Im not sure how many of you are doing this at the moment but I assume a few are thinking the same way I was until a few months ago.
I used to think that 3-betting light was something that the 100NL+ guys needed to worry about, something that I would get flamed for even asking about at uNL.

However, watching some vids and general study has led me to the following conclusion.

3-Betting LP raises light at appropiate times is very very +EV at uNL

Typical Scenario:
100bb stacks.
You are in BB with 9 T. (Your image is TAG)
Tag 14/7/2 type opens for 4bb from the CO.
SB folds.
Hero.....

I used to just fold here, thats better than calling. (OOP weak hand against an agressor).
There is a better play - raise it up!!!

Whats the TAGs range here? Well Im a TAG and unless I see manics/stations in the blinds I open any pair, A8+, any Axs, KQ+, suited broadways and some SCs and even worse if I see nitty blinds.
Thats a range of 25%+.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the villan and imagine your 3-bet. What hands do you really (I mean really) want to see a 3-bet from a fellow TAG?
Unless I have history or I know he gets jiggy from the blinds then Im only really happy with AA/KK (I did warn you Im a nit!).

AA/KK makes up 0.9% of hands which is ~3.7% of a ~25% opening range.
That means that the TAG you just 3-bet is happy, ~14.8% of the time, the rest he is probably a little nervous about AK, TT-QQ or just plain dissapointed that you have put him in a spot where he cant continue.
(OK we can argue whether he likes a re-raise with AK/QQ but you get the drift)

Lets say he re-raises you with AA/KK (3.7% of his range) and you fold.
He may get stubborn with 88+ AQ+ (16.8% of his range) and call to see what happens.
The remaining 80% of the time he folds (or calls with a marginal hand thats going to be -EV for him anyway)

Since your laying 3-1 you need to win only 75% to break even, above that is immeadiate profit!
The other 25% of the time your going to have to play some poker but you have the initiative in a big pot despite being OOP, uNL TAGs play straightforward in big pots so usually c-bet/shutdown does very well.


Some general points / caveats
- This stategy like any other is exploitable (4-betting light, floating in position). I havnt seen many players at uNL take advantage though.
- Dont 3-bet manics or stations without at least some value to your hand.
- Postflop you should have the edge, they fold a lot more to c-bets than you would think.
- If your c-bet gets raised and you have something like a weak pair and few outs dont fall into the "he puts me on a steal" way of thinking. Big bets still mean big hands. This is not an excuse to forget fundementals such as REM and SPR.
- Drop the real trash like T2 and 64, its possibly still +EV since you can check/fold when called and still profit. However you risk tipping your opponent off if you do it every single time.
- Watch out for stack sizes. CMAR covered crushing shorties so refer to that post if the 20bb brigade are getting to you.
- The same theory obviously applies when you have the button and the CO opens. You have position to boot, it also doesnt look as obvious!

Throwing this out for discussion now.

Good post SS. This is something i added to my game a few months ago with great success.

I especially like re-stealing from the button, as it seems to really tilt players who are used to just being allowed to steal the blinds.

This is something I have only recently added to my game, and I think it has been powerfully effective so far.

The maths seems good for doing this, and i do resteal from the blinds occasionally, but normally mainly vs the button (when i'm in the blinds)
I button resteal all the time, as i feel the extra threat of having position post flop gives you more fold equity. I've raised from the blinds a lot, only to find the button calling with 98s or some other rubbish.

Two points to note: 1) This is a way of keeping the regs off your blinds, and the advantage of doing it vs the regs means that they know you and are less likely to tangle with a tight regular with a marginal hand.
2) the raiser has to be playing positionally aware poker. Some 14/7's are 14/7's from every position. Its worth trying to note those that steal often, so the 14/7 stat isn't as important hare as the 'steal blinds' stat is.

14/7/2 isnt a tag.

Amen bro. I hate people who play 14/7 or 11/8 and call themselves TAG (14/7 and 11/8 differ like hell, but was just citing an example)

Good post SS, you actually make it SS.

Forgot to add that in there!
For sure you need to have that up on HUD. Helps determine how aware of position people are as well.

Regarding the TAG/stats label thing its a bit of a pointless issue.
Try not to pigeon hole players. For me TAG/LAG are very very general terms and on this forum I use them in the context of uNL which is very different from SSNL FR or 6-max etc.
Think in terms of ranges and percentages, then try to put yourself in the shoes of a villan with those ranges.

Also it doesnt have to be a LP raise for you to take advantage.

I play 15/10 and that means that I raise all PP,AQ+,KQs from UTG.
Hell I dont like having my UTG raising range 3-bet most of the time!!

Forgot to add that in there!
For sure you need to have that up on HUD. Helps determine how aware of position people are as well.

Regarding the TAG/stats label thing its a bit of a pointless issue.
Try not to pigeon hole players. For me TAG/LAG are very very general terms and on this forum I use them in the context of uNL which is very different from SSNL FR or 6-max etc.
Think in terms of ranges and percentages, then try to put yourself in the shoes of a villan with those ranges.

Great post, added to favs. I am going to work on adding this into the o'l game and see what happens. After the game is over maybe I can discuss some.

thanks for the good post. this is something that I think i need to add into my game. i whoring at cake tho right now, and will wait until im at ps or back at ft so i can used pt/hud and actually review how well i am implementing it.

Very simple to monitor how your doing.
There is a filter in PT "Steal Att against your blind and raised"

Click that and see how your doing.

Not to be a naysayer, but I think it is REALLY easy to start to over-defend your blinds. You should pick your spots judiciously.

Nice post. It is important to note the opponent and make sure that they are raising light. If they open-raise 3 times in a row from the button and you fold 4 times, it might be a good spot to take a stand with a marginal hand the next time.

The flip side of the coin is that if you are an aggressive stealer you will start getting 3-bet light. Recently I had some guy who had 3-bet me 3 times in about a half an hour's worth of play - each time from the blinds. The 4th time he 3-bet me I 4-bet pushed KTo and he folded fairly quickly. This is a metagame thing, but it is very important to pay attention to this stuff.

SS, and threads both have good points. This is a fairly important tool to have in your box as you move up, but it is one that is very easy to go overboard with, or to use too carelessly. Restealing in pos and in blinds is very +EV, but due to the increased number of BBs in the pots involved, it can also be very swingy and easy to blow large amounts of bets. I tend to do it much less if I'm playing a very high number of tables, and I don't have opportunity to focus on players much outside of their stats.

Another point that should probably be made is the type of hands to do this with. I see a lot of players when they first start to incorporate the resteal do this with hands like AQo, KQo, etc. In other words, big-card type hands with low drawing potential. This is the exact wrong kind of hand to play, as any time you get called, you can quickly run into RIO situations with most of your effective stack already in the pot. These are especially painful OOP when you do this from the blinds.

Anyways.. I hope none of you adopt this when playing at my tables, kthx.