Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Volume 1 (42 page)

Your opponent checks, you bet 10BBs and he calls. The river is the 2
and he checks. You are fairly sure he has a hand somewhere between K-Q and 9-8, giving him something between top and middle pair. The pot has 33BBs in it and you have 34BBs left in your stack. You should push against a good player, but since your opponent does not want to go broke, bet about 27BBs. He will likely make a crying call, whereas he might fold to a push because he doesn’t want to bust out of the tournament.

Again, don’t make this play against good players. Also, don’t make this play more than once, as most players will realize that you left your opponent with a few extra chips when you wanted him to call. You may think you can bluff with this play later, but it’s tough to tell how each opponent will react to such a bet once he’s seen it. You are probably better off just going back to normal bets.

Blocking Bets

A blocking bet is a small bet made with a weak hand, such as 7-6 on a K-J-8-6-2 board, with the intention of folding to a raise. Blocking bets are information bets. We learned earlier that bets for information are usually pretty bad because the information you get is often not accurate. Making a blocking bet against a good player is almost always a bad play. If you have a weak hand with showdown value, you are much better off using that hand as a bluff catcher. A blocking bet has some value against a weak player, but using these weak hands as bluff catchers is usually more +EV.

Suppose you raise 9
-8
from middle position to 3BBs out of your 200BB stack. The button calls. The flop comes 9
-5
-2
. You bet 4BBs and he calls. The turn is the J
. You check and he checks. The river is the A
. Betting for value makes little sense here because your opponent will only call if you are beat. A blocking bet in this instance would be around 4BBs. The problem with betting so small is that it induces bluffs while getting little value out of worse hands. Check-calling is almost always the right play here because most opponents will at least consider bluffing the river and you will usually only lose a bit more when you call incorrectly.

A blocking bet falls into the category of bets that can only be called when you are beat. These bets are almost always incorrect. The logic behind a blocking bet is that you can bet a small amount to find out if your opponent has you beat. But your opponent will not bet the river just with hands that beat you if you check to them. In that case, check-folding would be a better option. Turning a decent made hand into a bluff in this situation is just bad logic.

Since most good players know to raise blocking bets, as they are usually weak, you can make the occasional stone bluff or also a bet to induce action.

Suppose you have either 9
-8
or A
-K
and raise from middle position out of your 200BB stack. Your opponent, a good, aggressive player, calls on the button. The flop comes K
-7
-6
. You make a continuation bet with either hand. The turn is the 2
.