You could bluff if you had a pair on the board since it's a paired board to remove fh combos as well and not just heart blockers.

Lol at flatting 99 v CO.

I have plenty of heart combos and sets. Don't project your overly passive ranges, I'm not playing that game.

Lol is this for real? Lol at 3b 99 when you're 120 deep early when you aren't happy calling a 4b. But ok fine put your what 6 combos of 99 in.

How can you possibly have plenty of hearts here that 3b the sb? Why don't you list them off that play this way by checking flop in 3b pot (which should bet flop with since you have AA/KK/JJ in your range)? Then instead of just checking a low flush draw you just decide to pot turn with and jam river?

Also since you're so ****ing smart I'm sure you realize that we DONT wanna polarize if we have a lot of flushes cause our low flushes are too weak to polarize on this board. You should just value bet them regular and not polarize but you knew that obv.

77 too.

If I selected hands to 3b based on whether I'd be happy to face a 4b, my range would be KK+. My 120bb range is comparable to that of a cash game reg SB v CO, linear with little flatting. It's absurd to flat in the worst position with a hand like 99 that doesn't even flop well but is light-years ahead of CO range while giving BB infinite odds to continue forcing us to play piggy-in-the-middle with no initiative if he's kind enough not to squeeze v our capped range. I'd rather try to fade the mythical light 4b that never comes (I don't mind getting 4b by a range of QQ+)

At varying frequencies:

A8s+, A5s-A2s, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 87s.

Why should they necessarily be betting? I could be going for a x/r on such a neutral dynamic board.

Some will bet, some will x/r, some will x/c. Call down with your best hands or blockers if you will but don't call down because you think I can't have it. I'll have it more often than not.

Do you not see that you took a line that made little sense and you just spewed off your entire stack in the 3rd level of a microstakes tournament?

GL with not having a flatting range in the sb, your 3bs will be really easy to exploit and your linear 3b range will only serve you to navigate oop in bloated pots with medicore holdings and burn chips the times you get 4b. OR can literally flat 100% of his opening range and own you postflop with napkins because he has position and playability which is far superior to the raw equity you are using to construct your 3b range.

If it's easily exploitable then what are they waiting for?

SB All-in Adj BB/100 after 3bet: 195.34

Don't see why we can't have flushes with this line. If anything, we're going to be exploitable if we bet all our flush draws on the flop. If we do this and the heart comes on the turn, our range is going to be pretty weak and unprotected.

I fail to believe someone actually thinks this is a good SB 3b range of...

A8s+, A5s-A2s, K9s+, Q9s+, JTs, J9s, T9s, 98s, 87s.

How can you possibly think 3b K9s/Q9s is good? So what hands do you call the sb with then? Are you just 3b your whole range? Also you can't have Jhh and 9hh so why not just remove those anyways?


Wowsooted dude he's got it solved. He wants to play bigger pots, OOP, with hands that have MASSIVE rio when called like K9s and Q9s duh. Cause that totally doesn't seem like lighting money on fire vs you know folding them outright.

I think we can check some frequency but the default should be to bet since our range has all the overpairs and JJJ and they don't.

My other favorite part is villain was capped cause he would bet his flush draws, except he didn't and he had exactly a flush.

I also love the contradiction of that he would bet his flush draws when we 3b but we're just checking all of our flush draws on the flop inspite of a massive range advantage.

There are definitely pros and cons to each part of the linear vs polar SB 3b strat. Kinda depends on how you are fitting it in with your overall strategy and what works for you.

Regarding the range advantage here, I think someone had already done some analysis on that and, whilst we can argue about particular combos in those ranges, it is probably going to turn out close to neutral.

Whilst I may not have taken this particular line with this particular combo, I don’t think we should necessarily say that we shouldn’t have any bluffs when we check flop and then barrel turn and river. Everyone builds their ranges differently and if it works for them, then so be it.

A lot of the learning process that this forum should be about is the discussion of hands and the reasons behind why we do things, not just to rip into each other because we don’t agree on the lines we should take and that’s that.

All this angst because CO/BTN clicked open. If you're scared just say you're scared. lol at folding K9s outright vs CO/BTN. Laughable. Insist it's a call, but fold is just objectively nonsense in an ante game.

Massive RIO is your paranoia. It's not gonna go bet-bet-jam with K9s on Kxx for 250bb because I has top pair. In fact K9s is a very nice hand to have to bolster a checking range on many 3b pot flops like Kxx, like T9x.

So don't be scared. CO and BTN mostly have crappy hands so they will do tons of folding then we move on to the next hand.

Ok dude 3b Q9s in the sb I don't really care. As we can see you're a wizard post flop so you'll navigate the mine fields when you miss from the worst possible position on the table.

This thread is 5 stars

"Wizard" enough not to shyt my pants if I flop top pair in a $5 that's for sure.

But you're mistaken. I think you think I come up with these genius strategies myself. I'm not that creative. I think you think my poker study consists of coming into this sub and seeing which nit can prophesise the most convincing doomsday scenario and go with that. It doesn't.

Nothing I say is original. If I was good at being original I'd be an artist. And unfortunately for you, not all opinions are equal.

For someone who doesn't care you sure do spend a lot of time throwing insults around. Also, I've seen plenty of good players advocate for mixing in 3bets with K9s, Q9s with a lot better reasoning then you have put forth.

Bumped into one of Team Dude What You Even Repping today. I think he wants his bet back.


PokerStars - 30/60 Ante 7 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (MP+2): 48.1 BB
CO: 48.15 BB (VPIP: 8.33, PFR: 4.17, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
BTN: 118.68 BB (VPIP: 63.64, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 11.76, Hands: 34)
SB: 77.23 BB (VPIP: 19.05, PFR: 11.38, 3Bet Preflop: 3.39, Hands: 169)
BB: 44.43 BB (VPIP: 22.37, PFR: 15.07, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 76)
UTG: 98.27 BB (VPIP: 32.39, PFR: 19.72, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 72)
UTG+1: 49.63 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
MP: 137.8 BB (VPIP: 23.53, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 34)
MP+1: 35.78 BB (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 7.69, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)

9 players post ante of 0 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.55 BB) Hero has 5 5

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.17 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.17 BB

Flop: (5.88 BB, 2 players) 4 4 2
BB checks, Hero bets 1.93 BB, BB calls 1.93 BB

Turn: (9.75 BB, 2 players) 2
BB checks, Hero bets 4.1 BB, BB calls 4.1 BB

River: (17.95 BB, 2 players) 2
BB checks, Hero bets 39.78 BB and is all-in, BB calls 36.12 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 5 5 (Full House, Twos full of Fives)
(Pre 54%, Flop 77%, Turn 86%)
BB shows J A (Full House, Twos full of Fours)
(Pre 46%, Flop 23%, Turn 14%)
Hero wins 90.18 BB

I was called out first but anyways and not sure how calling someone a ****ing wizard after they talk **** is spending a lot of time throwing insults. Also I never said you can't throw in some lighter 3b on occasion but 3b Q9s from the sb when deep isn't ideal. We can just add so many better "light" hands to add in than those. Hands like A5s etc that aren't folding much equity when 4b on.


Also op you're quoting a 5 year old post as a rebuttal and I'm almost positive it's for cash games anyways.

Stop. Cutting edge poker theory from 5 years ago still obliterates small stakes today. Janda was replying to OTBRedBaron ffs. Anyway Snowie preflop advisor likes Q9s v btn and at a low freq v CO.

A good cash game reg would obliterate MTT players 120bb deep.

A5s has more equity than Q9s against a 4b range AK+, JJ+.

Apart from that, great post.