a little discussion on 3 betting

[Gonso]

It depends on what they do when you 3-bet. If they want to defend their raises hard, 3-betting air is kind of pointless and expensive (esp if you're defending from the blinds). If they go too far trying to be superbully, value crush them. Otherwise, you just get in a situation where you're to out-bully him. Variance goes up, and the other players at the table benefit.

Now, if you occasionally 3-bet in a reasonable manner, and he folds or 4-bets in a reasonable manner, then it's likely you're both playing well. He may be raising a lot because players at the table besides you might be on the weak side or something.

The problem is that a lot of players get aggravated with these guys and then try to go into superhero mode. They take it up on themselves to stop the table bully and save the day. There's no real point in that, let him do his thing. Otherwise, you wind up with a third of your chips in the pot facing an all-in from a maniac, holding AT on a Q95 board, trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

But yeah, going after bullies/maniacs can be profitable, but isn't it much better to sit around isolating tight-weak players instead? They're not very good and a lot less dangerous. I mean don't get me wrong, I'll put a lot of chips out there with a hand against a lagtard when I think I'm good. But that's not the same as just coming over the top of him light just because.