Big Bets in 3bet Pot: Poker Betting Strategies

Betting Big in Three-Bet Pots

OK. Hello, guys. Round two. Today, we're going to be looking at the possibility of betting big in three bet pots. Let me just quickly share my screen and we'll crack on with the presentation part of this. And then we'll be looking at some sims, which hopefully will enlighten the chart, or at least unlock some possibilities to you about where and when you can bet big in three bet pots and get the money in quickly.

So, yeah, we looked at single race pots, but at the end, we we touched on a three bet pot because I wanted to give you a taster of this this week's session. So let's crack on. So last week, we looked at very common spots where the field essentially reverts to a simplified strategy very often.

And that often involves small c bets in single race pots, almost regardless of position. And within that session, we also looked at the conditions for where it is appropriate to use larger sizings. Now, in c bet pots, in three bet pots, you do see more smaller sizings, but I'm going to try and show you open your eyes to possibilities of large sizings.

And for those guys who play MDTs, you're used to wider ranges. So a more diluted defending range is going to result in you wanting to bet a little bit smaller. But there are a couple of areas where I think there is some crossover and I hope to help you with that.

Again, what I'm going to try and drum home is that everything we discussed was in relation to the core of our strategy, which is what our value wants to do and how our value wants to make the most money. So that's something that I'm probably going to mention in basically every session at some point. But that's incredibly crucial to your progression as a player to always have that in mind.

Three-Bet Pot Fundamentals

So three bet pots. I'm going to start basic and then move forward. Three bet pots and single raise pots are obviously very different.

But what are the discernible differences? Oops, wrong slide. So as a three bettor, we are obviously deciding to re-raise over a raise, which means that we are representing a strong range. And within our three betting range, the top end value is a much more concentrated part of our range than if we are raising from the button, for example.

Also, you're going to have a much smaller stack to pot ratio. So the opportunity to get the money in is very easy. It's a very big opportunity.

And both of these conditions mean on a lot of boards that there is small c-betting often with a large part of our range. However, we're here to look at the exceptions and indeed the conditions that make those exceptions. So I've been a bit lazy here and just basically used thesame slide as last week, but it does apply.

Common Errors in Three-Bet Pots

The very common errors in the field are the simplifications of small bets across basically all flops just to make things easy. There's also the classic scenario of people checking hands to protect their range. Again, I can't stress enough how poor that is for a progressive thought process.

And again, human beings are inconsistently insensitive to bet sizings. I'm going to just touch upon these issues when it fits in the hands that I have in the boards and the sims that I have prepared for you. The last thing that's not relevant to last week, well actually not irrelevant, but is much more relevant to this week is players who fail to acknowledge the offsuit combinations or indeed the lack of offsuit combinations in both ranges.

They can really piss away easy. So always have in mind what kind of the worst part of a player's range is and how that affects one's ability to get value. So today, here we are.

Small C-Bets and Offsuit Combos

We're going to start quickly by looking at some small c-bets. I know the title is about big bets, but we're going to look at some small c-bet generic spots, just so we have that in the back of our mind. And we're able to cross reference and make some judgments and discernible differences between the conditions for the small bets compared to the ones where we are looking at using big bets.

And hopefully when we add some offsuit combo scenarios, this will be helpful for the MTT guys because you're able to defend more liberally when you have an ante and no rake against three bets, especially in position but also out of position as well. We'll then look at a couple of low boards in position with differing strategies. And finally, we'll look at some out of position scenarios as well, where hopefully there's at least one board that should be a bit of a surprise to you.

And the key is to understand why it happens. All right. Again, this is small text, but I believe last time it was around this size and things were okay so fingers crossed you can read it okay.

Maximizing EV as Preflop Aggressor

Let's crack on. So making the most EV as the preflop aggressor in three bet pots. So in three bet pots you tend to get greater equity disparities between the two ranges.

This is because when you three bet and you get called and there is a dry board, you, you, sorry, I got a direct message. Give me a second. When you, there's a dry board, you retain the top end of your range whilst not having any of the bottom of RFI range for the button, for example.

So, alright, so basically the defending range. Yeah, no problem, Johnny. The defending range just has a density towards lower cards.

And sorry, as a density towards a lot of misses essentially whereas you still retain what your misses have over cards and also you will have over pairs to the scenarios. I'll just try and acknowledge Trontman's question now. Can you cover today also if possible, how to adjust thethree betting, if at all, when playing versus a short stack cash reg or recs that don't sit with a full stack? Sure.

