3rd entry. Blocking/preemptive bet and 2 hands where they could be used.

In ‘Math. of poker’ authors solve a simplified NL problem and show that optimal strategy includes some preemptive (as they call them) bets, these are small bets of about 1/5 of the pot, which are made OOP, and designed to stop our opponents from bluffing at us. In order to prevent us from being exploitable we should also make such bets with strong hands gaining value from bluffs if opponent decides to play on the weakness.

Personally I don’t have block bets in my arsenal, but in 2 hands I played yesterday I think I should used them. At least in JJ hand for sure. Alas, I have a lot to learn, and I didn’t recognize the situation. Hopefully I’ll be able to use it another time.

And the hands. They are both against decent opponents. I understand that reraising preflop is an option, but I like a call too. This way there is more room for postflop play.

Hand1. AQ

Seat 1: gabriel127 ($1,604.40 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($462.40 in chips)
Seat 4: pokerollix ($319.35 in chips)
Seat 5: Meijers ($100.00 in chips)
Seat 8: CO ($390.60 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
Hero posts blind ($2), pokerollix posts blind ($4).

PRE-FLOP
Meijers folds, CO bets $16, gabriel127 folds, Hero calls $14, pokerollix folds.

FLOP (36)
Hero checks, CO bets $25, Hero calls $25.

TURN (86)
Hero checks, CO bets $50, Hero calls $50.

RIVER (186)
Hero checks, CO bets $130, I?

I think if we just call preflop we don’t need to CR flop, on turn situation is basically the same.
The question is what to do on the river, check/fold as there is not many players who could 3 barrel bluff, and he is unlikely to VB a worse A, or try a blocking bet of about 60 with intention of folding to a raise. What I don’t like about block bet here, is that there is no big hand that I can treaten to have in this line. (Should I start to play sets this way?)

All in all I think my line sucks here.
Does anyone has a suggestion for a better line?
If you just say reraise preflop, it won’t do, you also need to outline your postflop play.
Ok, you reraise to 45, he calls, the same flop. You bet half the pot he calls. Same turn, you check he bets half the pot. Other suggestions?
Or, you reraise to 45, he calls, the same flop. You check, he bets half the pot, you call?
He bets 2/3 of the pot on turn.
Postflop, we are basically in the same situation all the time.

Hand2. JJ, opponent seems solid and agro, but only 35 hands. He already lost a stack to me when I flopped a straight from blinds, and he pushed over my bet on turn. He had TP and a flush draw then. He immediately rebought.

Seat 1: Hero ($1,214.05 in chips)
Seat 5: UTG ($394.00 in chips)
Seat 6: Stendan ($231.40 in chips)
Seat 7: lacky007x ($261.60 in chips)
Seat 9: 2drunk4you ($431.60 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
2drunk4you posts blind ($2), Hero posts blind ($4).

PRE-FLOP
UTG bets $15, Stendan folds, lacky007x folds, 2drunk4you folds,Hero calls $11.

FLOP (32)
Hero checks, UTG bets $30, Hero calls $30.

TURN (92)
Hero checks, UTG bets $50, Hero calls $50.

RIVER (192 )
Hero checks, UTG bets $150, I?


Here the question is not about call or fold. His line is consistent with QQ+ and air.
What I thought about is to change the river to:

RIVER (192 )
Hero bets 60,
A) UTG raises to 120
B) UTG raises to 220 (pushes)
C) UTG folds.
D) UTG calls
Of course, we want to see a case C) or D) here.
Case B leaves as with a tough decision, while case B is an easy fold IMO.

I think this board and the way I play the hand is a good place for this move, because hands like 86s, 56s are well in my range. Against this opponent, i.e. very aggro, I probably should hav even hands like 44, 88, 85, 54 in my range on the river.

All the input is much appreciated. If you successfully used this preemptive bet, your hand histories with comments are welcome too.

3rd Entry.

1. Playing a dry board.
2. Preemptive/Blocking bets continued.

1.
First, about playing a dry board. I am going to outline a problem, so that if someone has intuitive ideas about it we can compare them and try to find a best line. (Once again I will approach this problem from an optimal play strategy point of view.)

