Anyone know of some good articles/books/webpgs that cover defending yourself against a 3b?

I just need some guidance as to what hands we should be defending with against 3 bets with position and OOP.

#1)For instance, you have TsJs on dealer. A full 9 handed table. A tight villain on BB.

Your stack is 5,000. Blinds 25/50. Table folds to dealer = Hero TsJs.

(D) Hero raises 125

SB folds

BB raises to 295


Hero's action? What all hands do we call here and why?

Seems like when I call here with hands like this I mostly trap myself with any pair I flop against an overpair and my hand is only good when I flop some sort of draw and hit on the turn/river (risking a decent amount to get there)


#2)Another scenario that comes up....

Dealer is TAG

Your stack is 5,000. Blinds 25/50. Table folds to CO= Hero AsTs.

Hero raises 125

(D) raises 275

Blinds fold

Hero's action? What all hands do we call here and why?

The answer is not a simple do or don't.

First let me say that it isn't that you should never call here, but off of pure hand strength it isn't a good spot to call.

What you should be doing here is paying attention to how often a player throws a 3 bet out there, and what you feel the players hand range will be for a three bet on BB.

If Villain is frequently punishing you in this spot, you may want to call, and if so and you folded a few times in a row to him go ahead and call.

If you additionally pick up a read that he is bluffing then call or even 4 bet him.

Additionally there are some fuzzy lines here because your opening raze of 2.5 BB may show some weakness along with making it cheaper for Villain to 3 bet. A raze of 3 to 3.5 would be better.

To further complicate this his 3 bet is on the smallish side and makes a call more attractive. In the two examples villain's bet is 2.32x and 2.2x the raze.

With no additional information I would probably call a 3 Bet of 2x to 2.5x, and then proceed cautiously. But for this discussion I think it is better to assume a larger 3 bet of 3x +.


Here is why with no additional information calling a 3x Three Bet is not a good idea:

The hands a typical player will 3 bet with is AA KK QQ JJ AK AQ AKs AQs. Ad a few more depending on the specific player range (AJs KQs ATs AJ).

As you can see your TJs is pretty well dominated, and difficult even if you hit to tell if you are ahead.

Further lets look at the "But it's suited" aspect. Even if you hit a 3 cards on the board flush there is about a 11% chance you're beat, and if there are 4 cards on the board just south of 25%.

Your other hand, ATs is dominated by AA AK AQ AJ, and considerably behind with KK QQ JJ and only slightly ahead of KQ. The 2% flush would give you the nuts assuming the board is not paired. Normally with AT you want to see an A come on the flop, but if this happens in this situation be prepared to get away from it when you see a significant bet and be weary of betting into a larger AA.

The other thing to consider when calling here is how often does Villain C bet. If he has a high Frequency of C betting you know it will get expensive and like you already said even if you hit you really don't know where you are in the hand. If his C bet frequency is low and after the flop he drops a large bet on you (even if you hit) it is bets to fold.

Other things you should consider is, What the player perceives you to be razing with, how the player perceives that you will fold here, how you perceive the player to play post flop, how the player perceive you to play post flop, players stack size, as well as many other things.

Hope this helps,

Mike

The strategy forums would be a good place to ask this question. This forum ends up being more about finding coaches/coach-player relationship situations/training sites and programs. Not so much strategy.

Wessdog did reply similarly to what you'll find in the strat forums on twoplustwo, so that was nice!