The 3-bet (or more specifically, light 3-betting) is an advanced concept that adds an extra weapon to a game that has likely become repetitive and stagnant, even if that current game strategy is winning you money at the tables.
3-betting will shake up a mid-stakes player's game about as much as the continuation bet did when you first found out about that when you were starting out.
This concept is going to be most useful in mid-stakes games between $50NL and $200NL.
What is 3-betting and 3-betting light?
3-betting.
First of all, what is a 3-bet before the flop?
A 3-bet is when there has been a raise and then another raise after that.
Competition in 3-Bet Pots This 3-bet pot guide shows you how to play your hands postflop in large pots. Make smarter postflop decisions that will lead to increased win-rates and a bigger edge on your opponents. See when to slowplay big hands. And the other times when you should aggressively bet/raise with them.
- Beasts of Poker Team Pro 'Arvain' is a long-time mid to high stakes PLO regular and is a huge ambassador of the great game of Pot-Limit Omaha. When you make a c-bet in a three-bet pot, the pot.
- A pot size bet is unnecessarily large in a 3-bet pot. 2/3 does the job and saves us money for when it doesn't work out. The beauty of 3-betting is that it gives you supreme power in the hand. Your opponent is always going to have the fear that you have pocket Aces or pocket Kings at the forefront of their mind, so take advantage of that fear.
Simple enough, but let me give you one quick example to drive it home: After the SB and BB post the $1 and $2 blinds, lets say there is a raise to $8 from a player in MP. If another player in LP raises it again to $24, this is called a 3-bet.
For a quick guide to good 3bet sizing, watch the 3betting section starting at 13:39 in this bet sizing video.
As you can imagine, the guy (or girl) making the 3-bet probably has a very good hand. You would normally expect them to be holding something like QQ+ or AK to make this second raise before the flop.
You might be wondering why it's called a 3-bet if there has only been two raises. Well, the BB is actually considered to be a bet in itself, and so the first raise is the 2nd bet and the second raise is the 3-bet.
3-betting light.
As mentioned, you would expect the player making the 3-bet to have a very strong hand like QQ+ or AK. Therefore, 3-betting light is when you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand like 67, 78 or any suited connector like that.
3-betting light is where you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand before the flop.
Seems crazy and dangerous I know, but I'm sure you thought the same thing when you first heard about continuation betting. 3-betting light can be an incredibly +EV move when used correctly, so don't underestimate its strength.
Why 3-bet?
Players these days will make preflop raises with a wide range of hands. If a player makes a raise before the flop in LP, they could have almost any hand under the sun. That's how all decent TAGs play.
Calling these raises with a strong hand of our own (or even with a drawing hand like 78s) puts us at a disadvantage because our opponent will have the initiative in the hand. When the flop comes, we are only really looking to fold unless we hit top pair or better. Even then, we are not going to feel great about our hand.
3-betting when in position will regularly put loose raisers in a position where it is -EV to call a 3-bet because of their wide opening range. Not to mention taking away their initiative.
The advantages of 3-betting.
- Players open with a wide range of hands, which means calling 3-bets is -EV for our opponents.
- 3-betting can often be far more +EV than just calling in some cases.
- Players almost always fear AA when they face a 3-bet. This gives us tremendous leverage for the flop (so cbet!).
- You take back the initiative in the hand.
- Opponents will call you down with much weaker hands in future if they see you 3-bet so lightly (metagame strategy).
Poker 3 Betting
Sure, making an extra reraise before the flop is going to be pretty damn scary, especially if you are 3-betting light. However, if its going to be a +EV play you need to show some balls and play in the way that is going to make you the most money.
Don't get me wrong though, 3-betting light isn't just to try and punish the loose raisers and hope that they fold. There will be times when we get called when we 3-bet light, but that's not a problem. There are still advantages to 3-betting light when we reach the flop.
When and where to 3-bet light.
So we've discussed the advantages of the simple 3-bet, but when should you 3-bet light?
- You want to 3-bet light with mid connectors/suited connectors like 67, 78 and 89, or 1 gap suited connectors like 68 and 79.
- You should 3-bet light in position. Playing a 3-bet pot out of position is tricky (although not impossible).
- You should mostly 3-bet raisers from LP. Raisers from EP are more likely to turn up with a strong hand.
- You should try 3-betting light against TAG (Tight-Aggressive) and semi-TAG players.
An optimum spot to 3-bet light is when a TAG from LP makes a raise when you are on the button or in the CO.
