Poker Blockers: What Your Cards Take Away from Your Opponent
A poker blocker is a card in your hand that your opponent therefore cannot hold: it removes combos from their range. With an ace in hand, only 3 combos of AA are left instead of 6, and 12 of AK instead of 16. On a board with three spades, holding a spade takes your opponent's flushes from 45 combos down to 36.
A♦5♦ on the button on a three-spade river
On the button with A♦5♦, you made a c‑bet the big blind called; the turn checked through. Board K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠, the big blind checks the river, 55bb deep. Check, bet 35% pot or all‑in?
See the answer
The options, for a 30bb pot:
| Option | What you bet | Folds needed for a pure bluff |
|---|---|---|
| Check | 0 | — |
| 35% pot | 10.5bb | 25.9% |
| All‑in | 55bb | 64.7% |
What your cards remove from the big blind's flushes:
| Your hand | Spades left | Possible flushes | Flushes with the ace of spades |
|---|---|---|---|
| A♦5♦ (the spot) | 10 | 45 | 9 |
| A♠5♦ (to compare) | 9 | 36 | 0 |
A♦5♦ holds no spade: all 45 flushes stay possible, including the 9 that contain the ace of spades. An all‑in has to work 64.7% of the time without removing any of those flushes; a 35% bet needs fewer folds but removes none of those 45 flushes either. The expected answer is the check.
Counting a blocker
| What you hold | Opponent's combos before | After |
|---|---|---|
| an ace, against AA | 6 | 3 |
| an ace, against AK | 16 | 12 |
| a spade, against two spades (10 unknown spades) | 45 | 36 |
A pair loses half of its combos when you hold a card of its rank; an unpaired hand loses a quarter when you hold a card of one of its ranks.
Keep going
- The full count of combos: poker combinatorics.
- What a range is: poker range.
- The price of a bluff, from the bettor's side: how often a bluff must work.
- When the flop comes in one suit: the monotone flop.
- Bets bigger than the pot: overbet poker.
- One spot every day: the daily poker puzzle.
- Counting each range's best hands: range advantage.
- Bluffing the river with or without a blocker: river strategy.
- The hands the opponent can still hold: poker hand reading.
- Blockers applied to a river bluff: river bluffs with blockers.
- The ace of the suit on a two-spade flop: how to play the nut flush draw.
Sources
- Every combo is counted from the visible cards, and every price computed with the app's pot odds module, checked on October 11, 2026.
- The answer to the spot follows rules written by the app's author; it does not come from a solver.