General Theory: Blocker bets

[thac]

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Is there even much merit to blocker bets then? If you are going to just value bet against an unknown because they will more than likely just call. And if you wont really use em against regs because they could see right through them, is there even a point?

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Like, with 2nd or 3rd pair I would do it, but I really just don't like to do it. You can experiment and it might work and I'm just doing it against the wrong people, but I'd rather bet/fold than block bet because a block bet gets raised more I think.

[bazooka87]

I think the merits it provides is that it may confuse your opponent who has something like a very weak two pair and will just call. My thinking is that you have to think your opponent will value bet with their hand here, and essentially you're saving yourself money if they're hand does beat you. Hand range is obviously pretty important in making a blocking bet

[kaz2107]

tbh i basically never use them and think they r rather uselss imo. im pretty sure there was a thread about them a while back when they were discussed. ill have the librian look it up lol

[thac]

I'd rather block bluff than actually block bet.

[Profish2285]

Thanks for all the response so far. I am just really unsure when to use them, if ever. Like I said, they are not really in my bag of tricks so I was wondering if they should be. What lead me to this thought was this hand in particular. It seems people were split on c/c and blocker bet/fold. link

[Profish2285]

Thac, thats actually pretty interesting, does that work often enough a block bluff? Thats pretty much the exact opposite of what a block bet does, its not meant to get people to fold so Im curious to hear the results over time of that.

[thac]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for all the response so far. I am just really unsure when to use them, if ever. Like I said, they are not really in my bag of tricks so I was wondering if they should be. What lead me to this thought was this hand in particular. It seems people were split on c/c and blocker bet/fold. link

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I missed that hand, but I'd rather bet/fold the turn than check through the turn and block/fold the river especially since our line looks like a draw/air. You charge either the flush draw or straight draw, you get value from midpairs probably and you find out if you're beat most times for cheaper than you would this way (and you don't have to wait for a club or a card to complete the oesd to come out to make you even more scared). I'd never block there but I wouldn't mind a c/c [generally folding though, like 80% of the time].

[Unknown Soldier]

problem with your q. profish is that it's just soo general, so many specific details in a hand could make you want to do this.

I think this should add something though: a good value bet is one that villain will call with 50% or more of hands that you beat. (50% being neutral EV) say if you have T8 on a A7T52 board. If you bet too much he's may only call with mostly hands that beat you making it a -EV move, but if you put out a little value block bet he may call with 50% of hands that you beat making it a +EV move. The disadvantages with doing this (and the disadvantages of going for thin value in general) is that you can sometimes be bluffed off it, so make sure you are aware of that.

[Profish2285]

I apologize if the questions seem so vague, I really just want to hear everyones thoughts about blocker bets in general, wasnt really sure what to ask, so I asked everything.

[Khaos4k]

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Is there even much merit to blocker bets then? If you are going to just value bet against an unknown because they will more than likely just call. And if you wont really use em against regs because they could see right through them, is there even a point?

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There is not much of a difference between blocker bets and value bets. You want villain to call. If he does, you expect him to have a worse hand. It's if villain raises that your in trouble.