Modern poker games are all about aggression and getting 3-bet after you open a pot is very common. Optimal strategy dictates you should be calling 3-bets with a lot of poker hands, but how exactly do you play them postflop?
Many poker players make the mistake of calling 3-bets quite liberally without any plan on how they are going to play on various board textures.
To help with this problem, Jonathan Little broke the optimal strategy for playing 3-bet pots as the preflop caller into 10 useful tips.
These 10 tips will reveal how you should play in 3-bet pots in a practical way that you can easily apply in your own game to instantly become a lot tougher to play against.
Let’s get right into it and break down the top 10 tips for playing 3-bet pots as the preflop caller by one of the best poker coaches in the world.
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1. Call Often IP on Connected Flops
Playing optimal poker strategy is all about hand ranges. When you reach the flop as the preflop caller in a 3-bet pot, your range looks significantly different than your opponent’s.
While your opponent has a lot of strong hands like AA, KK, QQ, and AK in their range, you have almost no combos of these hands. On the other hand, you have a lot more combos of hands like JTs, 98s, 87s, 65s, etc.
For that reason, connected flops favor you and give you an opportunity to call with a lot of hands and re-assess the situation on the turn.
For example, imagine raising the button and calling a 3-bet from the small blind before the flop. The flop comes 9♠8♠5♦, and your opponent c-bets.
On this board, you have a lot of very strong hands like 76s, 98s, 99, 88, and 55 in your range. Your opponent, on the other hand, has very few or no combos of these hands.
Once they c-bet, you can call quite liberally even with hands like Q♦J♦, knowing they will be forced to slow down on a lot of turns and you will get to win the pot on many different cards.
Many novice players play a fit-or-fold strategy in spots like these, but it is important to think about your opponent’s range and realize what hands they have and don’t have before making up your mind.
When your opponent checks an unfavorable turn, make sure to apply pressure and bet. On boards like these, you can often win the pot even against a hand as strong as AA.
2. Slow Play Your Best Hands IP
When you find yourself flopping a monster hand in a 3-bet pot and in position, you should usually just call.
For one, the stack-to-pot ratio will already be quite low, as the preflop 3-bet caused the pot to swell up to a significant size.
What’s even more, the first tip on this list suggested you should be doing a lot of calling in 3-bet pots in position, and adding your best hands to your calling range protects that entire range.
By protecting your range in this way, you can afford to make some wider calls with hands that don’t quite have as much equity, as your opponents will be hard-pressed to keep betting into you.
The logic of just calling with your strongest flopped hands like two pair and sets also has to do with your opponent’s range.
When they 3-bet preflop and c-bet the flop, they will often have nothing more than Ace-high. This means they will have nearly 0% equity against your very strong hand.
By just calling, you extend rope for them to hang themselves by firing out more barrels as bluffs or by improving into one pair on the turn or river and making hero calls or thin value bets on later streets.
3. Defend Wide vs. Small Sizes
Bet sizing is another element that’s often overlooked by amateurs in 3-bet situations. Once the flop comes down and your opponent bets small, you should be defending against that bet very often.
The amazing price you are getting to call your opponent’s bet (or raise) gives you every reason to call with hands like overcards and backdoor flush draws, which have little actual equity.
Despite not having a strong hand yourself, your opponent’s small sizing allows you to profitably continue in the hand and win the pot often on later streets.
What’s even more, you should often be raising against small sizes, as they typically represent a very wide range that can’t sustain a lot of pressure.
If the board favors your range and your opponent bets small, go for a raise with a wide range and win the pot outright quite often.
4. Check/Raise a Polarized Range
This next tip has to do with check/raising. The check/raise is a powerful play that you should use often in 3-bet pots, but only with a polarized range.
A polarized hand range is one made up of your best hands and your draws, without any hands in the middle.
For example, if you reach the flop after calling a 3-bet OOP, you should check/raise your strong hands that are vulnerable to getting outdrawn, such as two pair or an overpair, and your strong flush and straight draws, along with a few weaker draws.
You don’t want to check/raise a hand like top pair with a middling kicker or middle pair with the top kicker, as these hands simply don’t benefit from a check/raise.
Since you want to have some hands in your calling hand range as well, you will want to put some your middling strength hands and a handful of drawing hands into the check/calling column.
