Card Player Pro

Game: World Championship of Online Poker $300 no-limit/limit hold’em
Opponent: Unknown passive player on the button
Stacks: 198,710 (mine); 135,841 (his)
Blinds: 1,250-2,500
Ante: 325
My Cards: Q Q
My Position: Cutoff

It’s always nice to look down at pocket aces deep in a tournament and have your opponent pick up pocket kings on the same hand, but let’s face it, that rarely happens. If you want to make your way up the tournament ladder, you need to practice extracting value with less-than-premium holdings. In this column, I’m going to look at a great way to extract some value post-flop with a marginal hand by using an underutilized move: the blocking bet.

A blocking bet is one in which you make a small bet out of position with a marginal hand, hoping to prevent (or “block”) your opponent from making a big bet and bluffing you out of the pot. Some people also refer to this as betting “for information,” but we use it here to both protect ourselves from a bluff and keep weak hands in the pot. Against good players, I caution against using the blocking bet frequently, as they’ll realize what you’re doing and will raise you out of the pot. However, against passive players who aren’t going to get tricky, it’s a nice way to make a few extra chips.

Five-handed in this tournament, with blinds of 1,250-2,500 and a 325 ante, it was folded to me in the cutoff, and I raised to 6,250 with the Q Q. The button, whom I had observed as being a weaker, more passive player, flat-called the 6,250, and the blinds folded. We took a flop heads up.

The flop came 9 7 4. I made a continuation-bet of 10,000 into a pot of 17,875, and my opponent called without much thought.

Given my read on my opponent, I think he’s capable of calling with any pair, maybe a few draws, and maybe (although less likely) ace high.

The turn brought the A, adding a flush draw. I opted to check.

Against players with whom you have an aggressive dynamic, the ace actually becomes a good card for firing a second bet for value. Smart, thinking players will expect you to bluff on a scary card such as the ace, and will continue to call you with their one-pair hands from the flop. However, my opponent doesn’t seem to be on that level, and I think the ace will give him reason to fold a weak pair. Also, it’s not impossible that he just made top pair with it, either.

He checked behind.
The river brought the 8.

Against this opponent, I decided that this was a good spot to use the blocking bet. I’m pretty sure that my queens are the best hand, but I don’t think he has a strong hand. I don’t really want to check, because if he decides to make a big bet, it’s going to be hard for me to call. But, I also don’t want to make a big bet myself, because I don’t expect a weaker hand to call a bet of 30,000.

So, I made a small blocking bet of 15,000 into a pot of 37,875.

Note that my bet is less than half the pot. It’s small enough that he’ll be tempted to look me up with a weak hand, but just big enough that he won’t raise as a bluff. The bet really “blocks” him from making a move at me, but invites him to make a loose call. If I bet 25,000, he probably folds a weak pair — but for 15,000, people’s curiosity gets the best of them and they call to keep you honest.

Without much thought, my opponent called with 3-3, and I scooped a nice pot.

In spots in which you don’t want to check your marginal hands because you fear a bluff, but don’t think your opponent can call a big bet, try throwing out a small bet and see if it’s called by a weak hand. You’ll be surprised what people will look you up with when they feel the price is right!

To watch Mike Watson comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/Sirwatts-1.