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3-betting from the blinds when facing a button open is a fairly common strategy which sometimes is enough to win you a pot.
However, if the player on the button calls, you’ll have to continue playing the hand out of position, and the board texture will largely determine your decisions.
In today’s article, we’ll analyze the GTO c-betting strategy in 3-bet pots from the Big Blind when playing out of position on dry flops.
To try and keep things as simple as possible, we’re using the 100 big blind setup with standard raise and 3-bet sizes. Before we get into specific examples, here are a few main takeaways from this lesson:
- We should be c-betting Ace-high flops about 60% of the time with a small sizing
- Our c-bet percentage on high-card dry flops is between 80% and 100%
- We should be checking low-card dry flops about half the time
- When c-betting on low card boards we should stick with a bigger bet sizing
Tip #1: Continue About 60% on Ace High Dry Flops With A Small Bet Sizing
The first type of board we’ll look at is ace-high dry flops. As a preflop 3-bettor, these seem like textures that are great for c-betting, but our continuation bet percentage should be lower than what you might expect.
If we look at the flop of A♠8♥3♦, the solver suggests c-betting 59% and checking 41%:
It is interesting to note that our c-betting range in these spots is spread evenly across the entire range. However, there are a few hands that lean heavily towards betting, such as:
- Our strongest aces – AK, AQ, and AJ
- Small suited connectors, primarily 65s and 54s
- Hands with low or no showdown equity but some backdoor potential like JTs, J9s, KTs, QTs, and T9s
As for the sizing, the small, 25% pot bet is the default option, but the solver uses some big (60% pot) bets with our strong top pair hands and some of our bluffs for balance.
Strategy After Checking
Given the fact we will be checking over 40% in these spots, it’s important to also look into what happens after we check and how we should proceed if the IP player decides to take over the initiative.
We will face a bet about half the time, and your opponent should mostly be using the small sizing. Facing a 25% pot bet, we can continue with over 70% of our range, getting rid of the weakest hands and mostly proceeding with a call.
We still have some check-raises in our arsenal (about 11%), reserved primarily for the strong top pair hands that we check some of the time and some bluff hands, which are mostly in the same category as the low equity hands that we usually c-bet with.
Since we are not c-betting 100% with any of these hands, we can use them as check-raises, keeping our range well balanced.
Tip #2: C-Bet a Lot on High-Card Dry Boards
When it comes to dry boards containing a high card, you should be c-betting a lot on these textures when playing out of position.
While the exact c-bet percentage will vary depending on the exact texture, the general rule of thumb is that the dryer the board is, the higher your c-bet frequency should be.
If we look at an example of a K♥7♠2♣ flop, which is pretty much as dry of a flop as it gets, the solver suggests c-betting pretty much 100% of the time:
In terms of sizing, you should be using big bets over 70% of the time to make it harder for your opponent to continue with any speculative hands.
However, we still use the smaller size about a quarter of the time, spreading it between our strongest hands, middling holdings (pairs between 7s and Kings), and some bluffs.
It is important to mention that not all high card dry flops are treated equally in the GTO poker world. If we look at the same texture but switch a king for a queen, i.e., Q♠7♠2♣, our c-bet percentage drops to 76%.
We are now doing much more checking with our non-equity hands and exercising more pot control with middling pairs.
After checking and facing a bet from the opponent, we can still continue with close to 70% of our range:
- Fold the worst of our holding
- Call about 45% with our middle-strength hands & the top set
- Check-raise about 22% with strong hands like AA, AQ, KQ, and QJ, our strongest ace-highs, and a selection of bluffs like KJs, KTs, and JTs
Tip #3: Balance Between Checking & Betting on Low Dry Flops
When it comes to low dry flops in 3-bet pots, our strategy out of position is split almost evenly between checking and betting.
Let’s look at the flop of 8♠6♦2♣:
As you can see in the picture above, the solver suggests a big size and spreads our c-bets pretty evenly across the entire range. However, certain hands lean more towards betting, namely:
- Pocket pairs between KK and 99 – these are strong hands that require protection
- Middling suited connectors like JTs, J9s, and T9s – these hands can catch a lot of good turns that you can continue barreling on but have no showdown value
With the rest of our range, we are playing a fairly mixed strategy, checking and betting the same hands at an almost equal frequency, giving us more options when we do decide to check.
When we skip a c-bet, the IP player takes over the initiative and bets out around 65% of the time, which is higher than in any of the other examples.
Because we are using this mixed strategy, we are able to continue in a variety of ways against this bet, especially when they use a small sizing:
We can continue with over 70% of our range, calling about half of the time and check-raising at a pretty high 23%. Our check-raising range in these spots consists mostly of:
- Overpairs
- Checked sets
- Hands like T9s and JTs
- K8s specifically at close to 100%
So, while our c-bet frequency at these low card dry flops is lower, this doesn’t mean that we are just giving up by checking. We are just adding another layer to our flop strategy, making it harder for opponents not familiar with the GTO to play against us.
