choice of position 3-handed

[Janis N.]

I've realized I'm quite clueless 3-handed (worse than HU and much worse than 4-handed) and this perhaps will help some.

Let's assume you join a table where two other players play (a couple of scenarios):
a) passive fish + straightforward TAG
b) passive fish + good LAG
c) aggressive spewy donk + straightforward TAG
d) aggressive spewy donk + good LAG

It's off hours and you think nobody else will join for a while (otherwise it's simple imo - get position on the bad player).

So a 6-handed table like this:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
B C
A D
F E
</pre><hr />
Bad player sits in seat A; better player sits in seat D. Which seat do you choose? Is it different in scenarios a) to d)?

[Triumph36]

This is an interesting question and I don't quite know the answer.

If you choose seat F, you are button when bad player A is SB, and good player D is BB. This means D can iso-3 bet against the bad player, and can also call your opens light and isolate on the flop. You are SB when donk is BB, so you're OOP there - good player can open light against donk and it's hard for you to do anything about it - when you have a strong hand it's unlikely you will go up against the donk. when you are BB, good player can iso 3 bet against donk's opens.

that's just preliminiary, but it seems like seats E and F kinda suck. i cannot think of a fishy player against whom such a seat would be an advantage, unless he's a spewy blind defender/habitual squeezer who you could trap via backraises and open-raises from SB when he's BB, and who, from the SB, would shut player D out of the pot on your button opens.