Suppose you're in early stages of tournament (say level 2 or 3). All of table has rough starting stack, including you and villain. You open from CO with 44. SB 3-bets to 3x your raise.

My question is a general one: what are the criteria you should use in deciding when to call 3-bets?

I'll go ahead and throw out the obvious. (1) Whether the 3-better has been playing tight or loose, their image in general, and whether they have shown the ability to pay off big bets or shoves, (2) stack sizes, which for this example again assume roughly starting stack, (3) the position of the three-bettor, which in this example is from the small blind, which I could take as a wider 3-betting range since they are 3-betting me from the CO which generally should be opening wide.

What else would you all consider in making this decision?

Your estimate of the villain's 3bet range
This is based on a number of factors (for which you'll have imperfect information [and in your example almost NO information]):
*Where is he on the tight/loose spectrum?
**Where is he on the aggro/passive spectrum?
***Is he positionally aware (i.e. does he even recognize that your opening range from the CO is wider than it is from earlier positions)?
****Your image (repeated below).

What is your approximate showdown equity against that range?

What kind of pot odds are you being offered?

What are your respective stack sizes?

What stage is the tournament in (i.e. are we near the bubble, or in the money? etc)?

Do you have a hand that will frequently be dominated and/or create a "way ahead/way behind" situation when you pair (i.e. a weak Ax)?

What is YOUR image at the table (in as much as that has influenced villain's decision to 3bet)?

Did the BB [or anyone else, if the 3bet came from somewhere other than the SB as in your example] call (and if so, does your hand play well multiway)?

Are you closing the action? e.g. what if you opened from the CO, the BTN called, THEN the SB 3bet (and of course: think about how that extra cc'er changes the SB's 3bet range).

Will you have position on the field, or be out-of-position to anyone post-flop?


I think that's mostly it.....

Early stages with starting stacks it's a much simpler decision and is more about your cards than anything. Your goal in the early stages is to win massive pots while minimizing risk, so you should be calling 3bets with monsters or speculative "bust-'em" hands. Pretty much everything else just gets tossed.

Early stages at one of my local card rooms means 250 BBs for 2 levels, 125 for another. At another, it means 100BB for the first 2 but only 50/33 for 3,4 (longer levels at the latter).

When you are far away from the $, don't think of it as a 'stage' think of it as BBs.