I was going to post this in HU but i actually believe it's more of a theory question. Mods let me know if its in the wrong place please.

So, i'm playing NL20 HU on ignition (formerly bovada, still anonymous.

I find an opponent who is sitting with $45.00 and I sit him.

I spotted a few leaks in his game and I made some adjustments but wanted to run them by ya'll to see if my adjustments are "consensus adjustments", if there's some controversial stuff i'm doing, or if maybe some would describe my adjustments as dead wrong or at least not as good as X where X is some other thing I wasn't doing;

So.
Villain is open raising about 80% open folding 20% from the button. He is using a large sizing of 3x+. At 10cent-20cent blinds he is opening anywhere from 65 to 80 cents seemingly at random and is typically around 72c.

That all seemed pretty cut and dried. He's opening less than 100% of his hands and he's using a larger sizing so I just need to defend a tighter and stronger range and I need to 3 bet more aggressively to punish him for his large open raise sizing (at least unless/until we get a bit deeper in which case he's doing more or less what I would do at ~ 130bb+.

Now, he is also 3 betting me RELENTLESSLY. He is folding less hands against my opens than he is open folding himself from the button. I think he is continuing with something like 90% of hands vs my opens and he is 3 betting around 50% of those hands so his actual 3 bet % is about 45% (i don't run a HUD on the site because i usually play SnG's and anonymous fast fold).

He is also calling or 4 betting all of my 3 bets. He literally never folding to a single 3 bet I made the entire match (lasted about 3 hours).

So, I'm opening about 80% to start and was using a min plus raise of .50 and he was 3 betting to $2.50 against me. I'm sure that's not a great thing for him to do and I did eventually start beating him up and won 2.5 BI from him but it was very uncomfortable to play against and took a while for me to make what I thought were good adjustments.

His post flop leaks where; checking back too much air on the flop as PFR and c-betting too many weak made hands sort of regardless of range advantage, 2) he dubbed way too often after he bet the flop, almost 100% of the time when he was c-betting he was dubbing. 3) Over bluffing rivers. 4) he was check raising very small at a high frequency.

So, he was a bit maniacal.

To keep this cleaner looking I'm going to post the leaks I saw and adjustments I made below this.

Villain 3 bet HUGE (5x my opens) and doing so at around 40-50% so I adjusted by reducing my open sizing to a min raise but found that still was putting me in a lot of uncomfortable spots. So i thought about going one of two ways, either I would open a limping range and balance as needed then open raise just my strongest hands because he was so rarely folding and so often raising. OR I would continue open raising with a MR and just flat a bit wider, be willing to 4 bet and get it in a bit lighter, and open a light 4 bet range that would 4 bet and fold. Which seems best?

He was attacking my limps with a 4x raise (making it 80c total vs my 20c open limps) very dependably, something like 90% of the time.

I decided to open fold the bottom of my "would usually open the button" range like 43s and 64o, J5, Q4o, etc and I was limp calling all my decent flopping hands like suited gappers, JT, Q9s, Kxs, A2s-A9s, A2o-ATo, and my non premium pairs and I was open raising my strongest hands like AJ+, KJ+, QJs+, and 88+ and was just going with most of those hands vs a huge 3 bet (i was stacking KQ+, AJ+, 99+ and got 99 all in against his 3 bet and 5 bet shoved 55). I was thinking (and this is super controversial Im sure) that I would want to have a couple of hands that raised and folded to the 3 bet but not many so I used QJs and KJ, and sometimes KT sometimes A9.

I feel like I was able to beat him up post flop pretty easily. He never c-bet once and shut down so I stopped calling c-bets with hands that would have to fold to turn bet. He was checking back his air as PFR so I lead 100% of my air on the turn when he checked back flop, i used a lighter and smaller value injected check raise game to combat his linear and weak c-betting. I was checking bottom pairs and second pairs to induce and bluff catch effectively, etc, etc, etc.. i had a pretty simple time of things post flop. Floated a couple flops to raise turns because of his super high dub % and so on.

My main confusion was how to respond to his super high 3 bet % and his huge sizing.
Remember, he had a big stack but i was playing 100bb initially. And he was 3 betting 5x my open size about 45% (maybe more). He was only folding to my opens like 10% of the time, flatting a few hands and doing a ton of 3 betting.