5. Fold Your Junks OOP
There is nothing fun about playing a big pot preflop and giving up on the flop, but sometimes you simply have to do it.
If you reach the flop as the caller from OOP and miss the board completely, you should be willing to give up and move on to the next hand.
For example, imagine opening A♥5♥ from middle position and getting 3-bet by the button. You call and the flop is Q♠9♠7♣. On this board, your hand has almost no equity to speak of, and your opponent continues with a c-bet.
Even against a small sizing, this particular hand will be a good candidate for a check/fold, as there are simply so few ways it can improve.
While you may have a range advantage on this board, the particular hand you are holding should be one of the ones you throw into the muck right away.
6. Bet Turn After Flop Checks Through
You will often find yourself in spots where you call a 3-bet from OOP and check the flop, only to have the original 3-bettor check back.
In spots like these, you will want to take the initiative on the turn quite often, as your opponent’s flop check represents weakness.
Typically speaking, most players will c-bet all their strong hands on the flop after 3-betting preflop, which means you can eliminate those hands from their range.
Your range will be well-protected, as you would have checked all your strongest hands on the flop with the intention of check/calling or check/raising, which means you will have a lot more strong hands than they will.
All of this means you can fire out a turn bet with quite a wide range, made up of bluffs, strong value hands, and even some thin value bets. Since your opponent no longer has the top of the range, you can go for value with a wider range yourself.
7. Check Back Your Showdown Value Hands
Showdown value hands are often the ones people make the most mistakes with. These are the hands that have some value but can’t actually beat the top card on the board, or even two top cards.
For instance, imagine you 3-bet with TT before the flop and the board comes KQ8. Your opponent checks to you, and the decision is on you.
This is a great spot to check the flop. If your opponent checks the turn, you may want to check once again.
Depending on the exact runout, these hands may want to seek one street of value if your opponent can have many weaker one pair hands by the river.
However, whenever you do fire a bet, make sure to ask yourself what hands you are hoping your opponent will call you with.
If there are very few hands they can call with, use your showdown value hands as bluff-catchers and check them down if your opponent doesn’t fire any bets.
8. Make Adjustments Based on Bet Size
When you face bets in 3-bet pots, you should pay close attention to the bet sizes your opponent is using.
In most cases, you should be defending more against a smaller bet size and less against a bigger bet size, as simple poker math tells us this is the right approach.
Some exceptions may be found against opponents who have bet-sizing tells and use particular bet sizes with particular hand categories.
However, against most opponents, the bet size should be the number one determining factor in whether you continue with a call or a raise, or throw your cards into the muck.
One key reason to call small c-bets more often is to avoid getting exploited. If you fold the same amount to small and big bets, your opponents may adjust and start betting smaller with their bluffs, thus getting a better price on their bluffs and making more money against you.
9. Be Careful in Multi-Way Pots
Multi-way 3-bet pots may not be all that common in online poker, but they are the norm in live poker. In these situations, you should exercise extra caution.
As more players see the flop in a 3-bet pot, you will be facing more players with reasonably strong ranges. For that reason, you should not be playing too much with hands that didn’t connect with the board.
In a heads up scenario, you can make many moves and set up bluffs for future streets by calling the flop, etc.
In multi-way pots, going for fancy plays like this is usually not optimal, as you run a higher risk of running into very strong hands or getting hero-called.
Instead, play multi-way 3-bet pots fairly straightforwardly and fold your cards if you completely whiff the flop.
Against smaller sizes, you should still be doing some calling with your weaker draws, simply due to immediate pot odds you are getting and the extra implied odds you get in a multi-way pot.
10. Bluff When You Have Range Advantage
We already discussed range advantage, and it is one of the key concepts you should be considering in 3-bet pots.
Whenever you reach the flop as the caller and the board favors your range, you should start bluffing quite a bit.
Connected boards with middling cards typically favor the player who called the 3-bet, while high card flops and paired boards usually favor the preflop 3-bettor.
When you get into spots where your range is heavily favored, you should go ahead and apply pressure on your opponent’s range, which is made up of a lot of hands that simply can’t take the heat.
After all, think about how your opponent will feel even holding KK on a board where multiple sets, flushes, and straights are possible, and all of them are hands that are a part of your range.
