The idea of blockers in poker has been a part of optimal theory for a while. More recently, many players have been using blockers as a significant part of their overall poker strategy.
The concept of blockers in poker can be used in any poker game, with PLO and PLO8 players depending on blockers quite heavily and Texas Hold’em players incorporating them more into their game plans by the day.
If you are new to this concept and don’t quite know how to use blockers in your poker strategy, keep reading and learn how to improve your bottom line by making new moves with blockers in mind.
What Are Blockers in Poker?
If you haven’t had a chance to study blockers before, you may not be fully aware of what they are, but even the name alone probably gives you some idea.
As you may have guessed, poker blockers are cards that make it less likely or impossible for a player to have a certain combination of cards.
Blockers can be more or less significant, depending on whether they make a certain hand less likely or completely impossible, especially in games like Pot Limit Omaha.
For example, imagine playing a PLO hand and facing a river bet on an unpaired board with three hearts on it. By betting here, your opponent is saying they have a flush and are forcing you to decide whether they are bluffing or not.
However, imagine you have the Ah in your hand but no other heart to go with it. You don’t quite have a flush, but you know for a fact your opponent does not have the nut flush.
In this example, you can go ahead and make a big raise, knowing your opponent can’t have the best possible hand, and they can’t know if you have it or not. You could easily have another heart to go with your Ace and will make the same play when you do.
In other situations, poker blockers may have a lesser impact but still be quite important. For example, in preflop situations in Texas Hold’em Poker, blockers can play a big part in your choice of bluffing hands.
If you noticed players in high-stakes tournaments on TV often bluffing preflop with hands like A2s and A5s, blockers are the reason why they choose these particular hands.
Having one of the Aces in your hand makes it significantly less likely your opponents have a hand like AA or AKs. For this reason, your bluff attempts are more likely to work.
For example, imagine facing a middle position raise while sitting on the button in an NLH tournament and looking down at As2s. Your hand is not very strong, but having that As in your hand brings down the number of the raiser’s AA combos from six to just three, making it significantly less likely they have the best hand in poker.
Blockers can also be used on all other streets, with pocket pairs often being great bluffing hands thanks to the blocker effect.
For example, if you are holding 66 on a board of 754, this is a great hand to bluff with, as it makes it very unlikely your opponent has a straight with 86 or 63. If preflop play allows you to have these hands in your range, you can play the hand very aggressively and often win without showdown.
Bluffing with Blockers
Blockers are most commonly used as part of the bluffing strategy, as having certain blockers in your hand can significantly improve your bluffing opportunities.
In fact, players who base their play on the GTO poker strategy often make their decisions based on whether or not they hold certain cards in their hand or not.
Let’s consider an example hand to explain how blockers can help you when thinking about bluffing and how certain cards can change the hand in a meaningful way.
Playing in a $5/10 cash game, you are seated in the big blind with As5d. The cutoff raises to $30, and you make the call in the big blind, which is the standard play.
With $65 in the pot, the dealer puts out Ks3s2d, giving you a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. You check in flow, and your opponent c-bets for $25, which you call, taking you to the turn.
The turn card is the 9s, and you check in flow once again. Your opponent bets once again, and it’s time to make a decision.
If you had a hand like Ad5d, this turn card would probably be the right time to fold your cards and move on to the next hand.
Your opponent could easily have a hand like AK, KQ, or K9s, all of which beat your hand and are fairly strong in terms of absolute hand strength.
However, since you hold the As turning your hand into a bluff makes a lot of sense. For one, you can make the nuts on the river with another spade and can also make a straight with a 4, giving you plenty of outs if you do get called.
More importantly, holding the As means your opponent can’t have the nuts, while you could potentially have it.
By putting in a significant raise on this turn card, you will put your opponent in a very difficult spot, even if they do have a small flush.
If they have a hand like one pair or two pairs, they will most likely have to fold either now or on the river, as you can reasonably have the nut flush to have them beat.
This is just one of many examples where holding the right blocker can help you find great spots to bluff in poker and win against a much stronger hand.
Value Betting with Blockers
While the concept of blockers comes into play the most when bluffing, it can also be useful to consider blockers when betting for value.
