Quote:
3bet pots are EASIER to play than limped or raised pots. This is because there will generally be about 25bbs in the pot when the flop comes, so you don't have to worry about folding an overpair or TPTK like you usually do. That said, there are occasions where folding TPTK in a 3bet pot is the right move, but never folding it 100bbs deep(unless the board is ridiculously coordinated) is certainly not a major leak.
When he flats your 3bet and you're holding AQ or JJ its not hard at all to play. With AQ, and the flop comes Qxx or Axx, you should stack off without a though. If JJ is an overpair also stack off no problem. Feel free to cbet if your AQ misses if you think the boards missed villains range.
If you think playing a 3bet pot is EASIER than a limped / raised pot, you must be a poker GOD.
First of all, how often does a flop come Qxx or all low cards when we hold AQ / JJ? Yea. Poker's not a life of fairy tales.
Lets say u decide to 3bet OOP with AQ and u r flatted.
Flop comes AKQ rainbow. GREAT flop right? Villain almost never has JT here so we "obviously" bet for value. All of the sudden villain raises us. No matter, we'll now shove for value. Congratulations u just lost your entire stack.
the problem with 3bet pots is precisely this. In a raised pot, I'd argue its profitable to stack off here and if villain has TJ its a cooler. the above situation is NOT a cooler, u just donated money away, and most people will not understand that its NOT A COOLER. That's y 3bet pots are difficult to play.
Here's why i'm tempted to c/c in the above situation with our AQ. (and fold if he indicates he wants to play for stacks)
1) if we bet here, he folds all his 22-JJ, yet if we check here he checks those back to us where we're already a huge favorite and have great showdown value.
2) If we bet here he calls us with Ax+, which we dominate already, but gives us a very peculiar turn / river play, or calls us with hands dat absolutely crushes us and now makes it hard for us to get away from the pot (we 3bet pot and bet flop with top and bottom)
3) if we check here, he checks back hands we crush, bets with hands dat crush us, or at least has outs on us (AT / AJ, which probably also cb's also) and we can go for a cheaper SD.
4) he plays back all hands dat crush us and we lose our stack or our c-bet.
What does dis mean?
We bet and villain folds: we folded out hands dat we crush
We bet and villain calls: we have no idea where villain is, but our pot is now fairly large, making it hard 2 get away from our hand where it is VERY LIKELY he has us CRUSHED.
We bet and villain raises: We put out a bet and let our children drown, or we put our life savings into dis hand and go bankrupt.
Quote:
The only problem with 3bet pots is that your mistakes will be magnified due to the size of the pot.
EXACTLY.
I dont know about u but when I started out I lost the most amount of $ in 3bet pots (3bet pf itself costs u 12-14 bb's, 1 wrong move can costs u a ton)
If u make a mistake in a limped / raised pot, u lose a little (unless dat mistake is for ur stack). If u make dat same mistake in a 3bet pot u LOSE MORE.
Quote:
And i don't know any book that suggests playing the same robotic way regardless of your opponents and position.
Most books suggest u play 1 certain way (i.e. TAG abc) and books generally dont mention playing against different types of villains in a PARTICULAR spot. (Yes they mention that solid / weak / loose etc players exist, but they dont present to u a situation and then tell wut is the best plan of action is considering every different position and villain)
