Blocking Bets

[PantsOnFire]

Here is a situation in a NL tourney. You have 8s7h, heads up, out of position. The board is Kh7cJh8h3h. You have a weak flush (7 high flush with 4 board flush cards is very weak) and it's your turn to bet. The pot is 1000. If you check and he bets 800-1000, you will have a very difficult call since any heart 8 and up will beat you. If he bet 300, you probably would call since he probably has a heart but there's a pretty good chance it might be the 2,4,5 or 6 instead of the A, Q, T or 9.

So what you may do here is a blocking bet. That means if you were going to call 300, then just bet it out. You may get the 9h to fold which would be fantastic. And if he has Q or T, he may be afraid that you have the A and just call. If he has the A, he will raise you for sure and then you can fold, losing that 300.

And what Albert mentioned is that if you do this a lot, players will see this and raise you out of pots later. To counter this, make bets of this size with very good hands. That way other players will not know if you are blocking or betting for value and can't exploit you as often.

So in the end, a blocking bet is one that you make when you are in a situation where you may or may not have the best hand, but your hand is such that it is difficult to call a decent bet with. So, out of position, you take the initiative and make a smaller bet that may freeze your opponent. A frozen opponent may fold, or he may call, but he will usually on raise if he has the nuts.