Fighting Back – Defending Against 3bets
Passive Defense
There is a whole host of ways to fight back against 3bets; here are the more passive responses as well as ways to prevent 3bets from happening in the first place.
Fold
Of course, the first thing you can always do is fold. It's always better to fold that getting sucked into a disadvantageous position because you are not sure what to do and lose far more money off of it.
There are certainly the times where your opponent isn't actually bluffing or betting light, he is just getting some pretty good hands and betting for value. If they 3bet less than five percent of the time, just fold your cards away when they 3bet, even good-looking hands like JJ or AQo.
If you are on the button, normally you wouldn't dream of throwing away JJ to a 3bet, but we need to look at the strength of these hands against a merged range. Facing a 3% merged ranged (JJ+ or AK) AQo has a grand total of 28% equity. At this point it doesn't matter that we are BU or that our opponent might be bluffing, if he isn't, we have no way to extract any kind of profitability from this hand unless the stacks were enormous.
Position also plays a large part in determining whether or not to fold. Against early position open-raises, many players 3bet from a very tight range, especially if they are also in EP like the small blind. A 3bet from the small blind against your UTG open-raise is a pretty good sign that you should lay down almost everything, including QQ or AKo. AKo is great, but if our opponent's range is only KK, AA, and AKss, than we are already behind and not getting any better. This is maybe the only time you would ever consider laying down KK pre-flop, but depending on the opponent, it might not be a bad decision.
Lower Your Open-Raise Amounts
If you want to keep yourself from getting sucked into high-variance 3bet or 4bet hands a very easy fix is to lower the amount that you open-raise with. You have less money at risk if you are trying to simply steal the blinds, which means that you don't need to be successful as often; and you can avoid the 3bet steal attempt because there is less money in the pot and less of a reason for him to try and go for it.
Open-Raise from a Tighter Range
If you find that you are getting exploited by 3bets on hands that you then fold, you can always just tighten up your range of hands that you open-raise with. That way, you won't have to 4bet or call light. You might even be able to exploit a 3bettor with a very wide range when you have AA or KK by simply calling because he will automatically fire a Cbet post-flop, and you can then take him down.
Leave the Table
When you're on the playground it's not very polite to stop playing when you start to lose, but poker isn't the playground. If you are losing and don't know how to handle your opponents at the table, leave. You aren't stuck there, and since the goal of poker is to win, you want to give yourself the best chance to do so. If you are getting exploited by players constantly 3betting, just find a different table and try to turn your fortunes around.
Aggressive Defense
There may be times when passive defenses don't work, and alternative plays would give you a higher EV. Here is what you can do in these situations.
Flatting
Flatting, which is simply the poker way to say "flat-call" is one of the ways you can deal with a 3bet and is best employed as a type of value bet, or as a way to float your cards and try to steal after the flop.
Flatting is best done when you are in position. If you are out of position, you are either looking at a fold with weak hands, or 4betting for value with strong hands, not flatting, which is in-between. However, flatting out of position can be a very common flaw that players have in their game, either because they are timid and don't want to risk the 4bet, or due to open-raising too many hands to begin with.
When in position, flatting can be a good way to try to steal the hand after the flop, provided you opened with good float hands like 77, 78ss, or ATo. You want to play a lot of these hands in position and then flat 3bets because you can steal a lot of hands after the flop, and even sometimes hit them. Out of position, throw these hands away to a 3bet.
4Bet
A 4bet is the right answer either as a bet for value or as a bluff. 4betting is best done out of position as the diminishing stacks negate positional advantage. You can use it as a bluff if you feel that your opponent is 3betting light, or as a value bet and hope that you will induce a 5bet all-in shove.
Both of these strategies have their time and place. What is more important than thinking solely about position is also the range your opponent is 3betting with. You need to have an idea whether he 3bets with a polarized range, or with a merged range. If you know that, you can pick the appropriate response for the situation.
