25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

Villain is getting on my nerves. I have the feeling he always calls me in position. He will always peel on the flop and then bet the turn and the river weakly. As far as I can remember, up to that point I never had anything so that I could look her up (think of whiffed AK, JJ on AK board etc). He is running 35/0/2.7. On the turn I pick up a double belly buster and I go for the outs instead of donating money. On the river I feel like I gotta see what he has, because he is playing so weirdly. So I block for a small amount. Reasonable?

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.10/$0.25 Blinds - 5 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $5.15
BB: $25.30
UTG: $25.00
<font color="black">Hero (CO): $45.80</font>
BTN: $14.25

<font color="black">Preflop:</font> Hero is dealt 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (5 Players)
UTG folds, <font color="red">Hero raises to $1.00</font>, BTN calls $1.00, 2 folds

<font color="black">Flop:</font> ($2.35) T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 Players)
<font color="red">Hero bets $2.50</font>, BTN calls $2.50

<font color="black">Turn:</font> ($7.35) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 Players)
Hero checks, <font color="red">BTN bets $1.50</font>, Hero calls $1.50

<font color="black">River:</font> ($10.35) 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 Players)
<font color="red">Hero bets $3.00</font>

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

nh

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

[ QUOTE ]
On the river I feel like I gotta see what he has, because he is playing so weirdly. So I block for a small amount. Reasonable?

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this. I don't think enough people realize how important it is to see what villain's unusual lines mean.

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

I like this line a lot. Blocking bets are so effective, though I think they are far underused by most uNLers.

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

Well, otoh, if you spot a player blocking streets, esp. the river, on a regular basis, it's pretty easy to exploit. Just raise them off their hands because they can't stand heat usually. So you have to be cautious about overusing the concept. It's not so much of a problem if you often make thin, small value bets on the river.

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

i have a couple of problems with a river block in this situation.

1. he seems to be betting small already. In my experiece people don't usually dramatically up their bet sizing when they bet small. I wouldn't expect him to bet much more than $3-4(which you can call) on the river.

2. given point 1, a blocker might be a bad idea because it might actually encourage (rather than discourage) him to bet a large amount. He seems to like being floaty, so he might want to stick in a raise here.

I prefer blockers to have dual purpose if possible, but I can't see a way this bet could act as a thin value bet, nor much of a bluff.

Re: 25NL block this river with my underpair?
 

I do like blocking at uNL in general, since it doesn't get exploited much, but I think it's a good idea to keep it at the bottom of the draw and think through other lines first: there are usually better options.