Poker When To 3 Bet
3 CARD POKER – THE BASICS. Let’s start with a few basics. If you bet and the dealer does not have Queen or better, the dealer does not play; you win your Ante bet and your Play bet pushes (neither wins nor loses), even if the dealer’s hand beats your hand. If the dealer has Queen high or higher then you must beat the dealer to win. First off, lets level set what a pre-flop 3-bet is. A 3-bet occurs when someone open-raises and another person re-raises pre-flop. The re-raise is a 3-bet. This might be a bit confusing to some people because the 3-bet is the second raise, why is this?
3-Betting Is A Very Strong Play In Poker Tournaments,
Our Beginners Guide Explains How To Use This Strategy Correctly
When someone raises in a poker game and another player re-raises – the intended message is usually loud and clear. Essentially the re-raiser is saying that they have a monster hand and are prepared to play a big pot. This second raise is known as a 3-bet, with the blinds being the first bet and initial raise the 2nd bet. As the game of poker has evolved this ‘massive strength’ message is not necessarily always true – in fact, players will often 3-bet with the intention of looking strong when their hand is actually weak.
Using 3 bets effectively and defending against 3 bettors is a complex area. In this article I will go through the basics of a solid re-raising strategy for beginning to intermediate players of online poker tournaments – showing some of the key factors to consider before you 3-bet.
First up I will explain why 3-bets are effective and then consider two extremes which show the need for balanced strategy, these are players who only ever re-raise with the very best hands, and those who re-raise too often. This will lead into a discussion on balancing your 3-bet ranges against different types of opponent. Next position at the table is covered, including why there is less advantage in balancing your ranges out of position, or against 'calling station' type opponents. Stack sizes and tournament situations (particularly the bubble) also make a huge difference to your re-raising strategy. I finish by summarizing the key points and pointing you in the direction of some very profitable tournaments!
Playing in 3-bet Pots: Win More With These Adjustments. Finding the right strategy to navigate 3-bet pots in Texas Hold'em is one of the key areas of your overall game-plan. By the nature of things, 3-bet pots are usually on the bigger side, which means they involve more variance. Dec 06, 2019 A 3 Bet is the term used in poker to describe a specific re raise. A 3 bet is typically made before the flop but can also be performed post flop. It is the third bet on a specific round. Check out examples below. Three-betting light can help any player balance their range as well as steal pots. However, make sure to read this article to learn when to three-bet light. Best Poker Site Reviews for December 9, 2020!
3-Bets In Online Poker Tournaments – Why These Are Effective
Re-raises look (and often are) very strong. Say a player opens the pot with a 3 big blind raise and an opponent comes up with a 3-bet of 2.5 to 3 times the size of that raise… what can the initial raiser do with various hands he might have raised with?? Let me take an initial raising range of 15% which is not unreasonable for a mid to later position raise and we can have a look:
15% = Pairs 77 or higher, aces down to ace-seven suited or ace-10 unsuited, and many combinations of 2 picture cards.
When someone unknown puts in a big 3 bet they are representing JJ+ (at least) with A-Qs the smallest ace. Now, what could the initial raiser call with (out of position) and play profitably?
Of course this depends on stack sizes (the ability to try and hit trips with a pair when stacks are deep is key). In reality the only hands you might feel comfortable about playing are the very best ones – and if your opponent is willing to build a big pot it makes more sense to 4-bet those and get the money in pre-flop.
3-betting creates a really difficult situation for someone holding a marginal hand, they are forced to 4-bet or fold most of the time, and if they do call then this may just lead to more problems on the flop / turn betting rounds.
Having said this, a danger in lower level poker tournaments is that players are often inexperienced enough to flat call without either a plan or the correct implied odds. Those same players will call all the way to the river too if they have even a medium strength hand – I’ll put this important factor to one side for now, and return to it later in the article, after explaining some more of the 3-bet basics.
3-Betting In Poker Tournaments – Too Tight / Too Loose
Here are some common examples from lower buy-in poker tournaments. Firstly many playersonly ever re-raise with the very best hands, this can be QQ / AK+ or even KK+ only. Those same players often 3-bet small amounts – even the minimum, which tips off the field that they have a monster at the same time as giving the correct odds for everyone to call with speculative hands which can easily outflop premium holdings.
If this is you then this could very well be a reason your premium hands get cracked a little too often. If you identify a '3-bet nit' then your ideal counter strategy depends on stack sizes, if you have the odds to set-mine (for example) then this can be a very profitable spot!