While this may sound a bit strange at first, there are actually quite a few situations in which blockers can provide useful information that will allow you to value bet more effectively.
A good example has to do with when you flop a set in a game of Texas Hold’em. Typically speaking, all sets are considered very strong poker hands, but there is a big difference between holding a top set versus a bottom set.
For example, imagine calling a raise in position and flopping a set on a board of J73. Whether you have JJ or 33, you almost definitely have the best hand, but there is a big difference in how you should approach these hands.
If you have the top set with JJ, you are blocking your opponent from having a hand like AJ, KJ, QJ, or JT, all of which would probably be willing to put more chips into the pot.
On the other hand, holding a hand like 33 or 77, all of those hands are unblocked, meaning there are significantly more Jx combinations that your opponent could potentially have.
You can apply this knowledge by usually raising bets you face with your bottom and middle sets while setting a trap and just calling with the top set more often, especially if that top card is a Broadway card.
A similar application of this concept can be used when you have a two-card straight on a board where a one-card straight is possible, such as holding JT on a board of 9s8c7s6d2c,
While it would be great if your opponent had a T and could pay you off, the T you hold blocks quite a few realistic Tx combos. For that reason, going for a small value bet that targets hands like two pairs can often make more sense than betting big and simply folding those hands out.
Using Blockers in Range Construction
If you want to play poker like the pros, you need to think about every hand in terms of ranges and all the possible poker hands your opponents can have.
This means always considering every possible combination of cards each opponent can have and making sure you consider your cards when doing so.
Every time you see a flop and try to build your opponent’s range, remember to account for the two cards you are holding and remove all the key combos that contain those cards.
For example, if you hold AdJs on a board of Ts9d8d, you have to remember not to consider card combos like AdJd, AdTd, Ad9d, QsJs, KsJs, and others as part of your opponent’s range.
Holding key cards that have a lot of connectivity with the board texture means you can significantly shrink your opponent’s poker range even before they take any action.
Following that step, you can decide whether the blockers you hold work more in your favor or your opponent’s and whether they make their range more value-heavy, draw-heavy, or trash-heavy.
Giving Up on Bluffs with Blockers
While blockers can often help us put pressure on our opponents and represent strong hands, they can also help us know when to give up.
A good example of this is when we hold a very strong draw on a board and bet the flop and the turn, only to get called on both streets.
For example, imagine raising from the cutoff to $30 before the flop in a $5/10 game with QsJs and getting called by the button and the big blind.
The flop brings Ts9s4d. You bet out for $65, the button folds, and the big blind calls. With $225 in the pot, the flop brings the 2d, and you go for another bet of $150 on the turn. Your opponent again calls.
The river brings the 4c, and your opponent once again checks. At this point, you need to consider the types of hands they probably have and think about whether or not they are really going to fold.
You are holding both the Qd and the Jd, which means they are much less likely to have all the key draws that exist on this board. In fact, as the hand was played, and considering your blockers, the player is most likely to have a one pair hand, most likely the top pair.
Your decision at this point should be based mostly on whether you think your opponent will fold the top pair to a big bet and how big the bet should be. If not, you should not fire again, as your opponent having a drawing hand like an OESD or a flush draw is much less likely than it would be if you have a hand like AA or KK.
While this does not mean you should never fire a triple-barrel bluff in a situation like this, it is worth considering how your blockers influence your opponent’s range and what hands they block them from having.
Use Blockers to Boost Your Poker Results
Advanced poker concepts like blockers can help you gain a significant edge over your less experienced opponents. However, it can take some time to master blockers and know exactly when to use them in your games.
The next time you play poker, try to be mindful of blockers and the way your cards interact with the board and potentially with your opponent’s range.
In some spots, holding blockers will help you pull off a big bluff, while in others, it will save you from betting into a player who holds a strong hand and is trapping you.
In either case, blockers can work wonders for the way you play poker once you master them, so take it one step at a time and learn more about blockers in poker with every session you play.
For a deeper insight into the value of blockers, we suggest running some poker solver sims and paying close attention to how the solver uses blockers to pick card combinations to bet or check in different situations in the game.
