Avoid The Ryan

A blocking bet, when properly used is an effective method to attempt to deter a player from bluffing you off a hand on the river. Typically, you utilize the blocking bet against a single opponent and when you believe you might have the superior hand but are not 100% sure. Additionally, with this hand, you may find yourself hard pressed to call a river bet.

By using the blocking bet on FullTiltPoker Download, not only are you discouraging your pokerstar.com opposition from betting, but you are also setting the price of the river. For example, supposing the pot contains $60 in your 1-2 no limit cash game. You are heads up going into the river, which is a brick. You have second pair with a decent kicker, which you believe is the best hand. You think to yourself that if you check, you may well be showing weakness. Additionally, you will be hard pressed to call a substantial bet here if you check. The best course of action may be putting out a blocking bet here. While you cannot comfortably call a pot-sized river bet, you can make a bet of $35-40 here.

The hand most often plays out in one of the following ways:

1. The opponent merely calls with a better hand that he would have bet on the river. The end result is that you have saved roughly $20 by being proactive with the blocking bet.

2. Your opposition calls with a weaker hand and pays you off.

3. The opposing player folds. Sometimes, he even folds a hand that is better than yours, such as top pair with a suspect kicker!

As you can clearly see, the poker blocking bet is a valuable tool to use on the river when out of position and uncertain whether or not you have the best hand. By pushing out a blocking bet on the river, you set the price and control the pot. You stand a chance of winning by folding your opposition and tend to save money when he folds. By using the blocking bet, you eliminate being out of position on the river as a weakness.