Hey Guyz,

I noticed I have some hard time playing with someone who 3bets me a lot preflop, so I try to adjust by 4 betting light, but i get shoved on so i have to fold, or I call the 3bet with hands like AXs+, 77+, 78s+, but when i miss the flop, I fold, or sometimes float but fold to a second barrel...

Do you guys have some advices to improve this situation ?

Thanks a lot

These spots are pretty high variance, I am learning to deal with these types of villains myself. It is usually better to stand up to them early and call their 5-bet shove kind of light with some sort of crappy PP or AT+, even if you lose the flip they will less likely 5-bet shove you light cause they know you will call light. When they 3-bet that much, depending on stack sizes, I usually prefer calling any broadways and just look to get it in/station villain down if I hit a pair. I think it is important to establish that early so you won't get pushed around.

Yeah I do call with broadway, but as you know it's not easy to it a pair.

Also I just thought about a limp/call strategy, so I can play smaller pot in position.

And I tend to tilt against those villains because as you said i will usually stack off pretty light, which is high variance obviously.

Any thoughts ?

All IN!!!!

I really dont think limping in order to play small pots IP is a good idea at all. I would say if you don't want to play a higher variance game by 4betting and getting it in light then just tighten your opening range way up to maybe 50-60% and see if the villian adjust to that or not. Hopefully he won't and you can just own.

what about min betting the button?
also, i wouldnt call 3b with 22-99 as they don't play very good post flop. im more likely to call with JT+ etc, hands that you aren't lost with on most flops/turns etc

also 22-99, if you're 4b these hands and he ships it 90% of the time you're looking at a coinflip at best, pointless imo - wait for a better spot

also A2-A9 you're just dominated so often I don't think its too good to call here either. just minbet and if he 3b you can take a flop with a pot that isn't as inflated

+1 on min-betting the button. It works to some extent but if he wants to crank it up he can still pop it to 12BB PF if he wants.

However, I disagree with your assessment that it is pointless to call off with a small pocket pair if he 5-bet jam over your 4-bet a lot. Yea you are likely flipping a lot of the time but it is good for metagame reasons. If he knows you are willing to call 5-bets wide how happy will he be to 5-bet jam light in the future. I just don't like to get run over. An uber-aggro bluffer's worst enemy is someone who will fight back and won't mind getting in marginal spots. If someone goes out and try to win every hand, his range is so poor that your playable hands should crush his range. I wouldn't be afraid to get it in light read dependent.

If you don't want to deal with the swings or you if you tilt playing against this type of opponents, it is best to quit and play someone else. You definitely shouldn't be afraid of taking shots against this type of opponent but working on tilt control after losing a couple flips is key vs. this type of opponent. I don't know how guys like that can sustain huge win-rates (some of these type of opponents i played against have huge win-rates at my level and higher, definitely trying to learn from their playing styles), but I feel like these types of players tilt opponents easily and when they win a couple flips their opponent loses their mind and hand their rolls over.

Yeah I agree with what you said, usually when I start loosing against those villains i start making crazy stuff that I don't usually do and most of the time it finishes bad for me.

I don't want to avoid thoses players, I want to beat them but I need to stay focus as much as i can, but for me thoses players are the toughest for sure..

Anyway thanks for your comments everyone, if you have more ideas, just post !!

First adjustment is probably a minraise on the button if you are not already, followed by the tightening of your opening range.

Stack sizes, actual %s and other characteristics are very important.

There's a huge difference between a guy that 3bets 40% and calls another 50% than a guy that 3bets 40% and folds 60%.

Stacks matter too, 15bb deep versus 60bb is huge.

Buy in for the minimum against these guys. They make a living off light 4 and 5-bets, and when you have a short stack you take this weapon away from them.

If he is 3-betting too wide, it is pretty easy to find a profitable range to push all in on him with when you have 35bb or so. If he is a complete smart-ass, that is to say he raises every time you limp in, then limp with your top 40% of hands, then push all-in when he raises. If you double up, leave.

If he is smart, he will either adjust his game or start avoiding you.

Maybe i will try this, buy in for 50/60 bb.

And usually i used to rebuy for 200bb when I got stacked, which is maybe the worst idea..

This might be a viable strategy but do you really want to be a shortstacking scumbag? By shortstacking you are basically admitting that you are not good enough/you can't figure out a way to beat this guy so you resort to shortstacking to minimize his edge. Since OP says he wants to beat this type of opponent and not want them to avoid him, shortstacking is not the answer. Either don't play him or figure out a way to counter with 100BB stack.

To OP, maybe playing 200BB tables is not a good idea against this type of opponents at the moment. Auto-topping to 200BB is also a bad idea if you don't know what to do/don't feel comfortable when pots get big.

I'm not talking about minimizing his edge. I'm talking about taking back the advantage. If he 3-bets too much and can't adjust, then he can be exploited by being 4-bet all-in by a short stack.

If you think shortstacking is scummy, fine. I personally will do whatever it takes to get the money. I imagine that the OP feels the same.

4bet shove wide.
Starting with limping is generally bad in these situations.

You are playing 100 bb deep right? Against someone who 3bets say, 20 to 30 percent a strategy I´ve found very useful is to simply go all in with 22+,ATo+,A7s+, KJo, KQo, JTs, QTs, QJs, KTs, KJs, KQs, and also some low suited connectors like 76s and 56s.
Off course there are readaptions but many players tend to play bad against this strategy.

Actually 3betting more than 20 percent no matter what range seems to be very unoptimal and is easy exploitable with this strategy, so either your opponent has to stop 3betting so much or he´ll lose.
This is of course if he makes a standard 3bet like 9bb+. If he 3bets to smaller amounts you can start to call him a lot preflop instead.

I think shoving over 3bets 100bb deep is bad in general.

First of all I'd like to say that as the original poster didnt mention any numbers I'm not sure what he means by someone who 3bets a lot and therefore dont know if my reasoning about players who 3bet more than 20 percent is relevant.
With that said my experience with people who 3bets 20 percent and more in general has a lot of J7s, 89o, A2o etc in his range which they most likely wont call a shove with. As said earlier 3betting more than 20 percent seems really bad game theory wise to me. Shoving over a random 20 percent 3betting range may not be optimal but its still profitable. Though since players with this high 3bet percentage often have above mentioned hands in their range those players will only call your shove about 50-60 percent of the time (though they should be calling more) and their calling range still will only have about 50 percents equity which makes this very profitable.

I think it's way better to play 3bet pots in position against such weak ranges, or just 4betting a normal size. You're risking way too much to only win 10 big blinds, and with QT/QJ/KJ type hand you only fold out worse and get called by better.

If your'e inexperienced or scared in threebet pots this strategy works fine, KJ, Qj 22 etc works fine to shove. Id like to add 45s+, A2s+ and A8o+ to the list aswell after making some pokerstove work. Even with those hands in your range it is unprofitable for your opponent to call a shove with KQo- KJs-, A8o-, A7s- and 33- which leads a 20 percent 3bettor to fold at least 44 percent of hands even if he threebets to 10 bb instead of 9 as I suggested earlier.
All ace and king hands are favorites over QT and QJ and all A high hands are favorites over KJo and KJs. You may prefer to just call 3bets with KJ/QJ/QT type hands but to say that they only fold out better is just not true

perfect response, in general I look forward to people who have high 3bet %