How do YOU respond to active 3-bettors?

[Acevader]

I wasn't sure if 'Theory' was the best place for this or elsewhere. I decided to go with this part of the forum since it reflects the levels I play at.

A part of my game that I'm struggling with at the moment is responding to players that 3-bet often. I generally 4-table NL$100 or NL$200 and my key stats are:

20% VI$IP
16% PFR
3.4 Post-flop Aggro
35% Attempt to Steal.

I'm quite a positional player and at a 6-handed table my VP$IP will be about 12% UTG and about 25% by the button. For this reason I do find I get 3-bet quite often when I open first in from the CO/BTN. Everyone is entitled to a little 3-betting and I don't let it bother me but there are players that start to really 3-bet the hell out me and I just don't know how to respond. It seems every time I take a stand they turn up with the goods and I get badly burned.

You should know that I don't call 3-bets (assuming 100bb effective). I'll 4-bet or fold nearly every time with the only hands I'll call with being JJ-AA but that's also rare. I'll usually 4-bet QQ+. Sometimes I call with JJ/QQ to avoid an A/K flop and sometimes I'll call with AA/KK to trap - I never call with 1010 or lower or SC's or AK or AQ with 100bb effective stacks.

My response has been to start to increase my 4-bet range and I have, after reading a thread on here about it, started to 4-bet less than a PSB. I do that with hands like AA-KK for value but also occasionally with SC's and weak hands as a bluff. The lighter 4-bet means if pushed I'm not actually committed to calling with my bluff hand where if I'd 4-bet pot I can commit myself easily. I don't believe this has been very successful.

My other tactic is to 3-bet light myself. For every 3.5-4bb raise they take from me uncontested I seek to do the same. Obviously I don't do this on a tit-for-tat basis but rather look to try and run as fierce a 3-betting game as the next guy.

This however, also has problems and that is that I'm called alarmingly often. The other day for example with 100bb effective stacks I 3-bet a button raise from the SB with AKs and was called by Fidodell a 19/16 NL$100 regular who seems solid. The flop was 10-high and I bet $20 at $25. He called and we checked down for him to turn over J10o and win. This is what has me confused; this guy is seemingly solid yet he's calling a 3-bet with a hand I'd NEVER call a 3-bet with.

Next we have the pairs and floaters: Normally if I 3-bet pre I'll pump a $3.5 PSR to $13.5. This leaves me about $90 back and it's $10 for villain to call. I've already explained my 3-bet range is lighter than AA-QQ and yet so often I'm called here by low-mid PP's and so often they call a continuation bet on any board lower than Q-high (or they hit a set). I've also seen people call my 3-bets with AJ/KJ/A10/56, etc, etc and then float basically any flop. This seems to work well for them since in combination terms I'm more likely to have a non-paired hand than a paired big-pair and when my c-bet is called I feel I have to give up.

For example, I 3-bet a CO raise with AsKd to $13 and the flop comes Qd,9h,7c. I bet out $22, villain calls and the turn is a 2h. What can I do? He could have KQ/AQ/JJ/1010/AK or, as I've often seen, even wider ranges. I've invested $35 of my $100 stack and any meaningful bet commits me to the pot. All to often I check, they bet and I fold? I just seem to get 3-bet pot after 3-bet pot taken away from me in this manner and whilst I don't want to sound like a bad-beat merchant very often if the flop comes A,4,7 I get shown 44 or 77 for a set and get stacked every single time (it's so hard to avoid in 3-bet pot).

Basically I seem to get the worst of it in every way. Players 3-bet the hell out of me knowing that I'll either 4-bet or fold and its usually the later by a margin. However, when I 3-bet liberally I'm called and have my flop bet raised or floated (for turn weakness) quite often.

The net result is that I'd say that 3-bet pots are costing me a fortune (is there anyway to get PT or PokerEV to ONLY show pots you entered where there was a re-raise preflop??). How do I adapt? How do I ensure that these players don't run over me by stealing a lot of my pre-flop raises or calling my 3-bets then stealing those pots?