Playing 3bet pots as they were single raised pots

This is psychological (probably technical aswell) advice given to me by a coach who crushes mid stakes NLHU. The more I think of it the more I like it. 3bet pots are scary. The pot is bloated from the get go. More money involved. More pressure. Bigger mistakes to be made. Time to choke. Unless you can treat them as they were single raised pots ! Hand example :

We have 98ss/AKsd/88.

Flop J62sdd

Villain called our SB 3bet from the BTN. Now it is time to trick our brain a bit and literally think what would I do in this spot if it was single raised and I was IP. 98ss I would cbet. Auto bet A/K/Q/T/7 turns. AKsd I would decide either to ch back and auto call turn and re-evaluate river or cbet as a bluff and auto bet A/K/Q/diamond. 88 I would cbet for value. Bet blanks maybe even scare cards. After this jedi mind trick back to playing in the 3bet pot. We play it exactly like we were IP. Only thing we have to change is the bet sizing. In 3bet pots we need to bet half pot 2x and then shove the river to have the best possible stack sizes for all three streets.

98ss bet as in SR IP pot.

AKsd bet as in SR IP pot. If check then auto call ch call one street and take it from there.

88 bet as in SR IP pot.

This works very well in 3bet pots. This mind trick reduces stress and anxiety that is very common while playing in 3bet pots

Offer of free coaching is still in place! Record 45 min of your own play and we will watch and discuss it together. I will teach you how to extract more value and have fun doing so

Meee!!! I play 25NLSH (i reckon you play sh aswell?)

my skype: Jeunenen

I have a few videos, do i need to Pm you coach?

Heh clever trick, definitely helps in those swingy sessions where your head goes volatile-ish .

I am planning to make Sunday my coaching day. If Jeun has some footage on Sunday we can start after 2 pm. GMT+2. Gracias is next in line. You both are now my students We will work the details in Skype.

Playing backwards poker to maximize value vs nits

Lets say that you are in the BB and nit has opened the BTN. This will happen. If you 3bet he will fold. If he calls pre. He will fold flop. If he calls flop he will fold turn. If he calls turn he will fold river. He will eventually find a reason to fold no matter what. Trust me

So what kind of hands do you want to 3bet this type of player ? Junk! Hands that you want to get folds with. T9s/K2s/A7o. Around 15%-20% of the best junk. Keep exploiting him folding too much forever. This works because nits do not adjust to your trash 3betting ever. They just keep folding and you keep 3betting.

So what to do with premiums ? It's definately +EV to 3bet AA/AK vs this player. Problem is it may not the most +EV line. There is a better way. It is to call and CR alot of flops ! This will happen ------->

FLOP K55

Nit cbets and gets raised. He is fkced. He has no clue what to do with K7 or JJ. He should have the best hand on this flop and aggro reg is repping really thin. So he makes a curious call. BIG mistake as we allready know. We bet half pot on a blank turn and nit is in trouble again. If we go back a bit and think what would have happened if we had 3bet AA or AK. On this flop villain could not even have K7. This is where the maximum value comes from. When just flat the open it keeps the ****ty TPs in villain's range. He is in big trouble playing KT/K9/K8/K7/K6/K4/K2 on this flop. When we 3bet he will never have these hands OTF. But when we CR the flop and barrel away he will call K7 atleast 2x. Maybe even 3x. We give him the opportunity to make a big mistake. Mistake he would never ever make in a 3bet pot if I 3bet and barreled AA on K55hh 6d 9d.

Easy 3barrel either way w AA. Except if we CR the flop and the flush hits the turn. Flush is in our perceived range. As it is in villain's range also. OTF villain had around 30 combos of FD. 40 trips. 90 TP. 30 PP below K. The weak hands still outnumber the monsters even after the flush completing turn. Value bet half pot. At a river blank we can check comfortably. He still has his 70 combos of uber nuts. TP combos and PP are getting lower by the streets. He is a nit, so even if he makes alot more mistakes with them when we take the CR line, he is still a nit even after all this is said and done. Value shove might be bit too thin. Don't hate small ridic blocker bet. But check is fine. He will not turn anything into bluff and if he shoves he has a flush at minimum. Easy game

keep em comin.

I'm a 25NL reg and got coached by Phenomal today. It was the first time I took coaching so I cant really compare it, but I liked it a lot.

I think he has a good insight of the game and explains everything very well and understandable.

I have yet to play a session but I feel like this coaching helped me quite alot

Also a nice guy : )

TY =) Enjoyed alot of our discussion. Gracias is next in line but anyone other who wants free coaching is very welcomed to contact me. Replying here or PMing me.

Would definitely love a coaching session man. I'm currently playing 4nl on Lock, and trying to find that positive side of the graph again =P I feel I have a solid understanding of the game, but like all of us, I'm sure I have leaks. Let me know if you wanna give it a go man. GL at the tables

Some really good stuff in here.

Makes me really miss Online Poker. A lot of this stuff is just not relevant in the live, low-stakes games I play. There are no preflop 3/4/5 betting wars without AA/KK

Still really interesting stuff. You seem like you have a good mind for poker, OP. Please stop by my Goal thread and check it out. GL

Post your Skype nick or PM it to me and we will set it up

Thank you and I will

Headed to bed now, but my Skype is: thenewbigmack. Thanks man!