So as some of you know, I like to 3 bet from the big blind against wide range openers. Whether it's a style thing or a value thing is a discussion we've already had. I want to talk about exploitation.

This theoretical opponent has a good seat with fish to his right and a tight player to his left. His only problem at the table is me. I'm two to his left when he's on the button, but the table is playing loose passive so we haven't tangled that much. He's adjusted to his excellent button position by opening very wide when it folds to him. I think because of the tight player in the small blind he has disregarded that player almost completely and he is treating it as a heads up game between the two of us. He's no maniac postflop, so I don't expect him to spew if I play the flat all/check raise a lot of flops game.

I estimate he's opening around 70% on the button(22+, A2+, K2+, Q4+, J6+, T6+, 96+, 86+, 76, Q2s+, J2s+, T2s+, 94s+, 84s+, 74s+, 63s+, 52s+, 42s+, 32s), and I plan to 3 bet him with a wide range(44+, A7+, K9+, QT+, A6s+, K7s+, Q9s+, JTs+, 36.2%.) I've left out some unsuited hands that have an immediate edge in the name of reverse implied odds, but I left QT in there because it dominates so many hands in his range(though it was on the fence.) This 3 betting range has a good edge vs his range(60.32% to 39.68% equity preflop).

This guy can hand read well, and he'll be taking a lot of shots at me with what I suspect is a balanced range. To counter this I'll make a few adjustments. First, I'll flat my whole range at an undecided frequency based on gameflow. This should beef up my preflop calling range and my flop check raise range well. It could also give the illusion that I'm 3 betting less than I really am which could lead to some interesting subgames.

One thing that I'm worried about is the possibility that he's not really opening bad hands like 96o everytime, so my 3 betting range could be at an equity disadvantage preflop, but how much to discount these bad hands is another problem for another thread.

I'd also like to talk about turn play because this guy likes to flat all on dry flops and then raise a lot of turns for value and as bluffs, but if we don't get to that it's fine with me. I have a plan for when this happens. If you don't then maybe it's something to think about.

So the first question is: Am I too vulnerable to a preflop cap?

I think this is way too broad a question. Basically you're asking the optimal 3bet percentage HUHU is, albeit with a slightly larger pot, but with a slightly tighter range from the button. There are like a myriad of ways this can go, all read and momentum driven. I tend to 3bet about 20%, not always just for value and SD and take it from there, increasing or decreasing as it goes.

Yeah I like to push my scatterbrain into uncharted territory. I thought that ending with a yes/no question wrapped it up nicely, maybe not. Thanks for responding.

I'm not too worried about his capping. If he does it a ton, then you've got a decent edge against his whole range and his doing it often means a lot of that range. If he does it rarely, it narrows his range. "Thanks for letting me know you have KK+, AK."

As for turn play, I'm again not worried. If he will bet any time he's checked to, you have some c/r and c/c options. You're supposed to be at a disadvantage OOP. Look at it this way, if he caps his monster hands PF he doesn't have one of those. Then, if he waits for the turn with his flopped monsters, but he c/r his medium hands and his draws on the flop you have a read. On the turn, you can value check oop if he has enough bluffs when checked to. You can also b/f if his turn bluffing frequency is too low.

Most discussions about LHE balance come from putting hands in categories, rather than playing the same hand differently over time. You can do it either way, but how many hands does he have to see to have this work? You could also just play any way you want and just be aware of the image that your frequencies + SD hands give you -- just maximize always and then hand read on yourself.

I think the value check is an important part of playing against this opponent, but at the same time I don't want to do it too much since I'll be missing value on the turn for the sake of balance. I don't really want to bet fold all that much; just with a small range consisting of junk/thin value. Though against an opponent who bluff raises I need to tighten up my value bets. Knowing the difference between a wet board and a scary one is really important on the turn against this guy imo.

I guess he'd need to see a lot of hands to really get a good read on this strategy, and I like the information hiding, disinformation, and checking range protection.

Btw I know my seat sucks.

