Help me understand the "blockers"

[jadaminato]

Hi there! I really like watching poker videos and there they usually talk a lot about blockers. I have searched for information about it and from what I understand it is basically that if I have a card, my opponent cannot have it (or has less probabilities). But I do not quite understand the operation of this, beyond preventing him from having certain hands. They usually say that they "block their bluffs" as a bad thing. Could someone clarify this matter to me?

 

[fundiver199]

If your opponent is a reasonable player, you can usually assign him a range of hands, which it makes sense to play, like he did. So if you are bluffing, you like to block the strongest of those hands, because then he is more likely to fold. And if you are considering calling with a hand, that only beat his bluffs, you also like to block his strongest hands and not his bluffs.

Example:

We bet the flop and bet the turn as a bluff, and we still have not made a hand, so now we are thinking about bluffing the river. The board is QcTc7s4c2d. The ideal bluffing hand here is AcX, because this hand prevent our opponent from having the nut flush, which of course is always going to give us action. So our bluff is more likely to work, than if we have for instance 5d3d. As the action played out, its very unlikely, we can check back and win with A high, so we should consider bluffing.

 

[eurosTotnd]

I believe blockers are the cards that you hold and they prevent or reduce the chance for your villain to get there by the turn or the river exemple : your holdin T-T on a 7-8-9 flop you may block some straight draws ... since your villain have reduced outs
So i think you guess it right

 

[alienat3d]

Yes, the blockers... they are very important by the way. They do decrease the chances of the villain to have a flush or a straight, that's why it's a big plus point for a bluff if we have a blocker and it's a big minus point to call a raise if we haven't a blocker. But still, don't rely only on that, you have to reconstruct the whole hand, before you make a decision and put your villain on most reasonable range before you ever think about blockers. Something like that. :hmmmm:

 

[fundiver199]

Yes, the blockers... they are very important by the way. They do decrease the chances of the villain to have a flush or a straight, that's why it's a big plus point for a bluff if we have a blocker and it's a big minus point to call a raise if we haven't a blocker. But still, don't rely only on that, you have to reconstruct the whole hand, before you make a decision and put your villain on most reasonable range before you ever think about blockers. Something like that. :hmmmm:

Blockers also tend to not matter, when peoples range is very narrow. The micros and in particular full ring has a lot of nitty players, who basically only 4-bet KK and AA. So if you get 4-bet by one of these guys and look down at AK and think "LOL I block KK and AA, so I go all in", then you will still be shown KK or AA every single time against these players. This cost me quite a lot of money to learn

 

[dlam]

I find it more useful in Omaha say I have a 9999 and flop comes out 78 K I have block any draws to the upper straight. So if say 78K 10 on turn then a blank You can bluff and know it a blocker bluff
Same thing happen with you have the ace
that blocks the A high flush. Those would be the most common ones I know

I was playing 2-7 draw and the other guy had 77657 and tried to bluff block me after staying Pat early

I dont find blockers concept as useful in HE

 

[ChickenArise]

This is the best video on Blockers I have seen to date.

It doesnt cover the obvious blockers like dealing with the suited Ace on flushes but the more intricate part of blockers and when the blocker has significance and how to quantify that. Let me know what you think, and if there are any more out there that you guys know of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCW1f8t6Hk&t=3s

 

[jadaminato]

If your opponent is a reasonable player, you can usually assign him a range of hands, which it makes sense to play, like he did. So if you are bluffing, you like to block the strongest of those hands, because then he is more likely to fold. And if you are considering calling with a hand, that only beat his bluffs, you also like to block his strongest hands and not his bluffs.

Example:

We bet the flop and bet the turn as a bluff, and we still have not made a hand, so now we are thinking about bluffing the river. The board is QcTc7s4c2d. The ideal bluffing hand here is AcX, because this hand prevent our opponent from having the nut flush, which of course is always going to give us action. So our bluff is more likely to work, than if we have for instance 5d3d. As the action played out, its very unlikely, we can check back and win with A high, so we should consider bluffing.

Thank you, your explanation was very clear and helped me a lot.

This is the best video on Blockers I have seen to date.

It doesnt cover the obvious blockers like dealing with the suited Ace on flushes but the more intricate part of blockers and when the blocker has significance and how to quantify that. Let me know what you think, and if there are any more out there that you guys know of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCW1f8t6Hk&t=3s

Wow, that video is very good. It opened a whole world of concepts to study and learn. Thank you so much