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Navigating paired boards in 3-bet pots can be tricky, and it is important to have proper strategies in place for these situations.
In this article, we’ll look at GTO strategies for playing 3-bet pots on paired boards as the aggressor both in and out of position.
We’ll consider scenarios with 100 big blind effective stacks and look at a couple of the most common scenarios: cutoff vs. button and big blind vs. button.
The article looks at three representative types of paired flops: flops two aces, high-pair boards, and flops with two paired low cards. Before we get into these particular scenarios, here are a few main takeaways from this lesson:
- We are c-betting AAx flops at a very high frequency in and out position with small sizing
- C-bet around 85% on high pair boards when in position and 70% when IP
- We are c-betting 80% of the time IP and 65% OOP on low pair flops
- We are checking 35% of low pair flops OOP but only folding around 23% to the button bet
Tip #1: Bet AAx Flops at a High Frequency In & Out of Position
When it comes to dry flops containing a pair of aces and no other draws, you should be continuation betting at high frequency, playing in and out position.
As an example, we’ll look at the board of A♠A♥7♣.
When playing in position, we will be c-betting this flop pretty much always, checking back only with a minuscule percentage of our entire range:
The default strategy in these spots is to fire a 30% pot continuation bet after the OOP player checks to us. As a 3-bettor, we have a solid range advantage here, with a lot of ace-high holdings and strong pocket pairs like KK and QQ.
We can use the small sizing as there isn’t much we need to protect from on these types of boards, and our c-bets primarily represent value.
When playing out of position, i.e., after 3-betting from the big blind and the button calls, we will be doing some more checking, although our c-bet percentage remains quite high at just under 85%.
As you can see, the solver spreads our checks across the entire range, giving slight preference to hands like J9s, J8s, T9s, and T8s.
Once again, the preference is for the small (25% pot) sizing. We can use the big sizing a small percentage, primarily with our strongest aces and balancing that with some of our pure bluffs, i.e., the same hands that will be doing a bit more checking with.
Tip #2: C-Bet More OOP Than IP on High Pair Flops
While the strategy for flops containing a pair of aces is fairly similar in and out of position (as we will stay aggressive in both scenarios), things are quite a bit different for boards containing a high pair.
Let’s look at the flop of Q♠Q♥6♣.
Playing in position, the solver suggests checking back almost 33% of the time. We are firing a c-bet about 67%, mixing between big and small bets, with a preference for larger sizing:
The check-back range in these spots includes hands like:
- Pocket pairs up to 99 (higher pocket pairs can go for value)
- Small suited aces (about 50% of the time, with A5s checking back almost always)
- Some sixes (76s and 65s)
As for the hands we are c-betting, the solver suggests mixing between the big (70%) and small (30%) sizing across the board. You should be using the larger sizing about two to three times as often as the smaller one.
When playing out of position in the same scenario, our strategy is quite a bit different, as we will be –c-betting at over 85%:
As you can see, there are no hands in our range that represent pure checks in this spot. Instead, we are doing a bit of checking with our entire range to get to that 13.5% frequency. The only hand that really stands out here is A5o, which you should be checking about half the time.
Other than this, we are doing slightly more checking with hands with little equity, like middling and low suited connectors, while c-betting a bit more with value hands like the ones containing a queen and strong pocket pairs like AA, KK, and JJ.
Tip #3: Check Between 20% – 35% on Low Paired Boards
When it comes to flops containing a low pair such as 77x, we will be continuing more in position than out of position.
Playing in position, after the CO player checks to us on the board of 7♠7♥2♣, we should be c-betting around 80% and checking back only 20%:
There are certain hands that we’ll always be betting on these boards when in position, aiming to extract value and also to protect ourselves from bad turn cards. These hands are:
- Pocket pairs QQ – 99 – pretty much 100%
- A7s, K7s, 76s – c-betting 100%
- QJs and A3s – c-betting at a very high frequency as bluffs
The rest of our range is divided pretty evenly, with most hands c-betting between 70% to 80% and checking the remaining 20% – 30%.
When it comes to sizing, we are using the small bet about twice as often as the big bet, but both are quite present across the board. Hands with a preference for the big sizing are our strong but more vulnerable pocket pairs (JJ, TT) as well as some of our bluffs (KJs, QJs, and A3s).
Playing out of position, we should be doing more checking on these types of boards, primarily because the button’s calling range will contain hands that coordinate pretty well with these types of flops.
We are now doing a lot of checking with hands that have the potential to turn equity, such as our strong ace highs and some king high hands.
Hands that gravitate more towards betting are strong pocket pairs that can benefit from protection, such as KK through 99. We are also doing more betting than checking with different trips, such as A7s, J7s, and T7s.
Unlike the out-of-position scenarios, the GTO strategy here favors big (60% pot) bets. We are mixing in a few smaller bets, but the big sizing provides more incentives for the opponent to fold, which is one of the goals you want to achieve when playing out of position.
After checking, you can expect the button to take over the initiative about 65% of the time, using primarily the small (quarter of the pot sizing).
Faced with this bet, we’ll only be folding about 23% of our range and continuing with the rest as a mix of calls and check-raises.
Because our flop strategy is a mix of checking and betting with same hands, we still have a lot of strong hands in our range. Facing a 25% pot bet, we are check-raising hands like:
- Strong pocket pairs (KK – 88)
- All trips
- Some bluffs with backdoor potential (T9s, T8s, KJs, AKs)
We can also call a lot with hands like AA, strong ace-highs, and hands containing two high cards like KQ, KT, and QJs.This strategy allows us to stay tricky and unpredictable on these types of low pair flops even when playing out of position, making it virtually impossible for the IP opponents to find any exploits.