Apologies for the God-awful diagram, but you should get the idea. These sort of players are likely to be raising with a wide range of hands in this position, and so are fully capable or folding when they come up against aggression. This is why 3-betting gives us an edge.
An important point to remember is that you do not want to 3-bet light against players who are either:
- Super tight and are only going to raise with supreme hands. Hence our 3-bet definitely gets called.
- Super loose and will call regardless. We lose all of our fold equity in the hand with these players.
This is not the only ever spot that you can 3-bet, but if you keep these guidelines in mind you should be able to get a feel for when it's a +EV spot to 3-bet.
How to 3-bet.
In a nutshell, when you 3-bet light you ideally want your opponent to fold. This gives you an instant and nicely-sized pot and will usually force your opponent to tighten up the hands they open with from late position.
If we get called and miss the flop, we are almost always in the perfect situation to make a continuation bet and take down then pot. So don't be afraid to make that cbet, it's a +EV move over the long run. That's the basics of it, but allow me to explain a little further.
Hands not to 3-bet light with.
Poker 3 Bet Potential
The type of hands that you do not want to 3-bet light with are lower tier broadway hands like; KQ, KJ QJ and also weaker aces like AJ (definitely not rag aces either). The problem is that if you are 3-betting with these cards, the hands that your opponent is going to call with are going to have you dominated (e.g. AQ+, JJ+).
However, if you have a lower suited connector like 78s, you still have two 'free' cards that you can do damage with. It also makes post-flop play easier as you are less likely to get tied in with a marginal hand where you hold something like top pair weak kicker.
Stick to 3-betting premiums (QQ+, AK) and lower suited connectors (56 - 9T) only.
You are better off calling with less than premium broadway hands rather than 3-betting with them preflop.
What to do on the flop if you are called.
If you miss the flop, make a continuation bet of about 2/3 the size of the pot. Simple as that.
A pot size bet is unnecessarily large in a 3-bet pot. 2/3 does the job and saves us money for when it doesn't work out.
Poker 3 Bet Potion
The beauty of 3-betting is that it gives you supreme power in the hand. Your opponent is always going to have the fear that you have pocket Aces or pocket Kings at the forefront of their mind, so take advantage of that fear. If on the odd occasion you get called, check/call on the turn and be done with the hand. The majority of the time a good continuation bet will work wonders though.
If on the other hand you catch a piece of the flop but nothing worth value-betting, checking and calling may be the best option. However, a lot of the time you are going to either have a strong hand or nothing at all, and in both of these situations you will want to cbet.
3-betting light example.
Let's say our opponent is 26/18 and raises frequently from late position. This is a simple example:
SB: $200
BB: $200
UTG: $200
MP: $200
CO: $200
Hero (BTN): $200
Pre Flop: ($3) Hero is BTN with 7 8
1 fold, MP raises to $8, 1 fold, Hero raises to $30, 2 folds
Flop: ($66) 2 J 6 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $45, MP folds
Our opponent here clearly made a poor call when we 3-bet, as we represented a very strong hand like QQ+ or AK, so the chances are that he called with a hand like AJ+ and hoped for the best.
Even if our opponent did hold a hand like QQ or AJ, it is very difficult for them to call for the fear of us holding Aces or Kings, which is why the continuation bet brings home so much money due to the 3-bet before the flop.
Evaluation of 3-betting light.
This article is one of the longest I have ever written, yet I still feel that it could have been a bit meatier. Congratulations if you made it this far, and I hope most of it made sense and you can understand the theory behind 3-betting lightly and how it can be profitable.
Just be sure not to abuse 3-betting and you will be fine. 3-betting and 3-betting lightly can be very +EV in the right spots, but they can do a lot of damage to your stack if you are not careful with them. I'd recommend dropping down a level to experiment with 3-betting and to find your feet with it.
It's definitely a skill that is worth perfecting and adding to your game as a mid-stakes player (or for when you reach those levels).
PS. Don't forget to cbet if you miss the flop.
Related articles.
SplitSuit's When 3Bets Go Wrong (pt. 1) video looks at 9 different hand histories where Hero's 3bet gets called (or when another player 4bets). It's an excellent strategy video for playing in tricky 3bet spots.
Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.
Comments
3-Bet pots often seem a lot trickier than 2-Bet pots since they are rarer and therefore less familiar. On top of this, it can also be more difficult to think clearly in 3-Bet pots due to there being more money at stake. Let’s explore how to handle these situations in the role of the defender.
