River Bluffs With Blockers: Remove the Calls, Keep the Folds
River bluffs with blockers choose the bluffing hands by the cards they hold. A card that the calling hands need is a card the opponent cannot hold: they have fewer of those hands, so a call is less likely. The count is exact, combo by combo. A blocker can also remove hands that would fold, and it never changes the price: the bet still needs the folds its size asks for.
A♠5♠ after the spades missed
On the button, you bet the flop K♠ Q♣ 7♠ and the 3♦ turn, and the big blind called both. The 2♣ river misses the spades and the big blind checks for the third time. Check back, bet 33%, overbet 150% of the 35bb pot, or jam?
See the answer
What A♠5♠ removes from the big blind's hands on K♠ Q♣ 7♠ 3♦ 2♣:
| Big blind's hands | Combos without your cards | Combos with A♠5♠ in your hand |
|---|---|---|
| A‑K, top pair with the best kicker | 12 | 9 |
| A‑Q, second pair with an ace | 12 | 9 |
| two spades, missed flush draws among them | 55 | 36 |
A 150% overbet needs 60% folds and a 33% bet needs 24.8%. The author's answer is the overbet: A♠5♠ has almost no showdown value, and the A♠ removes some of the A‑K and A‑Q that would call; checking back only wins against missed draws, which would rarely call a bet.
Choosing a river bluff by its cards
| The card you hold | Effect on the bluff |
|---|---|
| a card of the hands that call | fewer calls: the bluff works more often |
| a card of the hands that fold | fewer folds: the bluff works less often |
| a hand that wins at showdown | checking already wins something |
Keep going
- Blockers counted from scratch: poker blockers.
- The full count of combos: poker combinatorics.
- The size of the spot: the overbet in poker.
- What any bluff needs: how often a bluff must work.
- The last street in general: river strategy.
- One spot every day: the daily poker puzzle.
- How many bluffs a river betting range holds for each size: the bluff to value ratio.
- The five checks before any bluff: how to bluff in poker.
Sources
- Every combo is counted from the 52-card deck minus the board and your cards (A‑K: 4 aces × 3 kings, or 3 × 3 with the A♠ in hand; two spades: pairs drawn from the 11 unseen spades, or 9 with A♠5♠ in hand), and every fold threshold as bet ÷ (pot + bet), 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.