Blockers

Everyone has long known that poker is a game of high skill. Winning requires the player to take into account the mass of little things. In this article, we will talk about the so-called blockers, along the way we will answer the questions: what is it, what is it for, and how do blockers contribute to reading the opponent’s hands opposite.

Blockers carry a simple essence. The main idea is that cards that are dealt to us preflop reduce the likelihood of certain cards being vis-à-vis. As an illustration, we’ll analyze a few examples. Imagine that luck is on our side and a pair of kings sits firmly in our hands. Another king appeared on the flop with a “dry” board. Joy is premature! The presence of a pair of kings in our possession greatly reduces the possible presence of the enemy remaining in the hands. The answer to our bet will be an opponent dump. Based on this, you need to turn on the tactics of a slow game and wait until the opponent dares to bluff, or significantly raises bets.

An example of the second.

Imagine that we, at a minimum, are already prize-winners in the “late” tournament, we play with rather tight opponents, but quite a bit separates us from the departure. We and three others went all-in. What kind of cards do we need to triple? To do this, it is better to have cards of the same suit of type 7 8 on hand, rather than QJ, KJ, A 2. This strategy often bears fruit.

Now we will discuss the case in which pairs on their hands neutralize the opponent’s street. We have JJ. On the table are 10 2 9 8 4. If the opponent makes an attempt to portray QJ's hand and puts it, then most likely we will call, because JJ is already with us.

Last example

From the PCA 2010, when H. Gimbel and T. Reiman showed how important the use of blockers is. Gimbel with A? 4 ?, and Reiman has 8? 7 ?. It will seem to the layman that this is an unsuccessful attempt to break the bank, but in reality this clearly illustrates the importance of knowledge about blockers for winning serious poker tournaments. Holding A and three hearts of suit on the board, he understood that the opponent does not have a nut flush and he “drew” it. As a result, Reiman dropped the street and lost all his chances of triumph in the poker tournament.

All famous poker players resort to the use of blockers, and some even write articles on this topic. TeamProPokerStars player Isaac Haxton noted in his article: “Even if you play only at small limits, a common understanding about blockers will be enough to better predict the opponent’s actions and roughly determine the strength of his cards.”