A discussion with Corsakh - 3betting pairs from the blinds

[Dr_Doctr]

There's no need to get annoyed and delete my small joke - I enjoyed the post and was about to comment.

I agree with most of what you say but it's discussed in a void. 3-betting with small/medium pocket pairs has other, significant, benefits. It disguises your 3-bets with monsters - if you're not 3-betting with 99/TT there isn't much you're 3-betting with. If you flop a set it's much easier to get paid off if Villian spikes TP or whatever. It's great for your image. It defines Villians range - you widen your 3-bet range from the blinds and he'll have to narrow his steal range - you can then get a better read. This is similar to what Gelford suggested about adjusting your range for these plays based on aggressiveness of Villian. Also I think consideration of this kind of theory is only useful against good regulars, of which there are precious few in the micros.

Of much more importance is recognising very weak players, figuring out in what way they are bad, and exploiting this correctly. Learning to truely exploit very weak players is a much more important skill that squeezing out marginal EV against regulars I think - and this probably applies for all limits. If you're playing with a bunch of good regulars you're in a bad game. If you're playing with a bunch of good regulars at a micro game it's a 2+2 invitational or something. This is not to take away from the value of the discussion in your post only from it's scope of application.