Master poker strategy with PeakGTO. Try this poker solver for free
In this article, we’ll focus on GTO strategies for situations in which we call a preflop 3-bet in position and face a continuation bet on a dry flop.
As usual, we’ll base our examples on the button vs. big blind dynamics, presuming GTO open and 3-bet sizes when playing 100 big blinds deep.
This is a fairly common scenario, as the big blind’s defense plan against a button raise includes almost 13% 3-bets, and the button is calling over 37%.
As mentioned, today we’ll discuss scenarios that cover the main types of dry flops and how to proceed facing a continuation bet from the big blind. Before we move on to specific examples, here are a few main takeaways from this lesson:
- Call over 70% on ace-high dry flops
- Defend 65%+ facing a c-bet on high-card dry boards
- Never raise on A-high and high-card boards versus big c-bet
- Only fold 25% vs. a c-bet on low-card dry boards
- We have almost no raising range on the flop vs. big (60% pot) c-bets
Tip #1: Call Over 70% on Ace-High Dry Flops Versus Small Bets
The first scenario we’ll cover deals with ace-high dry flops, such as A♠8♥3♦. On these types of flops, the big blind will be continuation betting just under 60%:
- Using predominantly the smaller sizing of 25% of the pot
- Using the big bet of 60% of the pot, about one in three times
Naturally, our defending ranges will be different in these situations. Facing a small bet, we’ll be continuing with 85% of our range, predominantly just calling, but we can also raise about 10% of the time. Hands we’ll be doing some raising with include the bottom set, strong top pairs, a few gutshot draws, and some pure bluffs with backdoor potential (like J9s and T9s).
Against the larger continuation bet, we don’t have any raising range on these types of boards, and our calling range drops slightly to 62.5%. The range structure remains pretty much unchanged, but we are folding more with backdoor equity hands and overcards, such as KTs, K9s, Q9s, J9s, and T9s.
While these types of hands are fine to call and even occasionally raise with against small c-bets, they become clear folds against a big sizing.
As for the hands that we are calling with all the time or at least a big percentage of the time in both situations, these encompass:
- All aces
- All second-pair hands in our range
- Sets (88 and 33)
- All pocket pairs
Tip #2: Defend 65%+ Against C-Bets on High-Card Dry Boards
When we face a 3-bet from the big blind before the flop and decide to call, our calling range contains a lot of strong hands containing a high card, as shown below:
Seeing what our range looks like, it is pretty clear that we’ll be continuing a lot facing a c-bet from the big blind on dry flops containing a high card, especially if it is a king or a queen.
On a board like K♠6♥2♣, the big blind will continuation bet pretty much always, almost exclusively using the big (60% pot) sizing.
Like in the previous example, against this sizing, we don’t have any raising range, but we are supposed to continue with around 65% of our hands:
Our calling range consists of all top and second pair combinations, all pocket pairs (except for 55 and 33, which play better as folds), all strong ace-highs, and lower ace-highs with backdoors.
On queen-high boards, the big blind player will do more checking as these flops aren’t as favorable to their 3-betting range. That said, when they do fire a continuation bet, our calling range remains pretty much identical, right around that 65% mark.
It is worth mentioning here that, facing a small c-bet sizing, which will happen about 10% of the time on these high-card dry flops, we can raise with a small frequency of around 12%, doing so mostly with top-pair kind of hands and some bluffs.
Tip #3: Call Over 75% on Low-Card Dry Flops
Low-card dry flops represent a category of their own within the scope of this discussion. On these types of boards, the big blind is supposed to do a lot of checking, and when they do c-bet (around 40% of the time), we are continuing with three-quarters of our range based on MDF.
Let’s look at an example of the 8♥4♦2♣ flop:
When the big blind continuation bets on these types of flops, they’ll be using almost exclusively the big sizing. We are supposed to continue with 75% of our range, primarily flat calling, but also raising some of the time, especially with these hands:
- 99
- A8s
- A5s (about half the time)
As for our calling range, you can see that it contains all strong ace-high holdings and strong over-card hands. We are also calling with all pocket pairs and all flopped pairs.
We are only getting rid of the weakest hands that we’ll still have at this point, such as K7s, 97s, Q9s, and even T9s. Even though some of these hands have a bit of backdoor potential, they play better as folds facing a big sizing. Against a smaller c-bet, we can add these to our calling range as well.
