21 Nov 2024 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players 3-bet barreling draw exploit red line semi-bluff Playing against 3-bets is always a higher risk due to the much larger pot size than when we play a simple raised pot. We can 4-bet, call a 3-bet or fold. How effectively we play 3-bet pots can either give us a big boost in profit or take us into big minuses from such spots. Today, well-known midstakes pro Steffen Sontheimer will share some tips on playing postflop after you have called a 3-bet in position from a player in one of the blinds. We will look at playing a call in position (IP) on a 3-bet. That is, when we opened with an open-raise on a free position, and someone from the blinds makes us a 3-bet and we call him. We will leave spots about calling out of position (OOP) on 3-bets for later. Now about playing in position on the postflop after you called a 3-bet from a player in the blinds. First, a little general theory, and then specific examples of hands from the flop to the river, which will teach you how to think correctly in such spots. Next - in his words. Against c-bets: Reaction game Since we limited ourselves to calling rather than 4-betting, we will always have a weaker range on almost any board than the 3-better. We will most often 4-bet for value with the top of the matrix. Therefore, the opponent has all AA, KK, QQ and AK in his range, and we have much less of them - that is, he will have an advantage in overpairs, and accordingly in range equity. Therefore, there is always a threat that the opponent has a pair higher than ours, and therefore he will often be able to profitably barrel into us even with bluffs. And we will be able to only call almost any of his sizings. If we do not know how to counter this, it is better for us not to get into such situations. But the article is about playing after a call in position, so here we will look fear straight in the eye. Since the range advantage is on the opponent, it is his job to build a barreling strategy. All we can do as a caller in position is react to this. That's why we call the caller game a reaction game: most hands in our range want to call and see turns and rivers using position, and by raising we would destroy our positional advantage. To make informed decisions, we need key information: Understanding how our range is structured and where a particular hand is in it, Understanding the typical range of the opponent, As well as pot odds and outs. Pot odds - we need to correctly react to the opponent's sizing - there is a big difference between his continuation bet for 1/3 of the pot and 2/3. And by outs, I don't just mean that 9 cards help us build a conditional flush draw and, accordingly, give 19% to get there in 1 street of betting, but more. We need to know what cards exactly to continue with so that they can beat the opponent's hands: how good is our bottom pair / middle pair / if we catch an out for two pairs or trips, will it still be the best hand, and so on. If we are preparing to meet an all-in from the opponent, then our bluff will definitely not work, and we need favorable pot odds so as not to play with -EV. How to think and make decisions in defense against barreling? I recommend that you think in roughly the following order to better understand each individual situation. Flop: Do I have a raising range in position? My main thought process on the flop is not to think about the specific hand I've been dealt, but in general, does my range want to raise on the flop? If the answer is «no», then I know exactly what my range is on the turn and can figure it out from there. In order to simplify my decisions and play, I almost always play a call on the flop and without a raising range. Although the fact that my opponent realizes all his equity on the flop this way has its drawbacks, but it greatly simplifies the game for me and then I always have a simple choice on the flop - between 2 options, not three. Check out our new Bluff Equity Calculator Hands that have EV close to 0 can be immediately folded on the flop without remorse and pride - you don't have to waste energy on them. If you are sure that your opponent check-folds often enough on the turn to float him even in a 3-bet pot, then you can play indifferent and loss-making hands within the flop by calling with the intention of taking the pot further. But usually and/or when you are not sure, you can play simply. Turn: Bluff Catcher Rank and Equity On the turn, most people are already starting to raise the size of the second barrel, if they decide to bet it. Sometimes we see big bets right on the flop, but much more often there will be a small bet on the flop and a big bet on the turn. So. Now the primary factor that inclines us to fold or call is understanding our equity