3Betting in Texas Holdem
As you begin to read more advanced strategies or hand advice threads, you’ll come across something known as 3betting. A 3bet literally means to make the 3rd bet in a particular street (i.e. re-raising a re-raise). 4Betting would be when a person raises a 3bet.
3Betting occurs a lot in pre-flop pots by TAGs and LAGs looking to extract maximum value from their premium hands. It also helps to get your chips in early when playing short stack opponents who often have a fold/shove mentality. For example, if you have KK and villain open-raised with mid-pockets like 66 or 77, then you need to 3bet these opponents either for value or to take the pot down. You are way ahead of these hands (80% favourite I think) and by flat-calling you are missing an opportunity to sneak more chips into the pot.
Let me just clear this up, any re-raise that an opponent makes pre-flop is known as a 3bet because the blinds are considered the first bet of that hand.
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3Betting Hands
Depending on how lose your starting hand range is your 3betting range can vary. A typical TAG player will 3bet 5% of his hands on average (AQ+, JJ+). TAGs only 3bet value, and do not 3bet bluff with weak holdings (also known as 3betting light). Generally a TAG will have a very polarised 3betting range, in other words if an experienced TAG 3bets into you and you’re holding a weak holding like A10, then you should always fold.
A LAG 3betting range, in contrast, will represent 6 – 10% of his starting hands. LAGs tend to merge their 3betting range. This means they will 3bet with a mash of premium/marginal hands which is mainly dependant on their position. LAGs 3bet bluff a lot more from LP and CO with hands such as JQ or 910 (usually just to steal the blinds against TAG nitty players on the SB or BB).
In terms of what is the “optimal” 3betting frequency for your tables, I would argue that about 7% is about right. I feel this gives you just enough bluffing equity for stealing the blinds from position, whilst also giving you a loose enough table image to get called down lightly with your big hands. Remember that if you polarise your 3betting range too much, than unless the players at your table are idiots you’re not actually going to get much value. It would a shame to pick up a sweet hand like AA only to have everyone fold behind you. You’ll also need boost your aggression in high stakes cash games by increasing the range of hands you 3bet with and merging your hand strength pre-flop.
Positional 3Betting
3Betting is definitely more profitable depending on your position at the table. From LP and CO you can open up your 3betting range to include AJ, KQs and QJs type hands. Although these aren’t the best hands in the world, only a small percentage of players will flat-call you. The majority of players are going to 4bet or fold you out of position.
You need to be careful when you get called and hit the top pair however, since without the nuts you could be beaten by a stronger kicker. You need to use pot-control to limit the size of the pot with QK type hands and make small value bets on each street of about 25% to 33% of the pot.
In terms of 3betting from BB/UTG (early position hands), you can’t afford to open your range up. You should only be 3betting with AQ+ and QQ+. Anything worse than this and you are basically leaving too many mistakes in your game. Sometimes you can include JJ on a 6-max table but it really all depends on your table image, your opponent’s image, and the general flow of the game. I always recommend avoiding 3betting from UTG with dominated hands like A10 or off suit broadway cards (QJ/KJ). Although you might win a few pots this way, if you get called than you can have problems determining your position in the hand - and whether you’re in front or behind. Being out of position and first to act on the flop also means you will get very little reads on your opponent. This is a bad way to play poker.
Calling 3Bets
A lot of inexperienced butcher the 3bet and don’t fully grasp the background of what it represents. In order to call a 3bet you need to be aware of a process known as the “gap concept”. Developed by a well known author and professional poker player David Slansky, the gap concept states that in order to call a 3bet in front of you, you need to have a relative strength of hand that is greater than one you would have 3bet from in that position. For example, if you 3bet AJ from MP, but someone has already 3bet in front of you, then you need AQ or greater in order to profitably call that player’s 3bet.
Does this sound too confusing? OK, let me break it down into a simple rule: Never call a 3bet in a cash game with less than AQ.