Techniques are described for performing a check node update (CNU) as part of iterative decoding of a low density-parity check (LDPC) code. The CNU uses a min-sum decoding approach that monitors whether two values received in messages from two variable nodes connected to a check nodes are equal and are the minimum value among the values received by the check nodes from other variable nodes connected thereto. Upon detecting such an event, the minimum value is adjusted by reducing it by an adjustment value to generate an adjusted minimum value. This adjusted minimum value approximates the minimum value that a sum-product algorithm (SPA) decoding approach would have generated. The adjusted minimum value is included in a response message sent from the check node to a variable node. The bit corresponding to that variable node is decoded based on this adjusted minimum value.