Master poker strategy with PeakGTO. Try this poker solver for free.
Today’s article continues the strategy series addressing the best GTO solutions when facing a continuation bet in and out of position in 3-bet pots.
In the first two lessons, we covered the topic of dry flops, so today we’ll be moving on to the exact opposite in terms of board structure.
This article covers GTO strategies for playing against a continuation bet in a 3-bet pot when in position and on a wet flop.
As we always do for this series, we’ll consider the big blind vs. the button dynamics when using standard open and 3-bet sizes, and stacks are 100 big blinds effective. Using this setup, we’ll examine several representative types of wet flops to determine the optimal strategy for each one.
To start with, here’s a brief summary of things you’ll learn from today’s article:
- Big blind 3-bettor will be doing a lot of checking across different board types
- We defend a lot on ace-high boards and have a raising range vs. small c-bets
- Call a lot of your range when facing bets on high-card boards
- Bet aggressively when your opponent checks on low-card flops using small sizing
- Have just a calling range on low-card flops versus a big c-bet
Tip #1: Continue Between 60% & 80% on Ace-High Wet Flops
On wet flops containing an ace, the big blind will continuation bet around half the time. Two-thirds of the time, they’ll be using a small (25% pot) sizing, and one-third, they’ll be betting bigger (60% of the pot).
Our defense strategy will depend on the sizing they choose to utilize. Against the smaller sizing, we’ll stick around at 80%, while facing a larger bet that the percentage drops to 60%.
Let’s first look at the board of A♠9♥8♥ against the more frequent, small c-bet size:
As you can see, we’re supposed to continue with just under 80% of our entire range, predominantly calling with all hands that have any reasonable equity, namely:
- All pairs (top, middle, and bottom)
- All open-enders
- All gutshots
We also have a certain raising range in these spots, raising about a quarter of the time, with the best candidates being:
- Our strongest top pairs (AKs, AQs, and AQo) – between 30% and 50%
- Two pair combos containing an ace – about a third of the time
- Middle set – 50% of the time
- Bottom set – 70% of the time
- Bottom two pair (98s) – around 90%
In this scenario, we are essentially folding hands that have absolutely no equity and are not worth continuing with, which corresponds to the very bottom 20% of our range.
Facing a large c-bet on the flop, our defense strategy changes quite significantly, as you can see below:
First of all, you’ll notice that we have almost no raising range. The only hands we are raising against the big sizing at any significant frequency are AKs and 98s.
Our calling range drops to 57%, primarily removing hands such as smaller pocket pairs (33 – 77). Some hands that we use to raise against small bets at some frequency also become pure calls, and this includes middle and bottom sets, which we now call with at 100%.
When the Big Blind Checks
As mentioned, the big blind will be c-betting only about half the time in these situations. They will be checking nearly 50%, giving you an opportunity to take over the betting lead.
When the 3-bettor checks, we’ll be checking back 65% of the time and betting out the rest, primarily using the big sizing of 60% of the pot.
We should be betting out with all of our strong hands, i.e., decent top pairs and better. To balance it out, we’re also betting about half the time with some of our straight and flush draws, as well as small pocket pairs.
Hands that we are mostly content to check back with are weaker top-pair combos, as well as second and third pair combinations with an over-card or with some backdoor equity.
Tip #2: Call 60% – 70% on High-Card Wet Flops
When it comes to wet boards containing a high card, our strategy will be mostly to call, with a bit of raising against a smaller c-bet sizing.
Let’s look at an example of the K♥8♦7♦ flop facing a smaller (25%) pot sizing, which the big blind will use almost 60% of the time.
As you can see, our overall continuing range is in excess of 80% because of the MDF when facing a small bet, and we are only giving up hands that have no equity – small aces without backdoor draws and high card combos that don’t have any kind of interaction with the board (no backdoor flush possibilities).
The rest of our range, we are calling with and only raising with a few specific combos, such as:
- Slow-played pocket aces
- Top two pair (K8s)
- Bottom two pair around 30%
- Bottom and middle sets around 25%
- KQs specifically around 35% of the time
To balance these strong hands, you can see that we have a few gutshots and small pocket pairs raising at low frequencies. As is often the case in these types of scenarios, you can select a few combos to almost always raise with for practical purposes, and then just call with the rest, as this makes it easier to memorize and brings you fairly close to the GTO strategy.
Facing a large continuation bet, just like in the previous example, our raising range disappears almost completely, and the calling range scales back a bit to the 60% mark:
Once more, the first hands to be eliminated are the lowest of pocket pairs and the weakest of our ace-highs, as these hands don’t have enough equity to continue against a c-bet of almost 40% of the pot, which we should face around 20% of the time.
On these types of wet flops, the big blind will not be doing much checking. You can expect them to skip on a continuation bet just under 20%. In these scenarios, we’ll be playing a strategy that’s split almost perfectly in half, checking and betting at 50%.
Tip #3: Continue Around 70% Facing a C-Bet on Low-Card Wet Flops
Low-card wet flops are a real standout category, as this is one type of texture where you won’t face a continuation bet all that much. In fact, the big blind will be checking 70% to 75% of the time, as we can see on this example of the 8♥7♥5♦ board:
This is primarily because the button caller has a big range advantage in these spots, as your calling range interacts really well with connected low-card flops:
Because of this, in the instances where the big blind checks on these textures, we’ll be taking over the betting lead close to 60%, mostly using the one-quarter of the pot sizing. There are very few hands that are pure checks here, with AKs being a notable exception.
We’ll be betting out with the rest of our range at some percentage, and our highest-frequency bets will be hands like:
- Pocket aces – 100%
- QQ, JJ, and 99 – at around 90% overall
- Middle and bottom set – 85% to 90%
- TT – around 60%
- 98s – close to 70%
- 67s – around 80%
When it comes to facing a c-bet, you’ll see the big blind betting out about a quarter of the time on these textures, using primarily a bigger, 60% of the pot sizing.
Here, we are supposed to continue with around 70% of our range, with calling being our default action:
As you can see, the only hands we use as raises in this spot are pocket nines, 56s, 86s, and A6s, i.e., hands that have the potential to improve and also contain important blockers to the nuts.
It is worth noting that in rare instances where the big blind goes for a small c-bet sizing (which will happen only about 5% of the time), we can continue much wider.
In this scenario, we are only folding 10% of our range, i.e., the hands that have absolutely no correlation with the board – KQo, KJo, and KQs with no direct or backdoor flush draws, AJo with no backdoors, and AJs, KJs, and QJs with no direct or backdoor flush draws.
