Pre-Flop 3Bets

What is a 3bet?

3bet is shorthand for "third bet", which means that a 3 bet is the third time that someone makes a bet into the pot during one round of betting. You can have a 3bet on any street and in any kind of poker, but they are most commonly utilized before the flop, and that's what we will focus on in this article. For pre-flop 3 bets, the big blind equals the first bet, an open-raise is the second bet, and a raise on top of that is called a 3bet.

A more simple way to say it is that a 3bet is a re-raise before the flop.

You can also have 4bets, 5bets, and so on, but this article will simply focus on the pre-flop 3bet and how to use it. 3betting is generally considered to be an aggressive strategy, and an important part of modern poker.

When do we 3bet?

There are three reasonable reasons to pre-flop 3bet (there are always unreasonable reasons, but we shall ignore those). When making a 3bet, it should be to do one of the following:

• Bet for value
• Bet as a bluff
• Set up a steal either post-flop or pre-flop

3betting for Value

Firstly, you can 3bet for value, just like any other normal time which you would value bet. You think that your hand has is stronger than your opponent's range, and so you want to extract value by betting. You want the open-raiser to call your bet with a worse hand than your more than 50% of the time. Keep in mind that this means that, depending on the player, you are likely facing a good hand from the open-raiser, and you need to have a really great hand to get value.

For instance, at 6-Max tables you should have a pretty monster hand to be 3-betting for value, especially against a tighter opponent. This means value-3betting with only pocket pairs TT or higher, or AJss or higher. Of course, the looser and fishier the opponent is, you can widen the range of hands you would value bet with as well as 3betting in higher amounts.

When going up against open-raisers from early positions like UTG you are not going to get very many chances to 3bet for value, as they likely have pretty good cards to betting from that position. Likewise, a 3bet after an UTG open-raise shows everyone that you consider your hand to be huge, and you are likely to get few callers, or else end up against a range that you would rather not be facing. It UTG is a TAG player and open-raises, even a hand like QQ or AKo is probably just a call, as a 3bet could get you into a lot of trouble.

Finally, you want to look at the stats of your opponent. Ft3bet (Fold to 3bet) and ATS (Attempts to Steal) are the key stats here. If the open-raiser has a high percentage in those stats, they are a perfect player to 3bet against for value. You will get some more folds from them than you like, but you will also end up being in high equity hands against them when they have something decent.

3betting as a Bluff

In this case, the same players (those with high Ft3bet and ATS stats) are the target, but instead of wanted to goad them into playing, you want to exploit those stats and get them to lay down hands which are likely better than yours. You want to make sure that your opponent has relatively high numbers for these stats, as attempting to 3bet a big fish will just lead to a lot of losses.

The ideal time for a 3bet bluff is against a later position where your opponent is going to be open-raising with a wider range of cards than normal, such as CO or BU. Always try to mix up the amounts you 3bet, as good opponents might see that you are betting a bit lighter or heavier against these positions and respond with a 4bet, sinking your bluff attempt. In what is actually the opposite to what you might think, you can 3bet bluff better players in UTG or middle position because it is an unusual play and they are not expecting a bluff, but a value-bet.

When thinking about hands you would use to 3bet bluff with, we're not talking about 72o or 23ss, but they also shouldn't be hands which you should call with, like 88. These should be hands that could end up with value and great pot-equity after the flop, in case you get called. Consider bluffing with hands like T9ss, AXss, KTo and so on. These are not hands which are good enough for you call with (if they are, you should just call) but they could either pull off the bluff, or at least give you a bit of a fighting chance if your 3bet is called.

One thing you can do if you run into an opponent who fights back against these bets with a light 4bet, you can also include some of the top hands in your 3bet range, so that your opponent will never know if you are bluffing or value betting. 3Betting both these top and bottom hands in your range is called betting a polarized range, and can be quite useful against opponent's adjustments.

Lastly, position is still important when 3bet bluffing, as you would rather 3bet bluff in-position than out of position, as you still retain some fold-equity in the hand that way.

3betting to Set up a Steal

You've been playing against a particular player for a while, and you know a good deal about his tendencies. This opponent will call a 3bet almost all of the time, but with speculative hands which can either hit big or completely miss on the flop. What you can do is then 3bet him with a merged range of hands somewhere in-between the hands which you would bluff with and those you would value-bet with. Against a player like this, it is best to 3bet instead of flat call, as you are not really losing expected value. This is where 88 or AXss is a good hand to 3bet with.

You can even go a bit beyond that thinking; for instance, this opponent will usually 4bet you with these kinds of hands, so you will plan to 5bet as a bluff. It's always good to have an idea of what you will do next for each action that your opponent might take and to look ahead in the betting round.

Pre-flop 3bets, 4bets, 5bets and Up – The Mental Game

You should always constantly trying to alter your strategy and adjust the ranges of hands that you would 3bet, 4bet, 5bet and so on with in order to maintain an edge over the ranges which your opponent would make these bets with. It can become quite the mental struggle, and one of the ways in which playing winning poker can also be quite challenging and enjoyable.

An Example:

Vader is BU and open-raises. Luke is BB and he has already watched Vader and knows that Vader will open-raise on BU with a huge range. So Luke 3bets as a bluff against the open-raise. Simple so far.

Going another step, Vader knows that Luke is aware that he opens wide from BU and that Luke with respond with 3bet from a very wide range of cards himself. So Vader decides to make a 4bet bluff to counter what Luke knows about him. However, Luke already knows that Vader knows this about him, and is already prepared to make a 5bet because he is still sure that Vader's range is fairly weak.

Luckily, it usually stops by that point because someone, if not both players, is already all-in at this point and there are no more bets to be made. It's important to know that with this example, both players are still just making assumptions that the other player has a light hand and is bluffing. Of course, this is not always the case. Instead of constant bluff raising, one of them changes to 3betting only for value, and gains an EV edge over the other one; this is how this mental game can become profitable.

It's pretty rare to see a table at micro-stakes where this kind of play takes place, although every now and then they do exist. You don't see many players 3betting or 4betting light down there in order to make any money off of these plays. You will still see a lot of 3bets, so you need to be able to have a good idea of 3bet range, both for yourself and for your opponents. Most 4bets and basically all 5bets you make should always be shoves for value, very rarely for bluffs.

Conclusion

3bets, 4bets, and beyond have become a vital part of poker today, and you need to be able to not only understand and counter-act them, but use them yourself in order to become a good player. And becoming a great player means that you have to take the next step and also learn how to constantly adjust your 3bets and 3bet defense based on your opponent.