Pro Omaha Tips - Blockers

Blockers are cards you hold that would be outs for your opponents. For an extreme example, say you were playing JT98, all spades, and the flop came 876 with two spades. If you’re all-in against someone with the nut flush draw (Asxs), you hold four of their outs. In fact, you have five because the 5s would give you a straight flush. That has a drastic effect on your opponent’s chance of beating you. With two cards left to come (the turn and river), the chances of your opponent hitting the flush (and winning) go from 35% with nine outs to 16.5% with four outs.

When my hand includes a low flush possibility, the real value of those cards is not the chance of making the low flush, it’s the chance that they act as blockers if I’m competing against a flush draw. It’s not just flush cards that can act as blockers, straight cards and even paired cards can also be valuable blockers. Let’s say you hit top set on a coordinated board. You have 99 and the flop comes 983. If the pot gets big on the flop, you can safely assume that your opponent has a wrap draw, something like 7TJ or 67T is most likely. (If your opponent has 88 or 33, that’s awesome). There’s a significant difference between holding 9924 and 99JJ (and it’s not just that you should have folded the first one preflop). The two jacks act as blockers. Your odds against 7TJx or 67Tx go from 51% with 9924, all the way up to 57% with 99JJ. Not only do you have extra showdown value, you actually have a better idea of what your opponent holds. He’s much more likely to have 67T than 7TJ because you have two of the jacks. That means that if a queen comes on the turn or river, you shouldn’t be as scared.

When you flop a straight, you’re only likely to get action from someone with either the same straight or a set (and often they’ll have a flush draw with the set if all the money goes in). When you’re playing a made straight against a set, having the board paired in your hand can be quite valuable. Let’s say you have QJ on a board of KT9 and the money gets in on the flop. Your opponent has KK (ignore any flush draw you or opponent might have). With QJ and no blockers (e.g. QJ23), you have a 60% chance of winning. If you have QJT9, giving you blockers, you have a 67% chance of winning, an appreciable difference. This also shows why having rundowns (four consecutive cards) are so valuable; you can make a straight and also have blockers.

The first point that I’m trying to make is to be aware of your blockers. The second point is to play hands that are likely to have blockers. That means rundowns (or near rundowns) and double-suited hands. The third and final point that I want to make is about using blockers to bluff. For instance, if I hold QQxx and the flop comes KT9, I’m often going to attempt a bluff, because it’s unlikely (although nowhere near impossible) for an opponent to hold QJ. The most common type of blocker-bluff is the naked ace bluff. Let’s say the flop comes three hearts, and you hold the ace of hearts. You know that no one can make the nut flush, you have that blocked. Against tight opponents or in extremely deep-stacked situations that should be enough to steal the pot, but don’t take this play overboard. Most low-stakes players will not (and should not) fold a non-nut flush when having less than 100 big blinds.