The Stop and Go

I have now a new weapon in my arsenal The stop and go. Yeah this is nothing new I know, but I never used it as often as I should. Most of the time I decided to ck/call flop and turn to induce bluffs, or just check/raise flop. I realize now there is a ton of value in using the stop and go.

I've been trying to get better when playing out of position and the stop and go is helping me improve. For one is cheaper than a check/raise on the flop and can get my opponents off-balance which make them do stupid things. Also with marginal hands that could be the best hand is easier to protect against draws that would push the flop, but on the turn don't have the Equity they need to raise you and is not strong enough to call multiple streets. Its also easier to bluff the flop than raising the turn cause the pot is bigger, thus you can assign a better range for their hands, and lastly you can merge your hands when you do improve on the turn and want to keep building the pot and don't know if your opponent will keep betting for you.

I'm gonna use an example of today's session to illustrate what I mean. Playing Heads up vs a regular that seems a decent good player kind of aggressive postflop. I defended with ATo and called his cb. So on the turn the pot is $14 If I check and he checks behind I can only get one more bet of $10 on the river (If he calls me light) which would be a total of $34. If I lead for $10 and get called I can bet the river for $25-28 which would mean I build a pot of +$88.

But we might even got a little trickier against an aggressive opponent. On the turn there is already $14 and I usually bet $10, but what about making some kind of blockbet to induce something stupid?? (people hate when you steal the initiative) Lets say I bet $7 into the $14 That looks kind of weak and kind of trying to keep the pot small. Flop was A68 with two spades so he can easily put me on a draw and raise me with a lot of his range, including bluffs. Even if it is a minraise He is putting more money on the pot that I would have and I can continue to let him valuebet for me, because most people continue with the bluffs on the river.

Either way If he just gives up and decide to check behind with his marginal hand with showdown value or pure bluff we still have a pot of $64 which is better than a two streets of value pot.
Lets take a look:

So by playing tricky villain build up a pot of $140 when this would have been a standard fold If I check/raised him on the flop or If I bet my standard on turn. Sometimes is good to induce bets and raises and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do it.