against the opponent's range, which includes not only bluffs with which he wants to push us out, but also value with which he wants to accelerate the pot as much as possible. River: Bluff Catcher Rank and the Quality of Its Blockers On the river, the situation often changes, and now the most important thing for us is the quality of our blockers: which cards are good and which are bad - and by how much. If you look at what cards you have and cannot think of many bluffs for your opponent, then there will not be many of them. Example of a hand and a train of thought: 3-bet pot BU vs SB => The opponent barrels First hand As I go along, see for yourself whether my reasoning matches the algorithm I wrote above. Flop: is there a range of raises, => then what do we call and what do we fold, Turn: assess the rank of the bluff catcher by his equity, River: assess the rank of the bluff catcher by the quality of his blockers. So. We open on the BU, SB 3-bets us and we call. The flop comes and the opponent c-bets for 1/3 of the pot. GTO Wizard and other solvers can c-bet here for different sizes and with different frequencies, but the vast majority of your regular opponents will bet here with their entire range for exactly 1/3 of the pot - this is an unspoken standard and a characteristic feature of the regular field. Flop - the opponent bets 1/3 of the pot What do we want to raise here? - Yes, probably nothing at all. - The range of the raise is not needed here. Now we need to determine the top of our folding range - the strongest hand from it, which we fold right on the flop against a rangebet. - We see that according to GTO Wizard we boldly call AQo and throw away AJo. Calls with ATs, A9s A5s and A4s will depend on the presence of BDFD and its rank - and the same with suited connectors. Call EV Calculator We have a cheap call, and we need to do it with these hands. There is a positional advantage and we can try to outplay the opponent on the turn and/or river. Or get a hand better. And regarding what we throw away - this is what did not catch on the board in any way and has no prospects for strengthening. In general, it is difficult to make a fatal mistake here, => we call a cheap rangebet with almost our entire range and look at the situation on the turn. Turn - the opponent bets 1/2 of the pot On the turn, people often polarize their ranges, betting a large bet size - no smaller than 2/3 of the pot, which is already quite large. However, this also helps our range, giving us flush draws, straight draws, second pairs, etc., so there is no need to automatically throw out the white flag either. The opponent expectedly bets 50% - 75% of the pot. Now we need to evaluate our specific hand (bluff catcher) in terms of its equity. The following list will be a rating of bluff catchers - from best to worst. A weak king is now a top bluff-catcher for me, but just a bluff-catcher, Because neither can I bet it for value, because it isn't worth that much, nor will the opponent with AQ bet a second barrel for value, but will rather play check-call with it. So, we beat only bluffs and overplays. And if I have in my hand, then even with a weak kicker this top pair becomes the best bluff-catcher, because it seriously reduces the probability of the opponent having a top pair from AK, QK, etc. On the turn, we will never fold the top pair in our range against an adequate bet - the EV of calling with it is too good. The second bluff-catcher in rank is the second pair from Qx. It has very good equity against any bluff, because it blocks outs to a straight and to getting to the top pair from . If the opponent has or , then hitting a pair doesn't help him, and we are still higher. If he has , then his potential pair does not beat us either. If he has A5s, then his live outs are only 3 aces, which will come quite rarely. Therefore, we are fine with the second pair. Call Push EV Calculator The third pair from is the third bluff catcher in the rating. But why not JJ and TT if they are higher than the third pair? - Yes, higher, but they only have 2 outs for improving - for a set. And the third pair has as many as 5 outs - including two outs for a doper, and not just for a trips. JJ in the picture against the second barrel, already increased one - have 0.05 EV, and 76s has as many as 3.47 - incomparable. And this EV is generated by our 5 outs for doper+. And obviously we'll beat the opponent's AA then. And so on with the other pairs. Now let's move on to the river. River: - the opponent pushes (All-In) A wet and dangerous river. Completing any draws on the rivers will not happen as rarely as you would like. But I set such a river specifically for educational purposes, to show how to evaluate the quality of blockers in your hand. Here, too, there will be a rating of