Using "Blocker Bets" and "Fake Blocker Bets"

[Zybomb]

I've come across something lately in my live full ring play which I have found to be effective mostly because I think it frustrates/spazzes out players

First off just real quick, as most people know a "Blocker Bet" is a bet made as a defensive bet when out of position. It is usually a small bet when you assume your opponent doesn't have the NUTS but may have a hand that beats you --- you plan on calling if he bets, so since you believe he can not raise, you make a smaller bet yourself which hopefully he will just call, and you get to showdown for cheaper. It also can be used earlier in the hand when you are drawing. This can be an effective move, but aggressive players lately have seen thru these bets and have been auto bluff raising them, or raising them lighter.

I think this presents a nice opportunity for "fake blocker bets". These naturally are bets designed to look like blocker bets but in reality you have a huge hand.

Example:

We lead out $50 into a $75 with the nut flush draw on the flop and are raised by an opponent to $150, the remaining players fold and we call.

We hit our flush on the turn...but we're OOP so getting max value is going to be tough... a lot of the times if we check our opponent will check behind, then call down the river. The times that we do lead out strong most non set hands will fold...and if we lead out medium, our opponent will generally either fold if he is medium strong or call if he is very strong but then fold if we bet the river again leaving us with the same result (one street of value) (if we have a hyper aggro image and consistently represent draws then this doesn't apply since we'll get called down light so just bet/bet is the way to go if thats the case or if you are against players who don't know about the fold option of this game the same applies)

So what do we do.... lead the turn with a ridiculously sized bet of $45... the same player who would have CHECKED if we checked now seems to raise this an incredible amount of the time (it looks like we have 1 big heart and a pair or something now and dont wanna call a big bet) so he jacks it up to $350. We thnk a while and then call. The river blanks and we lead out for $40 (or something else ridiculous). Opponent will at least just call this bet but he may be tempted to value raise again!

It sounds stupid but this has been effective for me as of late. And obviously the ridiculous bets don't have to be THAT small (i think in the examples i over did it a bit) but generally max of 25% of the pot (also depends on stack sizes)... but i have found that when you bet LESS than your original bet the street before people spaz and auto raise you a very very high % of the time (i bet 50 u raise 150 then i bet 45 the next street)

[lightfungus]

I have always thought these bets could be used in a very effective style. Not only do you gain value in a hand like in your example, people will now also respect the blocker bet almost like a normal bet when you are drawing and want to get to a cheap showdown. As long as it is used in moderation I think it can be a valuable tool.

I think the danger here is talking yourself into calling lighter because "the guy is raising me with nothing because he is frustrated/thinks it's a BB."

[Zybomb]

Agreed however they also can be bluff finders as well.

Slightly off topic (maybe deserving a new thread not sure)

Example: You limp AJ EP, 2 other limpers and BB checks. We'll say $22 in pot (2.5 game)

Flop comes : A 7 3

BB checks, you check , next check, button bets $20 , BB folds you call other player folds.

Turn comes 8

You lead $60 and are called.

River comes 2

Issue: Our hand is probably best at this point, opponent may have a whiffed draw that he picked up on the turn or a weaker Ace/pair. Obviously if we knew he had a whiffed draw we'd check/call to let him bluff and if we knew he had a pair that he'd call a bet with but check behind we'd bet but then the question becomes how big of a bet will he call and will our bet be too big in the sense that nothing that we beat will call.... it's an interesting spot for a weak lead fake blocker bet type bet...of say $35. I think this $35 will be called a decent amount of the time by weak pairs/aces that would have checked behind AND would have folded to a larger bet.... but also i think it will induce whiffed draws to attempt a bluff raise a decent % of the time as well.... so if they bump this bet to $150 or so -- keep in mind if we bet the river (normally), it's not THAT much more than we would have value bet -- so we can call here (lightish) hoping we set up the bluff, thus gaining value out of both weaker made hands and whiffed draws.... Against Rocks etc this obv doesnt apply

[Talking Poker]

Well, this is a non-issue because we are only making a fake blocker bet when we have a huge hand.

I've experimented with this a little bit in the past and I think it can be effective, but only if used very sparingly and against the right opponents.

Generally though (against the average opponent that most people reading this are going to be playing against), I think ABC > FPS.

[Talking Poker]

This is worthy of a new thread, IMO, and that is one goofy line you took.

[2Tone]

Yeah --granted, that I'm never playing higher than 1/2 NL, and always ABC poker (at least to the best of my understanding).

But I raise AJ suited in early position 100% of the time.

And if I hit an Ace on the flop, I'm betting it 99% of the time.

[Wes]

I feel the same way.

I almost never do these blocker, fake blocker bets against people's game which I respect since I think they will just see that bet and raise it a lot and then I feel compelled to call, but I'm generally not sure of what their tendencies are and what they think my calling/raising tendencies would be so I mostly try to avoid the situation by making these feeler type bets.

Right now anyway I feel that the general mantra for the 2+2 crowd is that once you bet weakly, you are forced to call a raise in a ton of scenarios. So perhaps there is room once again for the blocker bet to fold because the games have adapted.

[Zybomb]

wouldn't that make them prime targets for fake blocker bets since they're auto-raising you when you want them to?

[Wes]

well that is the way i think they will react, but i don't know for sure what frequency they will actually bluff there.

[Windbreaker]

[Zybomb]

I thought this was a good segment by Daniel

[herschelw]

I pretty much agree with TP here. Against bad players I make these weak bets with big hands when I know they are stations with bottom pair or similar and will fold to a solid bet but not a larger34/th's pot-ish bet.