So against a player like this who 3 bets often and huge and who will reliably iso to 4x against open limps does it make sense (at least until it seems like he is adjusting) to;
Open fold the bottom of your usual open raising range?
Open limp the hands that you'd like to see a flop in position with a pretty high SPR like J7s, 87o, 65s, K8s, KTo, QTo, Q7s, 22-77?
Open raise hands that will either be OK calling a large 3 bet but mostly open raising hands that are happy to get it in pre-flop?
I was only open raising 88+,ATs, AJ+, KJ+ and I was calling the 3 bet with 88, ATs, KJs, KJo, and I was 4 betting 99+, AJ+, KQ+ and stacking off with my entire 4 bet range.

What do we think about these adjustments to Mr "3 bet to 5x open size at 45+% frequency, never folding to a 4 bet, sometimes flatting OOP vs 4 bet with a lot of money in, often 5 bet jamming, iso raising vs all open limps"???


open limp some good equity floppers?
open fold weaker hands (tighten up a bit overall)?
open raise only hands that are strong enough to at least call a big raise in position?
only 4 bet hands I will take to the felt?
be willing to open, four bet, get it in with 99+, KQ, AJ+??

does this sound OK?
If not what could I have done differently/better?

Maybe that's too complex;
How ought we adjust vs villain who 3 bets SUPER high frequency of ~45-50% and who uses a 3 bet sizing of 5x your open size in HUNLH cash (nl20HU)?

I started open folding a few more hands than normal
I open limped most of my hands and called his isos pretty wide
I only open raised strongest hands and was prepared to continue w almost all of those hands facing a 3 bet, 4 betting about 50% prepared to get it in w about 90% of the hands I chose to 4 bet.


How do we feel about these adjustments?

The fact that he is using a larger sizing when raising and 3-betting is actually a bonus to you. If he was picking a sizing of 3x it would be harder to play against. Since he is raising bigger you can fold more with less obligation to play. Also, I tend to be less inclined to 3-bet or 4-bet just because then he can't easily change his strategy and massively exploit you... even though that probably isn't going to happen.

I would not divide your hands into a limping and raising range based on strength, because that can become fairly transparent. Even if he doesn't catch on, it still over complicates the situation imo. Just play a bit tighter preflop. When you see a hand like 85o. Just fold it. I wouldn't fold a hand like 76o though. It is actually a good thing to have some hands to open-fold to so he doesn't adjust. In your above range you call or raise every 3-bet he makes against you. Not necessarily a mistake, but I don't like it.


Yeah, no need to 4-bet or 5-bet bluff this guy. 3-bet pretty much high cards. You can probably 4-bet or 5-bet shove some Ax hands occasionally and small pairs depending on how stacks get. With hands that are very strong 4-bet NAI and be prepared to stack off. I would 4-bet tighter than what you listed though. KQ is better to just call the 3-bet. Your EV isn't terrible vs. a 5-bet all-in, but it isn't something you want either. With his large 3-bet sizing you can still get it in pretty well against his range.

Overall strategy could be something like this:

IP:
-opening 70%ish of hands
-call 3-bets with JJ-22, All suited aces, all suited cards with the lowest card being an 8, suited double gappers all the way down to 52s. 32s included. All off suit broadway hands. Throw in A9o and A8o too if you want.
-4bet NAI with JJ+ and AK. Don't be shy about the sizing this guy wants to gambolllll.
(4-betting all-in might be better. It depends on how gambolish he is)

OOP:
Call: 77-22, Jxs+, T4s+, 95s+, 85s+, 74s+, 63s+,52s+, 42s, Ax, K4o+, Q6o+, J6o+, T6o+, 97o+, 86o+, 76o, 65o
3-bet: 88+, All suited broadway, AJo+, KQo, All suited connectors including 32s.
Call 4-bet: TT-88, All suited broadway, AJo+, KQo
5-bet all-in: JJ+ and AK

I'm not really sure if you mentioned how often he was 4-betting. If it was a lot you may be able to justify shoving 88+ and your Ax hands.

Even versus a crazy it is still good to have some balance in your 3-bet pots. In 4-bet pots and bigger it isn't going to be much of an issue.