How about the opposite? Some players re-raise with a huge range, I have seen players regularly do this with 20% + of their range (pairs, most aces and any 2-picture cards for example). This time things are often compounded by making the re-raise too big! This is very easy to exploit by flat calling in position, 4 betting for value with the top of your range. If the loose 3-bettor wants to play easily dominated hands out of position in a big pot you should encourage this – it will take a massive skill advantage for this to be profitable, and this type of player only rarely any advantage at all!
So, 3-betting too tight and 3-betting too often are both easily exploitable in tournament situations. Where is the balance point?
Mark's Tip: If you are not yet at the stage where you can spot the tight 3-bettors from the average or loose players I can recommend Tournament Shark from the Pro Poker Labs, this tool is approved by the major sites - and attaches to your table to let you know who are the good and bad players! See our Best Poker Tools page for more.
3-Betting In Poker Tournaments – Balanced Ranges Are Harder To Play Against
If you re-raise tight you will rarely be able to play big pots with premium hands, too loose and you’ll get 4-bet (or flatted) often – and have to fold those 10 to 12 big blind investments in the pot for the same reason many players will fold to 3-bets!
However, if your range of 3-betting hands is balanced you become very hard to play against. Lets take an easy example and say you 3-bet with the top 3% of hands, say 10-10+ and AK off, and also 3-bet bluff with an additional 3% of speculative hands including tiny pairs and suited connectors (though suited broadways could also be chosen).
By doing this you make it hard for opponents to 4-bet bluff, since you’ll have the goods a lot of the time. Since you are not always raising premiums it will also be a mistake for opponents (in a ‘Theory of Poker’ sense) to fold often to your reraise. What is more you will be playing tight enough to get respect on the flop and take down those extra pots when your opponent does not make a monster.
3-Betting In Online Poker Tournaments – Position, Opponent Types And Getting Flatted!
A constant risk in lower ($20 and under) buy-in poker tournaments is the novice who flat calls too often. I want to look at one particular situation which comes up a lot.
Say a loose early position player raises 3x, you 3-bet to 9x and *boom* a novice on the button flats – the original raiser folds and now you are heads-up in a big pot and first to act… nasty!
If you missed the flop, bet and get called you are in a difficult spot. Made worse by the fact that the type of player who flats in those situations is unlikely to be thinking about what you are representing with your 'strong' bets. They are playing their own cards only and will often not fold with any decent draw or part of the flop whatever the betting.
In this situation a balanced range loses much of its value.
3-betting in early position or from the blinds carries the additional ‘flatting’ risk. In fact if your opponents show a pattern of flatting 3-bets, even when you do have position, the number of your ‘balancing’ hands should go down. If you think you are likely to be flat called then tip the balance back in favor of those premium hands, then build the pot slowly to extract maximum chips from your passive 'cally' opponents.
3-Betting In Poker Tournaments – Stack Sizes And Bubbles
So far the discussion has assumed that players have enough chips for post-flop decisions. In a tournament this will not always be the case. This factor is complicated by the fact that there will often be a range of different stack sizes to play against. In tournament situations the effective stack size (the one we work with for math purposes) is the smallest in the hand.
Here are some situations in which stack sizes might affect your play:
Your 3-bet can often commit you to call a 4-bet based on the pot-odds. For example if you start with 25 times the big blind, there is a raise of 3x and you make it 9x, including the blinds and antes there are now 14 blinds total in the pot, your opponent 4-bets (has you covered) and you now face a call of 16 times the big blind to win a pot of 39. That’s more than 2.3 to 1, meaning you only have to win the pot less than 30% of the time to break even! Even if you give your opponent a range of JJ+ for the 4-bet you can still call with the huge number of hands - around 15% in fact - what you have just done is priced yourself into the call.
With a stack of around 15 times the blinds, you have a good ‘resteal’ stack and can put pressure on raisers by 3-betting all in. Caution is required if there are several opponents still to act, if someone is aware of stack size dynamics they might overcall with a hand which crushes your looser range - since they know your stack is ideal for 3-betting light!
Big stacks at the table might be more inclined to play back, either by flatting or 4-betting a wider range. They have the chips to spare and can put huge pressure on you, particularly if you are 3-betting often. Smaller stacks can also be dangerous, these players might well call out of sheer desperation or needing a double up to have a viable chance of going deeper in the tournament.
