam thread "How to pokecheck?" (2023-05); tposegaming Modern Squad notes (manual poke details Unverified); talent names En Garde! / Bonecrusher as community labels.