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strategy

Block bet

Also: blocking bet, blocker bet

A small bet made out of position, often on the river, with a medium-strength hand to set a cheap price and discourage the opponent from making a larger bet.

Example. Holding second pair on the river out of position, you bet a quarter of the pot rather than check and face a pot-sized bet.

Block bets are common against opponents who bet big when checked to. They can extract thin value from worse hands that would not have bet themselves, and they cap the amount you lose to better hands. The risk is that a good opponent raises the block bet as a bluff, so they should not be used mechanically.

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