hands by their EV. Let me remind you, the game line was as follows: Preflop: We open-raised on BU => SB 3-bet => We called, Flop: SB continuation bets for 1/3 => We called, Turn: SB continuation bets now for 1/2 the pot => We called, River: The opponent pushes. No matter what we call on the turn for 1/2 the pot, now we need to evaluate how good our hand is in terms of blockers - both to the opponent's value and to his bluffs. Yes, blocking value is not enough. You also need to not block bluffs. Ask yourself on the rivers: what hand are you hoping for (and with what probability) when you try to bluff-catch your opponent? Because if you have no idea what you want to see there and with what chance, then you are just guessing. However, you can still increase your chances of winning. If we think that the opponent is capable of bluffing, then we will need to call him down with something. and (with an ace of hearts) are obviously the most frequent candidates for a double bluff for an aggressive opponent. At a minimum, he will bluff here with or . Then we need a blocker that would not reduce the chance of the opponent having the most common double bluffs and at the same time would strongly cut his nut hands. And this is precisely the hand with the king of hearts and an ace of any other suit: With a hand with opposite ranks and suits (), the situation would be different: you block the opponent both top flushes and top bluffs. The ace of hearts in your hand would not be bad, but still not the best blocker to the opponent's betting range. And with in your hand, you block only the opponent's value and not a single bluff. Result: The best bluff catcher on a 3-flush river is TPTK with the king of hearts . Next come top pairs with a lower kicker, but still with the king of hearts . And the blockers of the rest of the hands are visible in the picture. 3-bettor checked on the flop: Action game You've just learned what it's like to react to a barrel in a 3-bet pot. Now you have the initiative yourself. The fact that the opponent decided not to make a continuation bet OOP and checked can be caused by 2 main reasons: The board was very suitable for our range, and at the same time the opponent has a hopeless hand to continue the game. => Then we need to bet small. His range is concentrated around SDV hands, with which he decided to skip 1-2 streets of value, but is ready to call. => Then we need to bet big. In the first scenario, we only need to bet small with bluffs to throw out the opponent's trash, where he sees that we have too strong a range. With value, we also do not want to throw him out too early. In the second scenario, when we have a bluff, we need to either attack his range made of medium-strength hands with our large bets, or do nothing at all. Of course, there are many situations in between these two extremes, but as a starting point, studying these two opposite situations will be a good idea. - You need to learn to notice the reasons for your bets and their frequency, and on this basis, choose the right bet size for each bet. How to think and make decisions in attack against a check on the flop from a 3-bettor? Flop: What are we attacking? Turn: What are we attacking? I wrote the same thing for a reason. - When you know your goal, you understand how to behave. This rule for choosing sizes and frequencies works great. You need to hit the weakest category of hands of the opponent, which has decent equity against your made value hands. JTs on the flop 456r/s has good equity against our 77, 88, 99 and even against A-high, which is not a value hand. We have not yet taken into account the specific suits on the board and JTs. This rule works both on the flop and on the turn. If on a flop that suits our range we bet a small bet on the opponent's check and he doesn't give up, it means that this time he doesn't have complete trash. But it's also not a hand that always calls OOP all 3 barrels. Therefore, on the turn we already polarize the range and bet big - adding bluff combinations to value hands. Now let's look at some examples. Example #1: SB 3-bet and didn't c-bet this flop. Now the turn and initiative are passed to us. We need to attack the missed offsuit broadway without BDFD. The optimal sizing will be 20% of the pot. You can see how often the solver chooses the sizing of 20% of the pot in the chart on the right. And on the left side you can see the opponent's autofolds - we are mainly aiming at his offsuit hands, which have no chance of winning the hand. Their share in his range is such that 20% is enough for us to play this situation in +EV, even taking into account that we also have no equity, and that the opponent will not fold anything else. Example #2: On the left is the opponent's range, on the right - our actions with various