Bubbles are great times to 3-bet. This could be the money bubble or the final table bubble. At this point the mid-stacks in the game become easy targets. They have enough chips to ‘play’, yet will not want to risk their comfortable stacks without a really strong hand. This increases the gap between hands they could raise with and hands which could call a 3-bet – and you can use this to your advantage to win some pots! Bear in mind that 4-bet on the bubble from a mid-sized stack can be very strong, you need to be careful!
3-Betting In Poker Tournaments – Summing It Up + Next Steps
Re-raising is a great way to build your chip stack, as long as you are aware of the dangers. My recommendation to newer players is first to ensure that their 3-bets are not ‘premium only’ as this is very easy to exploit. Next focus on position and stack sizes and ensuring that your range is somewhat balanced. Remember, positive and aggressive poker is profitable – as long as you are aware enough to get out of the way when the warning bells start to sound.
Finally, if you really want to boost your profits then I recommend taking the time to seek out the softest tournament fields. Red Kings Poker on the OnGame network offer some great guaranteed tournaments at the lower buy-in levels - and you will notice the difference in the ability levels and experience of your opponents as soon as your sit down to play. Check out Red Kings Poker for yourself today, you'll also have a choice of 6 great sign-up bonuses!
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The 3-bet (or more specifically, light 3-betting) is an advanced concept that adds an extra weapon to a game that has likely become repetitive and stagnant, even if that current game strategy is winning you money at the tables.
When To 3 Bet In Poker
3-betting will shake up a mid-stakes player's game about as much as the continuation bet did when you first found out about that when you were starting out.
This concept is going to be most useful in mid-stakes games between $50NL and $200NL.
What is 3-betting and 3-betting light?
Poker 3 Bet Sizing
3-betting.
First of all, what is a 3-bet before the flop?
A 3-bet is when there has been a raise and then another raise after that.
Simple enough, but let me give you one quick example to drive it home: After the SB and BB post the $1 and $2 blinds, lets say there is a raise to $8 from a player in MP. If another player in LP raises it again to $24, this is called a 3-bet.
For a quick guide to good 3bet sizing, watch the 3betting section starting at 13:39 in this bet sizing video.
As you can imagine, the guy (or girl) making the 3-bet probably has a very good hand. You would normally expect them to be holding something like QQ+ or AK to make this second raise before the flop.
You might be wondering why it's called a 3-bet if there has only been two raises. Well, the BB is actually considered to be a bet in itself, and so the first raise is the 2nd bet and the second raise is the 3-bet.
3-betting light.
As mentioned, you would expect the player making the 3-bet to have a very strong hand like QQ+ or AK. Therefore, 3-betting light is when you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand like 67, 78 or any suited connector like that.
3-betting light is where you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand before the flop.
Seems crazy and dangerous I know, but I'm sure you thought the same thing when you first heard about continuation betting. 3-betting light can be an incredibly +EV move when used correctly, so don't underestimate its strength.
Why 3-bet?
Players these days will make preflop raises with a wide range of hands. If a player makes a raise before the flop in LP, they could have almost any hand under the sun. That's how all decent TAGs play.
Calling these raises with a strong hand of our own (or even with a drawing hand like 78s) puts us at a disadvantage because our opponent will have the initiative in the hand. When the flop comes, we are only really looking to fold unless we hit top pair or better. Even then, we are not going to feel great about our hand.
3-betting when in position will regularly put loose raisers in a position where it is -EV to call a 3-bet because of their wide opening range. Not to mention taking away their initiative.
The advantages of 3-betting.
- Players open with a wide range of hands, which means calling 3-bets is -EV for our opponents.
- 3-betting can often be far more +EV than just calling in some cases.
- Players almost always fear AA when they face a 3-bet. This gives us tremendous leverage for the flop (so cbet!).
- You take back the initiative in the hand.
- Opponents will call you down with much weaker hands in future if they see you 3-bet so lightly (metagame strategy).
Sure, making an extra reraise before the flop is going to be pretty damn scary, especially if you are 3-betting light. However, if its going to be a +EV play you need to show some balls and play in the way that is going to make you the most money.
Poker When To 3 Bet Poker
Don't get me wrong though, 3-betting light isn't just to try and punish the loose raisers and hope that they fold. There will be times when we get called when we 3-bet light, but that's not a problem. There are still advantages to 3-betting light when we reach the flop.
When and where to 3-bet light.
So we've discussed the advantages of the simple 3-bet, but when should you 3-bet light?
- You want to 3-bet light with mid connectors/suited connectors like 67, 78 and 89, or 1 gap suited connectors like 68 and 79.
