Poker 3 Bet Bluff Range
Posted By admin On 05/04/22The Three Bet
So, use the top of your range as a 3-bet/call (or 5-bet) to the 4-bet, and use bluffs that don’t mind 3-bet/folding. The LJ, a massive calling station, opens to 2.5x and you are in the CO. In this scenario, we raise from UTG and get 3-bet by the small blind. At this point, we can already assign them a pretty strong range – players don’t often bluff from the small blind, as it is probably the worst position to do it from, especially against an early position raise.
One of the common definitions you will hear as you play poker is “3-bet”, or “three-bet”. A 3-bet as most players use the term means the act of putting in the third bet, technically the second “raise”, the “3-bet” during any given round of action. It’s only in recent years that the term has become popular, indicative of its use during online play.
For flop games, such as hold’em and Omaha, the pre-flop 3-bet is technically different than the post-flop 3-bet. In these poker games blinds are used, and the act of posting the small and big blinds is considered the first “bet”. Subsequent players, beginning with the “under the gun” (UTG) player to the big blind’s immediate left, have the option of calling that first bet (the amount of the big blind), or folding or raising. In a typical game, the first pre-flop raise is technically a “two-bet”, but you’ll never hear it called that. Instead, it’s when another play makes a second raise, going over the top of the first raiser, that the “three-bet” term is used. Below is a visual of what a pre-flop 3-bet looks like.
In post-flop play, the 3-bet consists of an initial bet, a raise, and then a re-raise (perhaps by the initial bettor). Since the initial bet itself can be sizable, the post-flop 3-bet is proportionately larger in most instances than its pre-flop counterpart. In cash games and in the late stages of tourneys, 3-bets often involve all-in moves by one or more players, though you’re just as likely to hear the words “pushing” or “jamming” (moving one’s entire stack into the middle) in those instances.
What Does a 3-Bet Mean?
A 3-bet, which is always a form of a re-raise is designed to be an indicator of a true premium hand. The 3-bet is a shot over the bow of the initial raiser, designed to capture that pot right there. The intent of the 3-bet is to say to the initial bettor, “Yeah, you may have a good hand, but I’ve got a better one.” One common variation involves the initial raise coming from a late position, the button player or the cut-off (to the button’s immediate right), and the 3-bet is made by the small or big blind, who may assume the button or cutoff is attempting to steal the blinds. Overall, the 3-bet is traditionally one of the strongest moves a player can make, trailing perhaps only the all-in push and the check-raise in its ability to change a hand. It’s supposed to mean that the player making the move has a very strong hand, though this being poker, that is not always the case.
Making Your Own 3-Bets
The use of 3-bets is best done selectively, at opportune moments. Many hyper-aggressive players 3-bet with a wide range of hands, including many garbage hands, in the nature of bluffs. Most 3-bets, however, are done with big hands.
When to 3-bet a hand and when to just call (called a “smooth call” or “smoothing”) is one of the trickiest lessons players must learn. Knowing your opponents’ tendencies is vital to success, because the best poker players play their opponents as much as their own hands. A 3-bet works best against fairly loose players, some of whom are described as “calling stations”, who simply cannot fold marginal holdings when prompted. Another successful type of 3-bet can be done against a player who might over-value the long-term prospects of the game or tourney in deference to what might happen in that specific hand. He might be surrendering a bit too much of his chance to win in hopes of getting a better opportunity in a later hand.
Then there are bluffs. The bluff type of 3-bet is called a “re-steal”, and properly executed, it can be one of the most profitable moves in a player’s arsenal. However, like any good play, using it too much is one of the quickest ways to go broke. Other players will eventually react to a player that is putting in too many 3-bets, and sooner or later, the player putting in those over-the-top bets will be “looked up” (called) by his opponent. However, if you’re a steady, conservative player, 3-betting an aggressive foe will work more often than you might believe. Those players are trying to steadily make small gains against your perceived, relative passivity, and when you fight back they’ll often go try another door.
Defending Against the 3-Bet
Defending against the 3-bet boils down to understanding both your opponents and the circumstances of the game. Against a tight opponent who plays few hands, a 3-bet invariably means a monster and you can ditch all but the largest hands against this opponent. Even if he’s on a rare bluff, his natural tendencies against bluffing should serve as a warning.
Aggressive, late-position players will often three-bet with holdings such as middle pairs, AK or AQ, and depending on your own hand, it’s often correct to play or even to put the 4-bet in and take your chances. Be aware that with position and with correct “pot odds” – referring to the relationship between the amount of money already in the pot and the total amount a player stands to win – a late-position player may be “priced in” to making his own call with more inferior hands than you might hope.
Author:Joseph Falchetti (twitter)
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We have all heard about 3-betting bigger out of position and smaller in position, but there are two factors in the theory of 3-betting which affect how big we should go. Position is one of them and range shape is the other. Let’s focus on this less discussed factor today. How does the sort of range we’ll be 3-betting affect the sizing we should choose? And how do we determine the shape of our 3-bet range in the first place?
