3-bet, 4bet.

[the_rookie]

Sorry about running my mouth earlier in the no content thread, I was just real pissed. Thought I'd make it up by posting a little strategy.

Here is a quick run down of my thoughts on 3-betting and 4-betting.

3-bet light - One situation I notice where it may be a good time to 3-bet is the weak iso raise. Here's an example: When you see an opponent who generally opens at least 4x BB and when there's two limpers they still raise 4x you know they are just juicing the pot. If I'm in the blinds I'm popping it with an offsuit connecter and up. I rarely expect the limpers to call as they fear the pfr will repop it. Since the pfr is weak he'll probably fold, and if he does call he's trying to hit the flop and we can take down the pot with aggresion on the flop.

I also 3-bet the regulars with suited connectors or 1 gappers often. Many times a cont. bet will take it down on the flop, as the regs I've seen like to raise with midpairs and if they get 3-bet they're playing fit or fold. Meaning even with a hand like 88 on a board of 927, they'll still likely fold worrying I have a big pair. Also the fact suited connectors hits the flop in so many ways it allows us to play our hand aggresively and force our opponents to a tough situation. Of course having position helps this. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] So what if our opponent decides to just call with monsters? We're folding to c/r if the flop doesn't hit us hard enough and we aren't firing a second barrel with a weak hand.

Here’s another thing that has been on my brain: There is rarely enough history between opponents at full ring to where we are seeing stacks being flipped. Hands like AK vs JJ all in on the flop just doesn’t happen often. IMO 4-betting is overrated outside the blinds.

That is kind of why I don’t 4-bet that often against “sane” opponents. You know, the ones who probably give us the most trouble and we would rather not sit with em except for the few fish who are also at the table. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

. If our opponent is aggressive and is willing to 3-bang with hands like AK or QQ what is the point of 4-betting with monsters like AA or KK? Wouldn’t it be better to just smooth call? Here is what happens. You raise preflop with AA/KK and an aggressive opponent repops it. He could have as little as AK or maybe JJ. If we 4-bet we are most likely folding out worse hands. If our opponent is any good he has to know QQ or JJ is no good here and AK is crap. Remember this is full ring and there is rarely enough light raising re raising to justify playing AA or KK so strongly and expecting to get paid off by hands like AK JJ QQ.


In the art of war we want our enemy to think we far when we are near, and to think we are near when we are far....

Poker is game of war, and deception is required to keep your opponents off balance.

Thoughts?

[RyanCMU]

The problems w/ the last few paragraphs talking about aggressive opponents 3betting, their ranges are much much lighter then JJ+ and AK. Especially if you are also an aggressive player, another good aggressive player is 3betting you with a very huge range there...

[Mike Kelley]

Thanks for this. I've been thinking about how to phrase a question along the lines for determining when to 3bet since I watched Vanbroken's 100NL video. He says in the video that he tries to 3bet each of his tables a couple of times to lay the framework for when he picks up AA,KK. This feels like good strategy but, I think there is probably good situations and bad situations to do it.

I was wondering what hands were good for doing this, who good people to do it against are. I've noticed that sometimes an 8/2.4/1 NIT will Raise in EP and I get the heck out of his way only to have some clueless donk 3bet the NIT and the NIT insta-folds. The donk could be raising 25% of his hands and the NIT still crubmbles. I wonder if they just assume a 3bet is always aces or what???