I've used block betting with some success in the past. An example would be a mid-range flush draw and I am out of position and I think he hit middle pair or so; where I want to see the next card, but I know that if I check he will raise, probably more than I want to call for a J high FD. So I put out anywhere from 1/4-2/3 of the pot (depending on the pot size relative to my stack) to garner a call from him.

Does anyone with more experience than me (i.e. 99% of this board) use this line regularly? How best to use it? Any thoughts on whether this is a solid or poor stratagy?

you have to use blocking bets in big bet poker, it's a must.

Another example would be when you have 2 pair or top pair and the river is a scare card, you make a blocking bet to prevent your opponent from representing a big hand by putting in a big bet you can't call. The blocking bet will frighten most players; they assume you have the big hand and will only call with marginal hands.

__________________
Thank you John McCain for picking a woman who represents the worst-case scenario: A cute wild buffoon who is proud to be dumb.

yup. sometimes you also get them to call with a worse hand, rather than bet it on the river if you check.

furthermore, since you block for like 1/2 of the pot, you are getting pretty good odds on your money. it doesnt have to work all the time to be profitable.

in sklanskys book he has a really good section on blocking bets.

I brought this tactic up a few months ago and coined it the "power-check". Marm picked up on it and there was a real good thread on it by several posters. I would suggest doing a search for 'power-check' to see if you can find it.

Also this tactic is refered to a 'defensive bet' although that term was in one of my books - Erick Lindgren's or Phil Gordon's I think - and not on this forum.

Edit: Found the thread at http://www.pokerforums.org/showthrea...8120#post78120
Turns out Marm coined the tactic 'aggressive check' and I later started using 'power-check'. Regardless of the term used, it's a sneeky tactic you should have in your game plan..

__________________
:ah :as :ad :8c :8d

i thought the power check was min betting.

a blocking bet is typically 1/3-1/2 the pot.

First time I even heard the term 'blocking bet' was on this forum in only the last month or so and I've never seen 'power-check' used anywhere but on this forum by myself and a few others.
As I understand it the size of the bet is small (min to 1/2 or whatever) but it's purpose is to prevent a larger bet that would likely come from cheking into an opps with position.
If there is a difference, it's not much more than spitting a hair imo but if others wish to disdinquish the two (or 3 if you count 'defensive bet') by bet size I can't see anybody getting upset about it - although there will likely be some confusion! Also in Harrington's books and others including Sklanski's a bet of 1/3-1/2 is typically refered to as a 'probe bet' so now we have 4 terms for a small bet!! This may get interesting!

__________________
:ah :as :ad :8c :8d

there is a large differnce between a min bet and 1/2 of the pot. unless its heads up blind battle