The simplest example of situation that I want to consider is the following: you raise preflop, someone calls and the board comes KK5 rainbow. With such a board the cards that come on turn and river normally doesn't matter much. So effectively we have a one street game with several rounds of betting. I think that this case can be solved mathematically for a given preflop distribution. More concretely, I am going to see how well broad preflop distribution goes aginst a wide distribution and how position influences our play.

One of the intuitive changes that I do on such boards is to decrease my bets sizes, i.e. I go with half pot or less bets. Anyway, I am looking for the tips you use and I will try to make up a solution for this problem later.

2.
And now some hands, I was trying to incorporate preemptive/blocking bets into my play.
To do this I looked for the spots where it seemed to me they should do fine. As a result (for a small sample) my river aggression went to 5.

Below there are three different situations where I used preemptive bets. Any comments are appreciated. (There were of course much more of them, these three are just give a look on them from different perspective.)

Hand1. Weak hand that wants a cheap showdown.
Opponent is an ok player.

Seat 1: Grabson1 ($502.75 in chips)
Seat 3: lutch6 ($66.00 in chips)
Seat 8: NoMorePleaze ($296.10 in chips)
Seat 9: Hero ($911.30 in chips)
Seat 10: goumos ($543.40 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
Hero posts blind ($2), goumos posts blind ($4).

PRE-FLOP
Grabson1 bets $17, lutch6 folds, NoMorePleaze folds, Hero calls $15, goumos folds.

FLOP
Hero checks, Grabson1 checks.

TURN
Hero bets $25, Grabson1 calls $25.

RIVER
Hero bets $35, Grabson1 calls $35.

SHOWDOWN
Grabson1 shows
Grabson1 wins $155.


Hand2. Monster that doesn't mind a raise.
Opponent is a TAG.

Seat 3: VHEoS ($310.00 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero ($414.80 in chips)
Seat 7: go_fast5 ($244.20 in chips)
Seat 8: d-towner71 ($314.60 in chips)
Seat 10: .BankRobber. ($400.00 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
Hero posts blind ($2), go_fast5 posts blind ($4), .BankRobber. posts blind ($4).

PRE-FLOP
d-towner71 folds, .BankRobber. bets $13, VHEoS folds, Hero calls $15, go_fast5 folds.

FLOP
Hero checks, .BankRobber. bets $16, Hero calls $16.

TURN
Hero checks, .BankRobber. bets $35, Hero calls $35.

RIVER
Hero bets $77, .BankRobber. calls $77.

SHOWDOWN
Hero shows
.BankRobber. mucks cards
Hero wins $291.

Hand3. Cheap bluff attempt.
Opponent is very loose, starnge playing postflop. It's hard to explain strange in what way, though.
(I had a bit of a read there, but anyway it illustrates the point.)

Seat 2: rapsac1 ($407.30 in chips)
Seat 3: akl8 ($472.80 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero ($608.40 in chips)
Seat 8: Macaell ($373.20 in chips)
Seat 10: Claes7 ($364.40 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
Hero posts blind ($2), Macaell posts blind ($4).

PRE-FLOP
Claes7 folds, rapsac1 folds, akl8 calls $4, Hero calls $2, Macaell checks.

FLOP
Hero bets $9, Macaell calls $9, akl8 folds.

TURN
Hero checks, Macaell bets $10, Hero calls $10.

RIVER
Hero bets $22, Macaell folds.

SHOWDOWN
Hero wins $69.

Hand1. I thought that I am likely ahead on turn, and if not I had about 13 outs. On river it was possible that I am still ahead, and it was possible that my opponent just paired his Q. I didn't want to be faced with a pot-sized bet and make a guess of what he has AK or AQ, hence a block bet.

Hand2. I would lkely fold to a push there.

Hand3. I doubt that I could make a 7 to fold there. (In opponent shoes I wouldn't fold a 7.)
Mostly I wanted to fold a hand like 6K, that had a better high card there, and was entirely possible for this betting pattern.

to pokerzen:

Maximizing value against draws is not the only way to play poker. One should maximize EV against the entire opponent's hand range, taking proper care of metagame considerations.

If my underbet causes my oppoennt to misread my hand (hey, he can't have a strong hand here, as he would bet a lot on such a draw heavy flop), and make mistakes futher in the hand I will gain much more value than by a basic approach of betting close to the pot on a draw heavy flop.