Yeah, I can. Yeah, it's fairly simple. You just have to use more polarized ranges.

So if they're sitting with 40 big blinds, you start using like hands with worse playability but have better blocker effects. So an Ace-9 offsuit, an Ace-8 offsuit, that kind of hand would make a good three bet from the small blind versus button, for example. You basically would have to be flatting stuff with better playability because it's more of a waste to be four bet on and have to fold.

That would be my intuitive answer, although I don't have 40 big blinds sold for cash. So I would also just wouldn't do much three bet bluffing against a recreational who has a short stack. That would be my adjustment.

Three-Betting Range Composition

Okay, cool. Back to my second bullet point. When we do three bet, we are often broadway and big pair heavy.

And except there are a couple of linear exceptions, which are button versus cutoff, and you'll see we sometimes three bet hands like pocket fives and stuff like that, but from both the button and the small blind versus the cutoff and the button. But those are the exceptions rather than rule in cash game because you're generally working with tighter ranges. In cash games where both opponents have little broadway connection to the board, 10 high and below with decent connectivity, larger sizings make sense for the aggressor to try and get the money in with the big pairs there and then.

And as I mentioned last time, as we touched on last time, when we're three betting and we have a board like ace-10-4, which has good broadway connectivity for imposition and renders a lot of our big pairs as second pair, we are encouraged to use a polar strategy with our strong ace-x and we have to be relatively tight with our C betting in those situations. So again, that would fall into the common error section where people just bet small with a lot of their hands. Basically forgetting the value of that, well basically forgetting like a decent chunk of their value range.

And then this is going to, this is very heavily referenced towards the last board I want to show you. When we have a lot of visible raw equity and our opponent has a lot of connectivity and you have clear, I mean there's a lot of conditions that make this very specific, and you have clear overpair asymmetry, you occasionally want to get very, very large sizings too, i.e. all in. We don't want to go into takeaways yet.

Simulations and Equity Disparity

Okay, so we're going to look at some sims now and hopefully we'll find some interesting things for you. As always, feel free to ask questions. I will try and answer them basically as I finish my point.

So if I don't answer them instantly, I've not ignored you, just bear that in mind. Okay, so we'regoing to start with our tree from last week, which was one where we were doing a lot of polarizing, if you remember correctly, which was Ace-King-5 with a flush draw, but this time we've been the three-better. And the cutoff has called, so we're button versus cutoff here.

And just quickly before we look at the actual strategy, I think the strategy is written there, but we'll look at the equity disparity and you can see already that we're, as the three-better, we have an absurd advantage here where we've got 65%. This isn't standard for three-bet pots, this is just very standard for this particular situation. And the reason is, we obviously retain Kings and Aces that the opponent can't have, but even our unpaired hands preflop have now made the effects nuts.

So we have a very, very high percentage of our range is now at least top pair. So we have an absurd amount of equity stored there. Which allows us to bet, and not only that, the value range that we have needs very little protection.

So ergo, small betting with our range makes a lot of sense. We just compare that with out of position, they've got incredible density towards suited connectors and small pairs. And as you can see, all this orange basically reflects a heap of hands that are 25% equity or worse.

So we're allowed to put a lot of pressure on them with an awful, awful lot of our range with a very small sizing. And you can see that they're facing a quarter pot bet, they're folding over half their range, which is a big over fold, but that's the nature of unrealizable equity for them. So one thing I want to just mention here, which is like a fairly common error.

And it's kind of ironic that we're looking at a small bet spot and I'm telling you that you should bet small. But I see people here betting kings large because it unblocks ACEX. This is just a torch.

It just makes you really, really easy to play against if you're doing that because it's just really clear what you have. And even if you think, well, I can do this with kings and then put some like jack 10 of diamonds in there. It's just, it's just not enough.

You benefit way more from a small sizing. Because, and like seeing as we're here, I'm going to show you the response. You generate a lot of EV from out of position, like check raising, deuces, threes.

And by the way, if you're not doing this, these are like really, really good bluffs. Obviously PO approves, but the unblocking effect of these is really, really good. And you can obviously draw to some very good hands too.

5x is never, I never really see people check raising 5x. I mean, I see some good players do it, but 5x I think should always have been part of your armory. It's really, really, it's a nice, nice unblocking hand and also has 5x to improve as well.

Of course, you're going to call yourself sometimes when they have a set, but 5x is like a very,