In this article, we’ll dive into the topic of facing a 3-bet after opening from an early position, covering what hand ranges you should be calling with depending on where the 3-bet is coming from.
When talking about early positions, we mean the first three positions at a nine-handed table, so UTG, UTG+1, and UTG+2.
To keep things as simple and as straightforward as possible, the examples we’ll be covering feature standard GTO raise and 3-bet sizes when playing 100 big blinds effective.
3-Bet Calling Ranges from UTG
When you open from UTG at a nine-handed table, your range should be pretty tight. Your opening range comprises only the top 10% of poker hands, and if your opponents are capable players, they are aware of this, which will dictate their 3-betting strategy as well as your 3-bet calling range from UTG.
UTG Calling Range vs. IP Player
Let’s first look at the scenario where you’re facing a 3-bet from an in-position player, using the button as the benchmark. As a player with the absolute position, this is where most 3-bets you have to deal with will be coming from.
Against a button 3-bet, you should be calling with 33.6% of your opening range and 4-betting 12.4%. This means that you’re still folding well over half of your range in this scenario.
As you can see, our calling range contains all the small pocket pairs, our strongest suited aces, and all of our sited connectors. We’re only 3-betting the absolutely strongest hands, where even a hand as strong as QQ is mostly a call, and 4-betting only about 15% of the time.
What’s particularly noteworthy is that middling pocket pairs, like 88, 99, and TT, are folding more than they’re calling, and even a hand as strong as JJ is folding around 50% of the time facing a 3-bet from a button player.
As we move around the table, our 3-bet calling range changes slightly, namely:
- UTG vs. UTG+1 3-bet: Calling 27% and 4-betting 12.6%
- UTG vs. UTG+2 3-bet: Calling 29% and 4-betting 12.9%
- UTG vs. LJ 3-bet: Calling 29.8% and 4-betting 12.4%
- UTG vs. HJ 3-bet: Calling 31% and 4-betting 12.5%
- UTG vs. CO 3-bet: Calling 32.6% and 4-betting 12.1%
- UTG vs. BTN 3-bet: Calling 33.6% and 4-betting 12.4%
So, the earlier the position of the 3-bettor is, the narrower our calling hand range gets, although, as you can see, the difference between the calling range against the button and UTG+1 is just over 6.5%, so the overall range doesn’t change all that much.
The biggest noticeable shift is in those middling pocket pairs, which move even more towards the fold territory, and the same thing happens with our weakest suited aces like AJs.
UTG Calling Range vs. the Blinds
When dealing with a 3-bet coming from the blinds, the more common scenario will be a 3-bet from the big blind player, albeit our strategies against both blind positions differ very slightly.
Against a big blind 3-bet, we should be calling 36.7% and only 4-betting 6.9% because the big blind’s 3-betting range facing a UTG open is extremely tight – only 3.2%. At the same time, we will have a position after the flop, which allows us to call somewhat wide.
The calling range is similar to the one against the button, but you will notice that we are now even folding QQ a small fraction of the time, and calling with KK over 50%. And, to balance it out, even pocket aces are flat-calling around 20%.
Against a small blind 3-bet, our strategy is almost identical, with 37.6% calls and 7.8% 4-bets, only because small blind has almost no calling range against a UTG raise and has a slightly wider 3-betting range of 3.9%.
3-Bet Calling Range from UTG+1
Playing from UTG+1, we should be opening 11.5% of our hands, so our RFI range is slightly wider, which also influences 3-betting ranges of our opponents and our strategy against them – but not by a huge margin.
UTG+1 Calling Range vs. IP Player
Once more, we’ll look at the strategy against the button 3-bettor as our baseline to break things down and see what our calling range looks like.
Compared to UTG vs. button dynamics, things change only slightly, as we are now calling 34.1% and 4-betting at a slightly lower frequency of 12.5%.
The biggest noticeable differences are that we are calling slightly less with 77 specifically and calling more with JJ. AKs now gravitate heavily towards a 4-bet, whereas in the previous scenario, this hand was a pretty equal split between calling and 4-betting.
