Villain is a young Korean guy sitting to my immediate left. This is a live 5/5 game and effective stacks are 200bb. In about an hour or so of play, Villain has 3-bet me thrice. In hand 1, I opened JTs from UTG and I folded since I had no reads on him. My open was 20 and he made it 90. In hand 2, I opened QTs from CO and he made it around 80 and I folded. Given that he seemed aggressive I was more willing to call with JTs over QTs. In hand 3, I opened AJo from UTG for 20 and Villain made it 65. I was willing it call with this hand but another player went all in for 100. So I folded. Villain called it and showed 87s. So clearly he is 3-betting light.

Post flop he is not as aggressive where he will barrel twice but only seen him barrel thrice with a made hand. So he is not a maniac.

There is some discussion on how to handle loose aggression here. Given this villain's history, I am more than happy to call off his 3-bets light and play post flop. As discussed in the thread, I am comfortable to play post flop being more inclined to call with marginal hands and bluff catch more (at least on flop and turn).

My questions are:

- Is if this is still valid for 2020 given that the thread is 3-years old.

- What should be my 4-bet strategy ? AA-QQ and AK only ? Should I call more often with AK? Maybe AJo and KQo but since I don't know how he reacts to 4-bets , these would be hard to discuss.

Hand 1 I need some reads to open JTs 9 handed UTG, folding first time around. Hand 2 just fold to the 3b. Hand 3 you're kind of bringing it on yourself at this point. 4b or fold the AJo but really idk why you even open that when this guy has your number and you're 200bb deep. Accept your fate and stop opening speculative hands in EP.

J10s UTG 9 handed is pretty close IMO, and would fold it against decent to tough lineups. You didn't yet know Vs tendencies, so I'll give you a pass on that one. Still pretty loose from up front in full ring.

Q10s from the cutoff is obviously fine, and folding to the 3! is fine. You're starting to see a trend now from V, so it's time for that to weigh into your decision making going forward.

AJo, this one's your own fault. You now have info on V and you're choosing to open AJo UTG knowing there's a decent chance that you'll be 3!. Especially from up front, you now need to decide if you're willing to 4! with these mediocre holdings beforehand.

Definitely tighten up fron EP and only open a strong range that can withstand a raise, or be prepared to 4! V before you even raise the first time. That's your 2 main options here , open a tighter range and/or be willing to start 4-betting V if you think he's getting out of line. Continuing to open a marginal range from OOP without a firm plan to proceed against the 3!s that you know are coming is the worst option you can choose.

You are correct to lean more towards calling his 3bets with a dominating range and just call him down. You initially didnt know his range so it's ok you folded JT and QT, but you need to realize you would definitely be calling those now. You can 4bet him too but only with like AJ+ and maybe 88+.

Truthfully you need to have a good reason to stay in this game. If there are no whales paying off then better to just switch tables than try to battle someone OOP for the next 4 hours playing a guessing game.

sounds like a bad seat. do you like reg battling? AJo UTG as branch pointed out needs to be cut from our UTG opening range given we have him on our left.
I dont know if this is correct but i go tighter and more polar in these spots....


Or move seat.

Exact ranges depend heavily on positions. Is he on your direct left? AJo is not a call ever OOP against large sizes but it's a reasonable mixed 4-bet from later positions.

Open slightly tighter, build a balanced 4-betting range for each position including light 4-bets (not just QQ+, AK) and overall defend more often.

Thanks for the replies. As for changing seats/tables, I definitely had the option. But I prefer to just go by what table I get and play for a while to test myself against different players. I have changed tables if I think there is more money available elsewhere. But that's fighting a losing battle?

I should have cut off AJo from my open given the player profile.

What is a balanced 4-bet range? Something like 1 bluff for every 4 hands ?