Effective 3betting for advanced players!

The 3bet is one of the most powerful weapons in a poker players arsenal. When used badly, it can lose you your stack. When leveraged properly it can win you a lot of money and make you the most feared and powerful player at the poker table. Read on an I will teach you tricks professional players use when 3betting.

Note: This article assumes you understand various poker terminologies and is aimed at 6max cash game players but can also per applied to late position when playing full ring to a lesser extent.

When to 3bet

To best understand why 3betting makes money you must understand which situations you should 3bet in. I have outlined the following:

For value: This is when you have a very strong hand preflop and you think your opponent has a strong enough hand to call your 3bet or 4bet you. To put this in a practical situation, a tight player UTG (Under the gun) of a 6max table raises 3bb. You are on the button an have Kc Kh. You have looked at his poker tracker stats and see that he raises 10% of his hands, this means he is probably raising less then 5% of his hands UTG and it can be assumed that his hand range is incredibly strong IE he is almost always going to call your 3bet, or even 4bet you.

Your opponents range is wide: You are sitting in a 2/4 nl 6max cash game and your opponent raises the button. You look over at your poker tracker stats and see that he has an attempt to steal ratio of 42%. This means he is raising the cutt-off or button position when its folded to him 42% of the time. It can be assumed that your opponent does not likely hold a strong hand preflop and could be a good time to 3bet nearly all of your playable hands if you were positioned in the big blind. A hand like Ah Jh would be an instant 3bet in this position. This play is higher variance compared to flat calling but probably the most optimal play in most situations. If you are facing an expert / advanced opponent then you should be aware that he will be aware of your hand ranges as well. If you get out of line, it wont be long before you start getting 4bet bluffed or your 3bet called and him making a move on the flop.

Positional 3betting: I have found that to make money from tight regulars in no limit cash games you can 3bet them an insane amount in position. A lot of marginally winning regulars are reluctant to call your button 3bet vs there cut-off open even if they know you are basically full of shit. Its often hard for them to pull the trigger and 4bet 30% of there stack with nothing.

Your opponent is loose passive / loose weak: A loose passive player is likely to call your 3bets with no perspective of position and will take a fit or fold view of the flop. If they are calling with two unpaired cards they are going to miss the flop 2/3 of the time. This means that at least 2/3 of the time your cbet (continuation bet) will take down the pot vs these players. The simple math denotes that this will be profitable as long as you shut down when you are called on the flop (Unless you perceive yourself to be ahead)

Perfect 3betting sizes

Villain raises to 4bb, you are in position – Raise to 13bb
Villain raises to 4bb, you are out of position – Raise to 14bb
Villain raises to 3bb, you are in position – raise to 10bb
Villain raises to 3bb, you are out of position – raise to 11.5bb

Playing the flop

If you are out of position, your 3betting range should generally be tighter because if called, you will be acting first on the flop. If you are first to act, you should generally be leading out a continuation bet with most of your range unless its obvious that your opponent is unlikely to fold or the board hits there range solidly. Your continuation bet size should generally be just over half the size of the pot. Usually a recommend cbetting 2/3 – 3/4 the size of the pot in single raised pots however the pot is already big in a 3bet pot so 1/2 pot bet is usually adequate.

You should be betting when your hand has no value at all. This means, if you have completely missed the flop and you have little equity to improve. For example, you 3bet 7s 8s and the flop comes down all overcards. You should be betting this almost always because you will never win the pot at a showdown. However, lets say you have Ad Kd and the flop comes down Qd 9s Th this would be a decent flop to check behind. The reasons behind this are the following: 1) This board hits a huge amount of hands, there are numerous straight draws out and its very plausible your opponent may hit a set. 2) Its unlikely your opponent is going to fold a lot of his hands 3) You have a lot of equity vs all 1 pair hands with your backdoor flush draw, gutshot straight draw and your two overcards. Checking in this spot is the best move.

Another scenario when you may want to check the flop is when you have a good hand that has showdown value but is not vulnerable to overcards. For example, you 3bet Qd Qc and the flop comes down ace high, your opponent checks to you. This is a simple way ahead, way behind situation where you want to get to showdown cheaply. You should check the flop since there is not many cards that can hurt your hand and your either beat, or your opponent has few outs to improve.

The same situation could be applied when you have a middle strength made hand that your opponent won’t call more then one bet unless he has you beat. For example, the small blind raises your big blind and you have Ad Ts and you 3bet his raise. He smooth calls you out of position and checks the ace high flop. In this spot, if you bet you may get called by worse hands, but you will 1) not know where you are in the hand 2) be forced to check the turn. In this situation I elect to check behind often. This makes your hand more deceptive and may make your opponent 1) bluff the turn 2) call a turn bet without an ace (an underpair). Effectively accomplishing numerous things, 1) adding deception to your hand 2) giving your opponent a chance to bluff 3) keeps the pot small when you don’t have a massively strong hand.

The final situation for checking a 3bet pot on the flop is when you flop a monster. If you flop a set on a very dry board. For example, you have Qd Qs on a Q 4 8 board, you may want to check because your hand is not vulnerable to anything and its unlikely that a lot of hands would hit that board.

All other situations you should be continuation betting the flop and taking down the pot a high percentage of the time. Pay attention to game flow dynamics. If other players percieve you to be getting out of line they will likely be trying to either outplay you postflop or rebluff you preflop. If you are perceived to be getting out of line hands like ace king even pocket jacks become unfoldable however, if you have a nitty image its often appropriate to fold queens and ace king when 4bet.