I decided to look a little deeper at the possibility of a cap. If he caps 77+, AT+, A9s+, KQs(all have an edge against my 3 bet range), then I have 39.97% equity which is slightly more than my fare share of the pot(37.5% off the top of my head). I'm a little worried that reverse implied odds may make this a losing play and I may need to tighten up my 3 bet range a bit to counter this. On the other side of the coin I have a nice edge when he just calls the 3 bet(63% equity). I'm hoping that these conditions will cancel out, but I think his positional advantage may be enough to make me tighten up. I'd have to play perfectly oop to play this loose and that probably isn't going to happen.

Also a correction: equilab had my 3 bet range as 36% of all hands at first, but now is saying that it's only a 22% range.

I'm not sure why you feel you need more than 60% equity here when you 3 bet. I wouldn't be at all worried. This guy is opening very weak hands preflop and then telling you when he has a broadway ace/suited broadways postflop. Imo you could loosen up a fair bit with your preflop 3 bet here. I'd decide what sort of percentage you want preflop against his steal, use equilator or equilab to give you that range of hands, then adjust for balance.

The 60% is range vs range. It's so high because of the monsters in my range. There are hands with as little as 3%-5% edge in my 3 bet range.

If I loosen up it'll weaken my calling range, expose my weak hands to a cap(there are already hands in my range that are losing money when I 3 bet and get capped). Range vs range I'm doing just ok when capped.

I looked at all possible preflop scenarios(equity when I flat, when I 3 bet, when it's capped, and gave myself 50% equity against the small blind when the button folds.) 40% equity when capped*9% probability+ 63% equity when called*22% probability+ 43.9% equity when I flat(no premiums)*59.7% probability+ 50% equity(conservative imo) against small blind*30% probability= 58.7% equity total. Given my positional disadvantage against the button, and my positional advantage against the small blind, I think it's a good edge. I don't think I'll be loosening up at all just in case he's opening his bad hands at a discounted frequency.

If I decide to defend 100%, which I think I will instead of 80% that I used for the above calculation, my total equity jumps to 65.3% and I don't lose .2 small bets on average(which I didn't account for in the above calculation.) Calculating equity when the small blind 3 bets is a can of worms I'm not going to open, but I suspect he's missing a lot of value preflop by folding too much. The more he 3 bets, the worse off I am unless he does it too much, then the button will have to tighten up and it becomes a whole different problem. So as of now I'm pretty happy with the resulting equity

Just wanted to interject that in some circumstances I don't think you need to have an equity advantage at all to 3bet, even from oop.

If you're not presently employing the "flat everything" strategy, and you happen to be against BTN who is a bit fit/foldy post and whom you maybe have a read or two on, I think you can potentially include some coin-flip hands and even a few where you're a 48:52 or 49:51 dog to his range (FE can easily make up the gap against some villains, imo).

This guy shows down at a good rate. If I 3 bet J9s, fire a c bet and he folds, then I probably had the best hand. I guess it's a ftop mistake because he had the odds to chase a pair against that hand, but against my range he's not making a mistake(haven't checked this with lab, I'm just assuming, will report back with an example.)

I agree that if the opponent likes to fold then we should 3 bet more, but this problem assumes a good opponent who wouldn't be folding the flop more than 1 in 4 times(preflop 3 bet and flop c bet make up the bluff, not just the c bet.) I think this takes more of a read than him being card dead. I'm not saying it's wrong to go out on a limb, but for it to be correct then I need to see him fold a lot.

OK I am totally confused. I thought we were in the situation where BTN opens , SB folds, and the action is on us. We are looking at a range to 3B. Is the SB still in the hand?

The small blind is out. That was a poor attempt at a total preflop ev calculation. I screwed it up because I'm not really 3 betting 22% of the time. It's really 22% of 70%(assuming the small blind folds 100%). I'm sure there are other errors, but it was fun to try.

Since this thread seems to have run its course, thanks to those who replied. I know that not many people like to talk about heads up against good players.