Range Shape
A 3-Bet range might be linear or it might be polarised. What’s the difference?
Linear Ranges
3-Betting with a linear range means 3-betting AA and then all of the hands weaker than AA down to a certain hand which is deemed too weak to 3-Bet. It might look like [88+, all suited broadways, all suited aces, AJo+, KQo+, T9s, 98s] or in another spot it might be tighter and exclude the weaker hands in that range. Linear essentially means ‘no gaps’. When we’re 3-betting linear, we will never favour a weaker hand over a stronger one.
We 3-bet with a linear range under two circumstances:
- When we are not building a calling range against the open. In this case we are entering the pot with a 3-Bet or not at all. It would not make sense to choose to play a hand that is weaker than one we are folding, so we 3-bet from the top down.
- When Villain or population does not fold much to 3-bets. In this case we want to only increase the size of the pot for value and not for fold equity. 3-Bet bluffing is not advisable and so we 3-bet all and only those hands deemed good enough to be value 3-bets.
Polarised Ranges
A polarised 3-Bet range is one that has a value component and a bluff component. These two groups of hands are separated by a calling range. Therefore, when we 3-bet polarised, we must have a calling range to serve as a buffer between value hands and bluffs. A polarised range might look like: [JJ+ AQs+ AKo, A2s-A5s T9s 98s 87s] in the most extreme example. If our range is purely polarised, then it means we are flatting the hands in between these two groups and folding all hands weaker than our 3-bet bluffs.
One more modern option is to play a mixed polarised range. This still entails having a chunk of very strong hands that you always 3-bet for value. The difference with this range is that some of the weaker hands get mixed between 3-betting and calling. This has the advantage of increasing the calibre of the bluffs, but the disadvantage of playing less hands overall. We only have a finite amount of space for bluffing in our strategy before it becomes too bluff heavy and exploitable. This might be okay against weaker players who fold too much, but is a concern against stronger opposition. So when we 3-bet A5s as a bluff, we have less room for K3s.
We opt for a polarised range when:
- We want to have a calling range
AND
- We think Villain or population folds a decent amount of the time to 3-Bets.
The higher EV we think it is to call our medium strength hands, the less likely we are to turn them into 3-bet bluffs. When we are in position, then, BB vs a SB raise, we are very unlikely to 3-bet bluff any medium hands. A5s and the like will often just call because they are so profitable to flat and hate to get 4-bet off of their equity. Meanwhile, a hand like J4s which is around break even to flat is perfectly reasonable as a 3-bet bluff as we are not squandering much calling EV by 3-betting it instead.
Contrast this to a spot like BB vs UTG, where A5s is not a massively profitable call. In this spot we would mix the hand between 3-bet and call as both options are roughly equal in expectation and never dream of 3-betting Q4s. Thus, we are using a mixed polarised range BB vs UTG but a purely polarised range BB vs SB.
Linear Ranges want to Use Smaller Sizing
Generally speaking, big value hands increase their EV when they put more money into the pot. Medium strength hands, often called ‘tier 2 hands’, increase their EV by using a smaller sizing. The reason for this is that they do not want to filter out too many of the weaker hands in Villain’s continuing range to the 3-bet because these are the hands they dominate and perform well against. TT does not want to 3-Bet huge HJ vs UTG as there are still four uncapped ranges behind and TT will perform badly if it filters the UTG player too much.
Remember that Linear ranges are full of medium strength hands, and so they want to use a smaller size. I would 3-bet from 2.5BB to 7BB in position HJ vs UTG and from 2.5BB to 11BB out of position.
Poker 3 Bet Bluff Ranger
Polarised Ranges want to Use a Big Sizing
Remember, the big hands like AA, KK, QQ, and AK prefer to use a large size. The more money you can shovel into the pot with these hands, the better (unless stacks are short and building a big pot is unnecessary.) Since nutted hands are a significant part of a polarised range, polar ranges like betting bigger.
Bluffs rely on pre-flop fold equity to be profitable or break even, so when your range contains a sizable portion of very weak hands, you want to increase fold equity. Making a small 3-bet that would usually get called is not a good idea when you’re holding Q3s.
Since polarised ranges contain less medium strength hands, which prefer playing smaller pots against wider ranges, they have no reason to shy away from big sizing and every reason to utilise it.
If I were 3-betting a polarised range in position, I would tend to go from 2.5BB to 9.5BB. Out of position I would go from 2.5BB to 12BB.
Summary
Poker 3 Bet Bluff Rangers
- Linear ranges 3-bet from the top down without a gap. We use them either when we’re not calling anything or when fold equity is low. They want to use a smaller sizing because they contain a lot of medium strength hands that strive to keep pots smaller.
- Polarised ranges 3-bet two distinct groups of hands: value hands which are very strong and like to build big pots and bluffs which seek fold equity. We choose a polar range when we have both a calling range and reasonable fold equity. Since polar ranges contain hands that like putting more money into the pot, and no medium strength hands, they like a big sizing.
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