Head Games: Be Aware of Blockers and Card Removal Effects in Cash Games

The Pros: Matt Moore, Tristan Wade, and Andrew Lichtenberger

Craig Tapscott: Share your understanding of being aware of blockers in cash games and how you use this knowledge to your advantage.

Matt Moore: Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to hear the word “blockers” tossed around at almost any poker game from $1-$2-to-$50-$100 no-limit. I usually catch it from a recently felted player justifying a light call or bluff gone wrong. “But I had blockers,” are famous last words of far too many players leaving the Bellagio $10-$20 no-limit hold’em (NL). The most important thing I can teach you about blockers is… don’t worry about blockers. 

Yes, I’m kidding, but only kind of. In almost any game you’ll play under $25-$50 no-limit, hand ranges won’t be balanced in a way where removing one card can have a great enough effect on your opponent’s range to adjust your read. Use your intuition, and don’t forget what got you where you are. You’re a live poker player and your feel for confidence and fear should be trusted over one silly card removed from a three-card straight board.

The simplest way I incorporate blockers into my game is to keep from getting too out of line. For example let’s say I open the cutoff and get called by an unknown opponent in the small blind. The board comes out J 7 6; I bet and get raised by my opponent. While it appears that J-10 and 10-10 are interchangeable hands against our check-raising opponent, I would fold 10-10 and continue with J-10. Why you ask? Blockers. By holding one of the three remaining jacks, our opponent is weighted more towards draws and a bit less towards stronger J-x hands.

Tristan Wade: Blockers are very important when playing cash games. Not only is it valuable to know which hole cards aren’t in play, it also allows for representing ranges that include these cards. Blockers play significant roles in different forms of poker, such as pot-limit Omaha (PLO) and NL. The most important dynamic for understanding and being aware of blockers is the reaction of your opponent. If you are playing against people that comprehend utilizing blockers, your strategy should differ from what it would be against those who don’t.

I recently played a hand during a $5-$10 NL session with an opponent who understood blockers. We had played a few times before and knew what each other were capable of. I held K Q in a pot where I raised and he defended his big blind. The flop came A J 7. He check/called the flop. The turn was the A, he check/called again. The river was the 5 and he checked to me. This is a spot where I would triple barrel often but not always, especially against this villain. His range is weighted towards value hands after calling the turn (flushes, A-x, J-x). He also realizes the run out of the board and how that affects my range. These are just a couple reasons as to why I decided to check the river and give up on the pot.

Andrew Lichtenberger: Cultivating awareness of blockers in cash games primarily helps in realizing how it changes the combinatorics of your opponent’s range with the added benefit of giving you more equity in the pot because of the inherent connectivity your hand has to the board.
A simple example is if you have a heart in your hand and there are three hearts on the board, your opponent is substantially less likely to have a flush than were you not to have a blocker. The amount that this becomes relevant is dependent on the likelihood of the flush card you block being one your opponent would realistically have. Typically, the higher the card the more relevant a blocker it becomes because people are more likely to play higher cards than lower cards.

Craig Tapscott: Share the concept of applying card removal effects and using that information to bluff rivers?

Matt Moore: When playing against high-level thinkers with balanced ranges, it gets more and more difficult to confidently grasp where we stand in certain hands. These types of opponents orchestrate their ranges to make sure for every straight and two pair they have when they raise the flop, they have enough flush draws and gutters to make us think twice about tossing top pair in the muck.

Let’s say we open A K in middle position and get called by a strong, thinking player on the button. The flop falls K Q 9 and we continuation bet (c-bet) two-thirds pot. Our opponent raises our bet and the action is back to us. While top pair/top kicker is a strong hand after only three cards, our relative hand strength given all variables on a K-Q-9 flop is minimal. When we think about the hands our opponent is representing, we come up with three combinations of 9-9, four combos of J-10 suited, and six combos of K-Q. That is a total 13 value combinations. For the sake of argument, let’s assume we expect him to raise all of his flush draws and A 10x or A Jx. We’ll give him credit for six combos of non ace-high flush draws. 

Now, since people tend to play all A-x suited hands to a single raise in position, we can add another twelve combos of flush draws and gutters if we’re not holding the A. This triples the rate at which he’s bluffing, making a fold beyond foolish. But since we are holding the A blocker, we can confidently fold our hand knowing our opponent’s range is weighted towards hands that have us in rough shape.

Applying the proper math in such situations can be overwhelming and often times unrealistic when under time constraints. What is important and easy is understanding which blockers affect our opponent’s range the most. Ace-high flush blockers almost always have a three times greater effect than any other flush blocker you can hold. This is because people generally play all A-x suited hands, while only playing suited hands that are closely connected with all other cards.

Tristan Wade: When playing deep-stacked cash games, you can get to the river a multitude of ways. This is perfect for bloating pots and setting up river bluffs. That is if you don’t get called too much. A big bluff will be much more successful if you account for card removal. In most cases, you better have some sort of blocker, or you are probably BMB’n – Blowing Money Bluffing. You don’t necessarily need the certain card that represents the nuts, as long as you have a card in your hand or range that you can represent. My friend played an interesting hand that illustrates this point perfectly.

Roughly 100 big blinds deep (villain covers) there was a button raise and my friend is in the big blind with 10 7. The flop was a beautiful one, 9 8 2. My friend led for a healthy-sized bet on the flop, which the villain called. The turn brought the 8 and friend checked. The villain bet about half the pot; my friend then check-raised to possibly create a pot-sized river shove if his raise was called. The river was the Q and he moved all-in for a little more than pot. Villain folded. This bluff could have worked for many reasons, but the lesson here is that my friend was able to represent a wide value range with how he played the hand. He also held a ten, so he was able to remove certain J-10 combos and represent them himself. When playing versus other thinking opponents, take advantage of any extra information, it definitely helps.

Andrew Lichtenberger: Card removal helps when bluffing rivers, but more often this decision is based on whether or not you think your range is stronger than your opponent’s. As previously mentioned, when you have a heart in your hand on a three-flush board, your opponent is less likely to have a flush. Thus, if you feel an opponent’s calling range is tight enough based on the previous action in the hand to bluff at it, then it could make sense to bluff with a blocker in this case. However, if you were to always do it, you’d be bluffing with an exploitably wide range in some cases. And even so, you may block flushes but if your opponent can find a call with top pair or similar bluff-catching hands, it’s not very helpful to go off of blockers alone. ♠