Facing a 3-bet from other IP players after opening from UTG+1, our defending ranges look as follows:
- UTG+1 vs. UTG+2 3-bet: Calling 27.5% and 4-betting 12.2%
- UTG+1 vs. LJ 3-bet: Calling 29.3% and 4-betting 12.3%
- UTG+1 vs. HJ 3-bet: Calling 30.9% and 4-betting 12.6%
- UTG+1 vs. CO 3-bet: Calling 32.2% and 4-betting 12.6%
- UTG+1 vs. BTN 3-bet: Calling 34.1% and 4-betting 12.5%
Once more, our entire calling range from button to UTG+2 moves only 6.6%, so adjustments are very slight across the board, with our defense ranges naturally becoming a bit tighter against earlier position 3-bettors.
We reduce our calling frequencies with the marginal hands like those middling pocket pairs, weaker suited aces (AJs, ATs), and hands like KQs and KJs.
UTG+1 Calling Range vs. the Blinds
Facing a 3-bet from the big blind as a UTG+1 opener, we’ll want to call with 36.2% and 4-bet with 6.1%. This may seem a bit odd as this range is slightly tighter than what we are using from UTG, but it is because the big blind’s 3-betting range almost doesn’t change, but their calling range is wider.
This means that we have to be a bit more cautious when playing against these 3-bets.
In this scenario, we are never folding a hand as strong as QQ and we’re calling slightly more often with JJ. However, we also find more folds with some of those small pockets, especially 55 and 77.
Against a small blind 3-bet, our calling range is 37%, so slightly higher. We call a bit more with small pocket pairs but get rid of problematic hands, specifically ATs. This hand, we’re calling almost always against a big blind 3-bet, but it is almost always a fold against the small blind.
3-Bet Calling Ranges from UTG+2
Finally, let’s look at the last of the three early positions, namely UTG+2. From this position, we are opening with just over 13% of our entire range, so there is a bit of an increase, resulting in some changes to 3-bet dynamics as well.
UTG+2 Calling Range vs. IP Player
Facing a 3-bet from the button after opening from UTG+2, we should be continuing with almost half of our entire range. Of that, we’ll be calling with 34.1% and 4-betting 14.7%.
As far as our calling range is concerned, you can notice that the hands we’re always calling with are small pockets and suited connectors, as well as QQ and JJ (although JJ specifically 4-bets a small fraction of the time). AQs is also a pure call here.
Middling pocket pairs are still leaning toward folds, while the lowest suited aces we’ll have in this spot (AJs and ATs) call about two-thirds and 4-bet one-third of the time.
As for other positions at the table, the math breaks down as follows:
- UTG+2 vs. LJ 3-bet: Calling 29.3% and 4-betting 13.8%
- UTG+2 vs. HJ 3-bet: Calling 31.6% and 4-betting 13.6%
- UTG+2 vs. CO 3-bet: Calling 32% and 4-betting 14.5%
- UTG+2 vs. BTN 3-bet: Calling 34.1% and 4-betting 14.7%
UTG+2 Calling Range vs. Blinds
Against a raise coming from the blinds, we’ll be continuing at around 54.5% on average, with only slight differences between our strategy against the small and the big blind 3-bettor.
Facing a big blind 3-bet, we are calling with 40% of our entire range and 4-betting 6.1%, so you’ll notice that our 4-bet percentage remains the same as in the previous scenario, but our calling range increases quite a bit.
Here, we are adding hands like KQs and A5s to our standard calls, and our calling frequency with A4s increases slightly. It’s interesting to note, though, that we are now only calling with T9s about half the time, and also adding hands like A8s, KTs, and QTs to our calling range at very low frequencies (10% – 15%).
Against a small blind 3-bet, we’ll be calling at around 38% and 4-betting 7.2%. We are basically increasing our 4-bet frequency with strong hands like KK and AKo, and calling slightly more with hands like KJs and QJs, and also never folding JJ specifically.
