The title of this blog post is calling 3/bets out of position and I could reduce the entire post to three simple words…….don’t do it! However to simply say that you shouldn’t call 3/bets from out of position would be too simplistic without first understanding why. Let us look at the average sorts of hands that you would have against a 3/bet. Firstly we need to know what sort of range our opponents would actually 3/bet us with. If we are playing say NL100 full ring then our opponents range when they 3/bet will usually be pretty narrow.
So if we are at the top of our opening range then we should be able to comfortably 4/bet against what is a hand that could easily call us or even 5/bet shove. Many players will commit with hand s like KK/QQ/AKs when we have AA. However if we are at the very top of our range and have something like AA/KK then we could call out of position. This concedes position but it also keeps the weakest parts of their 3/betting range in the pot.
The problem though with this strategy is that our opponent has position and can only put any more money into the pot on boards that outdraw our probable premium pair.
I still like 4/betting or folding against 3/bets and if we get 3/bet by an opponent with a really tight 3/betting range then folding needs to be the mainstay of our strategy. Players with tight 3/betting ranges are good opponents because not only do they allow us to steal more blinds and buy the button, they also allow us to 4/bet with the apex of our range very profitably. So even if we suspect an opponent is 3/betting widely, we could still entice them to participate if we size our 4/bet correctly if they feel that they have fold equity.
Strategy in 3/bet pots is very important because the stack to pot ratio is small. This means that you have placed a far larger amount of money into the middle relative to the amount that you have left. For example if you limp and there is no raise with you having a 100bb stack then you have risked 1bb with 99bb left behind. If you raised to 3.5bb and there is no re-raise then you have risked 3.5bb with 96.5bb left behind.
However in a 3/bet pot then you may have risked 11bb with only 89bb left to bet. So we can see that because there is a much greater amount of money going into the pot in 3/bet pots that our strategy has to be solid. It will be very difficult to make money in today’s modern online poker environment if you play poorly in 3/bet pots. This is why folding or 4/betting is the correct way to play most of the time in 3/bet pots but even that is too simplistic. Let us say that you fold 90% of the time and 4/bet 10% of the time when you get 3/bet.
This type of ratio simply allows your opponent to exploit you. If you make it 3bb and they 3/bet to 9bb then you concede 3bb nine times out of ten for a total of 27bb. However the one remaining pot only has 10.5bb of profit in it if you 4/bet and they fold. Your total EV will be less because another player may wake up with a big hand or the 3/bettor himself.
Many players are struggling to beat online poker these days for two simple reasons. These are that the games have become more aggressive and these people lack a decent strategy in 3/bet pots. If your opponent has position on you in a 3/bet pot then I would advocate never cold calling the raise. However if you have position, a playable hand and the stacks are at least 100bb deep or more then calling a 3/bet is fairly solid. It simply cannot be stressed enough though how important it is to handle 3/bet pots well. If you call even in position then you have probably placed more than 10% of your stack in the middle.
If you open to 3.5bb and fold a large part of your range to a 3/bet then these 3.5bb losses will cripple your earn rate. Also if you 4/bet badly then the risk with a 4/bet is such that you may spew money in this instance as well. The bottom line is that you need to have a good strategy to play 3/bet pots. Until you get some coaching in this area then I wouldn’t entertain playing in NL cash games at the $50 level or higher. You may find that profits are hard to come by because you are winning very tiny pots like with blind steals and c/bets but not winning bigger pots when it has been 3/bet where you have lost a larger amount of money.
Carl Sampson is an online poker pro and poker ambassador for 888poker