- You should 3-bet light in position. Playing a 3-bet pot out of position is tricky (although not impossible).
- You should mostly 3-bet raisers from LP. Raisers from EP are more likely to turn up with a strong hand.
- You should try 3-betting light against TAG (Tight-Aggressive) and semi-TAG players.
An optimum spot to 3-bet light is when a TAG from LP makes a raise when you are on the button or in the CO.
Apologies for the God-awful diagram, but you should get the idea. These sort of players are likely to be raising with a wide range of hands in this position, and so are fully capable or folding when they come up against aggression. This is why 3-betting gives us an edge.
An important point to remember is that you do not want to 3-bet light against players who are either:
- Super tight and are only going to raise with supreme hands. Hence our 3-bet definitely gets called.
- Super loose and will call regardless. We lose all of our fold equity in the hand with these players.
This is not the only ever spot that you can 3-bet, but if you keep these guidelines in mind you should be able to get a feel for when it's a +EV spot to 3-bet.
How to 3-bet.
In a nutshell, when you 3-bet light you ideally want your opponent to fold. This gives you an instant and nicely-sized pot and will usually force your opponent to tighten up the hands they open with from late position.
If we get called and miss the flop, we are almost always in the perfect situation to make a continuation bet and take down then pot. So don't be afraid to make that cbet, it's a +EV move over the long run. That's the basics of it, but allow me to explain a little further.
Hands not to 3-bet light with.
The type of hands that you do not want to 3-bet light with are lower tier broadway hands like; KQ, KJ QJ and also weaker aces like AJ (definitely not rag aces either). The problem is that if you are 3-betting with these cards, the hands that your opponent is going to call with are going to have you dominated (e.g. AQ+, JJ+).
However, if you have a lower suited connector like 78s, you still have two 'free' cards that you can do damage with. It also makes post-flop play easier as you are less likely to get tied in with a marginal hand where you hold something like top pair weak kicker.
Stick to 3-betting premiums (QQ+, AK) and lower suited connectors (56 - 9T) only.
You are better off calling with less than premium broadway hands rather than 3-betting with them preflop.
What to do on the flop if you are called.
If you miss the flop, make a continuation bet of about 2/3 the size of the pot. Simple as that.
A pot size bet is unnecessarily large in a 3-bet pot. 2/3 does the job and saves us money for when it doesn't work out.
The beauty of 3-betting is that it gives you supreme power in the hand. Your opponent is always going to have the fear that you have pocket Aces or pocket Kings at the forefront of their mind, so take advantage of that fear. If on the odd occasion you get called, check/call on the turn and be done with the hand. The majority of the time a good continuation bet will work wonders though.
If on the other hand you catch a piece of the flop but nothing worth value-betting, checking and calling may be the best option. However, a lot of the time you are going to either have a strong hand or nothing at all, and in both of these situations you will want to cbet.
3-betting light example.
Let's say our opponent is 26/18 and raises frequently from late position. This is a simple example:
SB: $200
BB: $200
UTG: $200
MP: $200
CO: $200
Hero (BTN): $200
Pre Flop: ($3) Hero is BTN with 7 8
1 fold, MP raises to $8, 1 fold, Hero raises to $30, 2 folds
Flop: ($66) 2 J 6 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $45, MP folds
Our opponent here clearly made a poor call when we 3-bet, as we represented a very strong hand like QQ+ or AK, so the chances are that he called with a hand like AJ+ and hoped for the best.
Even if our opponent did hold a hand like QQ or AJ, it is very difficult for them to call for the fear of us holding Aces or Kings, which is why the continuation bet brings home so much money due to the 3-bet before the flop.
Evaluation of 3-betting light.
This article is one of the longest I have ever written, yet I still feel that it could have been a bit meatier. Congratulations if you made it this far, and I hope most of it made sense and you can understand the theory behind 3-betting lightly and how it can be profitable.
Just be sure not to abuse 3-betting and you will be fine. 3-betting and 3-betting lightly can be very +EV in the right spots, but they can do a lot of damage to your stack if you are not careful with them. I'd recommend dropping down a level to experiment with 3-betting and to find your feet with it.
It's definitely a skill that is worth perfecting and adding to your game as a mid-stakes player (or for when you reach those levels).
PS. Don't forget to cbet if you miss the flop.
Related articles.
SplitSuit's When 3Bets Go Wrong (pt. 1) video looks at 9 different hand histories where Hero's 3bet gets called (or when another player 4bets). It's an excellent strategy video for playing in tricky 3bet spots.
Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.
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