Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
A blocking bet falls into the category of bets
A blocking bet falls into the category of bets that can only be called when you are beat. These bets are almost always incorrect. The logic behind a blocking bet is that you can bet a small amount to find out if your opponent has you beat. But your opponent will not bet the river just with hands that beat you if you check to them. In that case, check-folding would be a better option. Turning a decent made hand into a bluff in this situation is just bad logic. Since most good players know to raise blocking bets, as they are usually weak, you can make the occasional stone bluff or also a bet to induce action.
Suppose you have either 9-8 or A-K and raise from middle position
Suppose you have either 9-8 or A-K and raise from middle position out of your 200BB stack. Your opponent, a good, aggressive player, calls on the button. The flop comes K-7-6. You make a continuation bet with either hand. The turn is the 2. You check both hands, with the intention of calling if your opponent bets. You can make a case for betting both of these hands, but assume we check for this example. The river is the 2. With either hand, betting around 1/3 pot makes a lot of sense because your opponent is a good, thinking player. If you bet the 9-8 and your opponent calls or raises, you only lose a small amount while giving yourself decent odds to pick up the pot with a cheap bluff. If you bet the A-K and your opponent raises, you have an easy call, as your hand looks like a weak made hand and you are trying to find out where you are at. Sometimes your opponent will river a random good hand, but in this spot, if you were ahead on the flop you are almost always ahead on the river. By betting small on the river, you may also induce him to call with worse hands than if you made a standard 2/3-pot value-bet.