The iceman discusses blocking bets, the check-raise, note-taking, handling bad beats - and more is to come!

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I didnt even think to address that, but now that you mention it, I dont think Ive ever done it. I guess its because I try to stay out of situations where I would need to use it. I usually bail out before the river in those type of hands where Im in that much doubt about my hand.
There must be times where it could be put to good use though. I'll have to think about that during some hands and see if I can use it to my advantage.
Thanks for pointing it out.

Ice,

My first post here, you got a great forum running! Keep it up.

Would you agree that the blocking bet would be a lot more effective if you've used it previously as a trapping move? I'm talking about higher-stakes here, and it's a similar concept to Scott Francis' point about using the check-raise to protect your checks.

Say you're in a hand with a very aggressive player; you hit a set on the flop, and put him pretty solidly on a draw of some sort. The turn is a brick, and the river pairs the board, thus giving you a full house. You have a good feeling you can get the guy to bluff, so you make a smallish bet, he comes over the top, and you call and show down your monster. Now, in the future, you might be able to occasionally use this image for some blocking bets; they'll work more often, and if someone does come over the top, you can be a good deal more confident that your vulnerable hand is beaten.

I'm really just speculating here, because I'm talking about games in which a broke-ass grinder like myself can't even afford the small blind.

-TightWad

Welcome, Squeeze Bunnel
Where are your road buddies?

Tightwad, that might work if the player is good enough to think that your small bet is a blocking bet, but even at higher stakes there are not all that many players who seem to understand it.
But if the player you are trying it on is the same one who came over the top of you at the river when the board paired then hes probably NOT very good. If he hit his draw and came over the top with his flush on a paired board, hes probably the kind of player that you dont need to trick.

He might raise your smallish bet with a hand that you really CAN beat.

A new article by iceman is available on the main site!

Stealing Small Pots

stealing-small-pots-page76.html

My first post on this site - got a link on the ITH forum and came over here. Looks like a great site since I now play more NLHE.

I was reading the check raise article and saw this:

Again, you call a modest raise with

Now, I don’t always call raises with suited connectors, but when I do, I will sometimes check raise with a draw also. If the flop comes and you check raise the preflop raiser, you put a lot of pressure on him.

If he missed the flop, he has to fold, even though you missed also. If he calls, you have outs to hit your hand and believe me that the times you do hit your hand, the payoff will be sweet because he’ll never see it coming.

A play like this will also slow down even a big hand. I’ve gotten to showdown a lot of times for free after the flop. The preflop raiser then saw my cards and even though he may have won THIS hand, has to be worried to be in a big hand with me because he doesn’t know what I'll do.

I had A5 suited in MP and the BTN raised preflop. Ace on the flop and I check raised the LP player who flopped only a 7 with his Q7 - He called and got a Q on the river.

He should have folded to my check Raise of the flop.

Great article.