Small SPR
SPR stands for Stack-to-Pot Ratio. It is commonly the language poker players use to describe how big the pot is in relation to the effective stack (the lowest amount out of your stack and your opponent’s). In a 3-Bet pot, the effective stack is much shorter than usual in relation to the pot. We can say that the SPR in a 3-Bet pot is small. Normally the effective stack is only around 4-6 times the size of the pot. Contrast this to an SPR of 20 or so that is typical of a single raised pot. What does this mean?
Raising is Less Necessary in Position
The normal rationale for raising against flop c-bets in single-raised pots is that there is a necessity to build the pot. The big blind caller cannot allow the pot to stagnate against the BU c-bettor when he’s flopped trips. In a 3-Bet pot, however, when the caller has position, raising achieves a lot less. Why?
The extra money that a raise pours into the middle against a flop c-bet is very injectable later in the hand, provided we have position. With an SPR of 5 or so, it only takes three streets of betting to get all the money in the middle. This means that flop raises become a bit redundant when we are in position. If Villain bets again on the turn, then great – we are just one street away from getting the rest of the stack in. If Villain checks the turn, no problem, we still have two streets of betting to do ourselves.
The Advantages to Just Calling
It is not just that you don’t have to raise in these situations. Most of the time, you don’t want to raise. Simply calling flop c-bets in position in 3-Bet pots offers you a few perks that raising does not.
Firstly, calling allows you to see how your opponent plays the turn as well as what the turn card is before you invest a pile of extra money. If he checks, you have learned that his range is likely to be weaker, and fold equity is now quite reasonable. If he bets again, his range is more polarised and he will have a nutted hand more frequently than it appeared he would on the flop. We can call this extra gaining of information visibility. If your opponent is particularly passive, then we can say that visibility is very high because this player’s turn action is likely to be transparent. By waiting until the next street to put in a lot of money, you get to find out which part of Villain’s range he holds. If a very passive player bets again, you will be relieved that you refrained from raising the flop. It was very unlikely that he’d be folding, but of course, you did not know that facing just the flop bet.
The second reason for just calling all your continuing hands in position in 3-Bet pots is that you get to continue making money from Villain’s bluffs. If you raise the flop with a strong hand likeJ♥10♥ on J♦10♠4♣ then you are merely shutting down your opponent’s bluffs. While it might be useful to get some protection against the higher equity bluffs like 98s and KQ, the weaker bluffs like AQ only have 4 outs and you are more than happy to let them barrel off. Although 98s is a scary hand to have to face, it will usually miss, and you want it to keep bluffing when it does.
The final reason for just calling in spots like this is to keep your own rage uncapped. When you take an action that is weaker than the line you would take with your strongest hands, you cap your range. This can allow opponents to get more aggressive against you both in terms of bluffing and value betting more ambitiously. By smooth calling all your sets on the JT4 board you are making it harder for Villain to unload the clip with a bluff and taking away his right to go for thin value bets later in the hand. Having an uncapped range here makes the spot easier to defend later in the hand.
What about Out of Position?
It is simply lower EV to call 3-Bet out of position and so we need a stronger hand to do so. One of the biggest problems with being out of position in a 3-Bet pot is that we lose the luxury of just calling c-bets with our whole range. When out of position, we do not boast the same control over pot growth as we did in position. If we check/call the flop and check the turn to Villain, he gets to check behind and limit the betting to two streets. This makes it nearly impossible to win a stack with a very strong hand against a mediocre one and demonstrates why in position 3-betting can be a powerful weapon.
As a result, we are now incentivised to build raising ranges on the flop against c-bets. Take the J♦10♠4♣ flop for example – this time we are the SB caller and villain is the BB 3-bettor. Naturally, we start by checking all our range here, but this time when he c-bets, we need to attack by raising with a polarised range. This means raising hands like two pair and sets for value and balancing these powerhouses with some bluffs like 98s, KQ, and some gutshots with backdoor flush draws. The disadvantage to this play is that we end up bluffing into an uncapped range as opposed to a capped one that had to check the turn to us. This means our bluff works less often. The other downside is that when we raise our value hands and Villain folds, we have often lost some money against hands he would have been bluffing on the next street. These are necessary evils, for failing to build the pot when we have a monster is simply not viable.
Poker 3bet Pots
Conclusion
3-Bet pots are simply a lot more profitable in position. Not raising is a luxury – a way of keeping options open and learning more before investing. Out of position, we have to make the best of it and build that raising range with a sigh.
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