Any Two Cards
Game Theory Optimal

lol whenever i ask, the answer sounds so f--in obvious. thanks

Excellent post. WP Ronin.

Couldn't agree more. I think I first found this thread like a year ago or something and have probably reread it 4-5x. Def one of my favorite all time posts on 2p2.

I've only read the first 2 pages but there's something I don't quite understand. If we start flatting OOP vs Villain's polarized 3-betting range, and if we miss (which we will most of the time), and Villain always c-bets, then what? And what if Villain generally likes to barrel/bluff? I mean, unless we flop amazingly well we'll be put in an extremely difficult position almost always, right? How do we adjust to this? The way I see it this makes us super exploitable, unless the Villain for some reason never c-bets or shuts down on the turn.

By flatting more hands in this spot, we make ourselves more difficult to play against by having a wider - but still stronger than villains 3bet range. If we only flat premium hands then villain can 3bet bluff us all day and not put in any more money when we continue.

You're going to have to not play fit or fold here too. I'd recommend sticking with adding suited broadway hands because if you are 100bb deep, flop a fd and 2 overs or the top end of an oesd you can profitably crai on the flop. Assuming of course villain has a wide 3bet range which is what this post is trying to combat.

Once you're better at reading villains and board textures you can make moves by check raising or floating flops and turns with a wider range of hands.

If you flat a 3bet oop, it's because you believe your opponent has a polarized 3bet range and it is weighted too heavily to air (generally, I suggest flatting with a big PP before trying it with AK, AQ, KQ, etc.).

If that is true, and it's true that your opponent always C-Bets, then there's not much reason to fold. There's also not much reason to feel like you're being exploited. It's a highly polarizing situation, but if you have a handle on your opponent's game, you're playing optimally. I'd love it if my opponent barreled off his stack with Q3s whenever I was dealt AQhigh.

Start 4 betting light. Check raise the flop. Or, donk shove the flop. Thats about all you can do besides folding.

Donk betting pretty much ruins the entire concept of flatting OOP to induce spew from air. If you employ the strategy of exploiting a polarized range (which is weighted to air) by flatting 3bets OOP, you should never find yourself donk betting.

Check raising also limits the amount of spew that can be induced, but it isn't nearly as big of a deal. It's not going to be optimal unless your opponent's air has more equity in the pot than you gain from his spew on the turn. People feel more comfortable with this line because it doesn't require knowledge of your opponent's 2-barrel tendencies.

Obviously, it's going to be very difficult to add this to your arsenal. It requires that we don't lose sight of the logic that brought us here, and forces us to navigate our way through a polarized range.

However, our range shouldn't be capped. It'll probably help to know that you play AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and TT the same way you are playing AK and AQ in this spot. I'd suggest employing this strategy with the top of your range before attempting to do so with hands like AK, AK and KQ. By flatting with AA first, you're going to induce the same spew from air, get underpants to value-own themselves and figure out how your opponent reacts in this situation. Then, you can add unpaired hands to the mix.

lol, underpants

good stuff ITT

bump

Still the best article on 3betting that ive ever read and one of the best articles I have ever read as well.

Tnks for the bump. Just discovered this last night. Spent a normal Saturday grind reading and taking notes on this entire thread. Probably made/saved myself thousands of dollars doing so.

Keep up the good work, OP.

I agree fantastic thread

Good post OP, iLike

Ronin and all other contributors, Thanks so much for the thread, it's really great info.

I was wondering if you or anyone else has some insight in to using these ideas in more of a MTT setting where we are usually playing with shorter stacks.
I think 1-30BB strategy has been pretty well covered all over the internet, but lets say for example we have about 50BBs effective and are 3b by what we perceive to be a polarized range. In this case is flatting OOP really a correct play? We will have to devote lets say 10-15% of our stack to make this play. I am conflicted because I think we can win big pots when our opponent will try to cbet bluff and maybe even barrel all the way when we hit, but I can also see this being a situation where we could bleed chips trying to implement this strategy. Above you mentioned using a polarized 4b range to combat this, would this be the best answer when we have shorter stacks? Obviously this can be very player dependent with how much air you perceive their range to have
Also, how much is our tournament life worth, if anything, when up are against a polarized 3b range, where we have to decide if we are up against Q3 or AA when making this play?

A second question, how does the wider stack off ranges in MTTs affect the strategies you have outlined here when coming up with polarized and merged 3b and 4b ranges? Many of the merge 3b ranges sound like tight stack off ranges in MTTs lol. Would be very interested to hear thoughts on this.

I hope others are interested in using some of these strategies in MTTs too and we can generate some discussion, Thanks again

Whats merge mean ?

I like it aloooot

Bump for the new guy.

I was wondering this too.

I understand that polarize basically means nuts/air mix.

I can't imagine that merge simply means the opposite i.e. only medium strength hands.

Does it just mean premium hands. That doesn't make sense to me either.

Does it mean premium plus very strong? If so, how does the word "merge" describe that grouping?

Merging basically means you're depolarizing. So for instance 3 betting medium strength hands for value as well as your strong hands instead of 3 betting only really strong hands and really weak hands.

Typically, against someone who folds to 3-bets quite a bit you should 3-bet bluffs and hands that can play for stacks preflop. Ie. something like QQ+, AK and pure bluffs. And flat hands that play well postflop but aren't strong enough to play for stacks, ie something like 66-JJ (though where the exact cutoff is depends on the opponent of course, against some TT, JJ are autostackoffs, against some they are not). That's a polarized range.

Against someone who calls 3-bets too much, you 3-bet a merged range. That means 3-betting hands like 66+, AJ+, because the opponents calls with hands that you're ahead of, like small aces, lower pocket pairs, random junk.

I find the term "merged range" a little but awkward linguistically, always when I read it I see this:



As a player you dont "merge" anything, you just simply apply a "continuous range" meaning you pick cards as an uninterrupted sequence.

This was an excellent read! Every line of this post is packed with great thought provoking ideas, very well written. Thank you very much sir!