hands already in our range. Here we are not attacking - they will fold anyway and should not interest us. We are attacking medium-strength hands here, and therefore we need a medium sizing aimed at them. 33% of the pot suits this well, but a bet of 50% of the pot will work even better with our AK, AQ, AJ and sets from 55, which cover our bluffs. On the left we see the opponent's autofolds - what we talked about in the previous example. In addition to them, there are hands with which the opponent will definitely not like to call us out of position, which means that he is unlikely to hold a second bet on the turn, not to mention the river. These are partially colored blue QQ, JJ, KJ, TT and all pairs below. Since the opponent folds here or later quite a lot, we need to bluff often even with hands like 56s, 45s, 44, 33, etc. On the river we plan to push further, putting maximum pressure on his medium hands, which are already under pressure after the turn bet. Additional example: UTG vs BB on => What's the key change compared to the previous examples? - Positions, and with them ranges. - Now one narrow range vs. another narrow range. Now the opponent c-bets 33% on the flop and checks the pot turn. - What does his check range probably consist of? - Trash, which he folds to any size bet, as well as medium-strength hands that are afraid of big action. The trash category includes , , , and other hands with no winning prospects. Third pairs are also not happy to continue here, and therefore also fold relatively easily. In this situation, you need to immediately bet a lot into the check, trying to eliminate with 1-2 bets non-trash and JJ-TT, but second pairs through Qx, such as AQ, QJs and Q4s, which can also be in the 3-bet as its bluff part. General thoughts on exploiting the field It is very important that Hero thinks about the real range of the opponent, and not about the solver When we want to knock out his trash, then what will be trash depends heavily on the width and content of the 3-bet range on the preflop. Therefore, on the postflop, the LAG will have a lot of trash, and the nit - roughly speaking, AK-AQ, and the rest are high pairs. Since at micro- and low limits the population makes very narrow 3-bets OOP, then on the postflop it will be difficult for us to knock out its trash hands, which are decent SDV (AK-AQ and pairs) and do not fold to one bet. Therefore, here we ourselves will need to take countermeasures. And if the random nit pours bets on us on the postflop - we need to overfold and not worry about our shortcomings. Overfold vs. Strong Ranges If you are thinking about catching bluffs, then for this you should have such a basis as your image in the eyes of the opponent, so that bluffs from him fly more often. And is the opponent ready to bluff in expensive spots? - Often the answer will be «NO». Push obvious medium-strength hands out Most of your opponents will play medium-strength hands via check or call. This does not guarantee that they are always ready to open you with them, and often they will not hold pressure on the turn and, especially, on the river. The recipe for a win rate against them is simple: a low bet frequency, but with large sizes. This really puts such hands in a dead end. And if they sometimes call the turn, but most will not have the courage to repeat on the river. If it is clear that the opponent has trash - take the pot away before he hits his out If the fold equity on the opponent is high or the target share of hands is not that big in the range, then a small bet is enough for you to gain a lot. The scheme here is the opposite: a small bet with a high frequency. This also includes such a technique as a float. In a 4-bet pot, I can bet 12% of the pot, or even 7% (!), if the opponent is clearly not ready to showdown. Key Takeaways Focus on your opponent's real range Knowing how to use GTO Wizard is great, but it's a perfect game in a vacuum. Your opponent is a real person with a lot of holes in his puzzle. Deliberate overfolds, overvalue bets, overbluffs, and overcalls to suit your opponent's inclinations are the essence of his exploit. In a reaction game, focus on the live equity of your hands A gutshot can be better than a pocket pair, even if you don't have SDV. Many players are willing to fire 1-2 bets, but now, having received 2 calls, they play fair on the river. => That's why you need hands that are not weaker than them. Know what bluffs they should have and beat them on good blockers If you can't come up with many bluffs for your opponent, then there really aren't many of them - fold. When playing actively: Use a bet size that is opposite to what your opponent would use. This article was written by Vladimir ABIVPlus based on the Calling 3-bets with a PLAN | Coaching Highlights video.
