Blocking bets

[JAP]

I posted a question like this on the small stakes forum before but i'm interested if mid- high stakes see it differently.
Basically my questions are;
Do you use blocking bets?
If so,
Why and when do you use it? (In what situation, against which player etc)
If you don't use it, why not?

Henric

[RikaKazak]

I use them, my favorite is the passive if bet at, crazy if checked to opponets, you know those people that won't raise a $50 bet into a $200 pot, but if checked to will bet $300. It's when my hand might be good. Example, I'm playing a hand vs. someone, they're like I descirbed, the problem is I was watching t.v. and don't know how often they bluff, the river brings the str8, but the flush missed. That's a good time to blocking bet, so I don't have to worry about the flush missing and calling some bluffing % I'll have no clue in guessing. Alos I know he won't raise a weak 2 pair (not uncommon on pp) and I have TPTK, it might get more value, from a weaker top pair, prevents bluff (to some opponets).

[FoxwoodsFiend]

At 10/20 NL, enough people raise small blocking bets that I don't see the point of making them

[ObnxNole]

A blocking bet is designed to earn a cheap showdown...a common situation is to make a 1/2 or 2/3 sized pot when when you have the nut flush on a paired board. If you are raised big then you are probabbly beat. You do not want to have to call a pot sized bet basically.

The only problem is that a good player will pick up on this and often raise you with nothing on the river.

My advice would be to experiement with it with hands like having two pair on the river when the flush or straight hits. It takes a lot of feel for it to work properly and is of course player dependant. Good luck.
-ObnxNole-

[JAP]

In the SSNL forum i was told that a blocking bet was about 20% of the pot.
My thoughts about blocking bets were that if a player is good then he will definatly pick up that i dont bet 20% of the pot that often (almost always between 1/2-1). So i figured i would get raised a lot as a bluff, because they pick up on the weakness. (Which i guess you can use on them as a reverse)
But then again against some opponents in some situations i would probably lose money not trying it.

[FoxwoodsFiend]

Another thing-in live games with reads block bets can be great at inducing bluffs from very aggressive opponents. Such a sweet play to pull off if you can make it work.

[edge]

[ QUOTE ]
In the SSNL forum i was told that a blocking bet was about 20% of the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

1/5-pot blocking bets are dumb. My blocking bets look exactly the same as value bets. I'm not about to start making 1/5-pot value bets.

[Ghazban]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In the SSNL forum i was told that a blocking bet was about 20% of the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

1/5-pot blocking bets are dumb. My blocking bets look exactly the same as value bets. I'm not about to start making 1/5-pot value bets.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed; whoever said that in SSNL was misinformed. If your blocking bet is obvious for what it is by its size, its a terrible bet.

[Noo Yawk]

Good players will shove blocking bets right back down your throat. Against better players you need to make blocking size bets with your big hands so that you can get them for a good chunk when they think your bet is defensive. After a few re-raises your blockers will get tested less.

Against weaker players, blockers work well. The size depends on how weak the player and whether or not you prefer a call or a fold.

[Hattifnatt]

[ QUOTE ]
A blocking bet is designed to earn a cheap showdown...a common situation is to make a 1/2 or 2/3 sized pot when when you have the nut flush on a paired board. If you are raised big then you are probabbly beat. You do not want to have to call a pot sized bet basically.


[/ QUOTE ]
I dont think the nut flush on a paired board is a good example, maybe in Omaha but not in Texas. Its more of a value bet the very most of the time.

[kagame]

sometimes making a blocking bet with an ace high whiffed draw will get a weak player who is bluffing to fold, they think youre inducing another bluff and get so disgusted they give up :-)

contrary to this, if you have a good enough read on a tough aggressve opponent who will raise these bets, they can be a great bluff inducer

[JAP]

bump
to see if anyone has anything else to say about it

[James282]

At 10-20, it's usually a decent play to do this when you have a decent hand when a flush draw gets there. i.e. you have and overpair or top pair top kicker and are having trouble putting your opponent on a hand(maybe an overpair, maybe a worse pair, maybe top pair bad kicker, maybe the flush) but he is the type to really put you to the test when scary draws get there. People vastly overestimate how often people bluff-raise the river all in or value-raise the river all in with worse hands than a hand like tptk. Use this play and Have several incomes of USD 100 every weeks.
winning money to want to thank me,
James

[JAP]

ok i'll try that! What a superior!
Henric

[Marnixvdb]

In short: a blocking bet is a relatively cheap way of finding out if you're beat when you don't have a good read yet. If the size is perfect, your opponent will only raise with better hands, and will still call worse hands.

On the other hand, say that when you lead 2/3 pot, and your opponent would never call worse hands, but always raise better hands (to which you fold) - you'd rather not bet, but check/call if he potbet-bluffs often enough (sorry no time right now to equate the frequency he needs to bluff with a potbet), or bet a different amount.

James explained the situation where a blocking bet can be fit pretty well. It does not work well vs. crazy opponents who become passive with a bet, but will pot a wide range of hands if checked to. You want those players to bluff crazy. You just need the guts to call their crazy bets, along with the ability to read his bet and the board well enough to determine the likeliness of his bluff.

Inducing bluffs with weak blocking bets is indeed great.

Marnix