I am a winning player playing from 10-20 to 50-100 hu limit holdem. Since few month many winning player at this mid limit game have change their style from big 3 bettor pre flop to no more 3 bet prelfop. Looks like many of them prefer equity call then folding equity because many player now will call really light. I would like to know what are your thoughts about this and what u guys do when u play against a player like this, whats the best way to exploit them. Myself I have trouble to adjust to them. Seems like they no more put money in the dark like i do by 3 betting preflop and attacking a flop i dont even know what will be. They wait the flop to attack which flop they want to. Is it good to 100% continuation bet on flop against them. I tend to check more of my 3nd pair on flop because seems like they will just cr when im beat. I have already ask bryce quickly about it whyie he was playing and he said to not forget to defend my dry board. Could you explain more about how to adapt to that strategy.

Thank you

if someone doesnt 3bet, it just allows you to raise preflop from the button with impunity. are you confused about how to adjust postflop?

preflop no-one ever folds anything to a 3bet (and rightly so 99% of the time), a 3bet is not about getting preflop fold equity, but rather inflating the pot.

i think you just need to adjust your hand reading: not 3betting doesnt really need to be exploited: it is them missing value.

They dont miss value. They swap preflop 3bets with flop c/r. 3bet pre and contibetting the flop costs the same as calling preflop an c/r the flop. They will have a relatively huge range in their flop c/r range, so its hard to read them.

Only way to exploit them would be to start checking flops behind, because then they will have missed value by not having 3bet preflop with the better hand. Its just hard to balance the flop cb.

do these guys who never 3b also defend 100% ?

fwiw, I only know of one well-known regular 30+ player who never 3bs, but I'm sure there are others I don't know about.

Most people naturally start to cb flops when theyre confronted with flopc/r-ranges of 50%+, this effect might be enough to justify defending the worst hands.

Thanks for your answer guys,

Yes they nearly defend 100% pre-flop and do a lot of equity call on flop with k high and q high. They will often call turn too with k high and q high hoping we let it go on river. Plus they will do the same with 3nd pair and 2nd pair on flop and turn. They will call flop with gutshot and sometimes with bigger draw also. They mix it up. Can be hard playing with those guy because we hardly know what they hold and if we can push them out of their hands. By not 3 betting they can attack a lot of a high flop like a73 without a hand and its hard to counter them because they have so much more A in their range compare to a guy who 3 bet pre flop. Im trying to find a way to exploit that strategy. I check more of my showdownable hand to try to make them lose value by not 3 betting preflop.

We played a bit together today der ulek on fulltilt ny sn is unbeatablemagic.

I 3bet preflop less than 10% against good hand readers.

As suggested, checking behind a few flops with *some* weak marginal showdown hands is a good idea as well as being very aggressive and thin with your value raises and FSDR on the turn.

-Bill

Also, the decision to check behind different hands on the flop will, of course, be board dependent. If your opponent is c/r'ing the A73 flop 40% of the time just start checking it behind with Q9 and other strong, showdownable hands and he won't be able to c/r as much because you'll have fewer hands that are folding before the river in your range.

-Bill

Yeah i remember, i considered playing no3bet against you for a short time ^^. But that probably wouldnt have changed much edgewise.

Only checking behind showdownable hands wouldnt be enough to counterexploit, you have to mix it up with trash youll fold on the turn with and with good hands and draws youll raise on the turn with. Otherwise villain gets a good idea of you cb range and can play the turn almost perfectly. As said, this balancing is the hard part.

That looks like the opposite of what we learn when we study nl, that one would better to be the bully if one gets outplayed otherwise. And our limit heads up as well as ring game experience also support that view if we could choose either a solid or an aggressive player, so to say, a solid player we can outplay easily, vs. someone who becomes harder to read.

The hand range is different, he has stronger hands on average, so one needs to keep that in mind, and he has more showdown hands; that should not change one's came to a more passive one but to a more aggressive one as the opponent is more likely to have some high card only, rather than a pair.

According to simulations he is giving away EV by not three betting enough. Similarly a player who three bets too much, is also good news, until one could outplay him better if he would play more passively.

In NL you can push your equity edge preflop much harder and it's much more expensive for an opponent to fight back at you. There are very few hands whose equity edge of a one small bet increase are worth more than the value of position, assuming your opponent plays well in position. Of course if he's going to start making big mistakes because you're 3betting him then fire away. I'm just saying that against guys who play well and still C-bet the flop a ton I'd rather wait and c/r lots of flops.