4-betting pre flop involves a bit of maths but just bear with it...
ok, so someone requested i write a little bit about 4-betting. its something i do a lot actually in the because there is a lot of regs who adjust to your blind stealing by 3betting from the blinds... if you want to be able to not get run over, then you need to adjust to this. there are 2 ways of adjusting to persistant 3bettors; flatting the 3bets, and playing post flop, or 4betting.
flatting 3bets and playing post flop is such a complex subject, and also something i suck at in general, so im not going to talk about that.
however, 4betting is a pretty simple concept. its something i do with JJ+ and AK for value generally, so therefore to become a little more deceptive and unreadable, i need to do it with bluffs occasionally too...
so heres the example hand:
its a 10NL game, folded to me, and i make it 30c on the button. sb folds and bb raises to $1. we are both full stacked.
now whats his range for 3betting?? most people 3bet for value (i.e. will shove over a 4bet) with JJ+ and AK in this situation. they will also realise they need to 3bet light sometimes, so they throw in some small pairs which can occasionally flop sets, some hands like AJs which still have ok equity when called, and suited connectors...
[as you move up, you will find good players are a bit more balanced than this and 3bet 99+ and AQ for value too, but i will assume a polarized range for the example]
the value hands of TT+ and AK account for 3% of the starting hands in NL hold'em. if you have an ace, then because of card removal, there is less combinations of AK and AA, so now that range only represents 2.5% of hands.
so lets assume someone has a 3bet% of 8 (not uncommon as you move up at all especially if u have hold'em manager and look at 3bet% from the blinds vs steal, in fact 8% is pretty average), and in this instance we do not have an ace.
therefore 37.5% of the time (3/8) they actually have a hand, and 62.5% of the time (5/8) they have air/ semi-bluffs that cant call a 4bet.
so lets assume we 4bet bluff to $2.2, making it 2.2x his 3bet size.
villain cant really flat with his connectors etc so he has to fold those and can only continue with his value hands.
the pot is (.3+.05+1) $1.35, and we risk $1.90 with a 4bet. so we need him to fold roughly 1.9/3.25 = .58 or 58% of the time (i cant really explain the math but just trust me lol!)
in a vacuum (not taking player/ game dynamics into account) this will be immediately successful since he will be folding 62.5% of the time based on his pre flop range.
consider instead if we 4bet to $3, making it 3x his 3bet size.
now we are risking $2.7 to win the same $1.35, however we need 2.7/ 4.05 = 0.66 or 66% folds. assuming the range outlined before, he only folds 62.5% of the time so this play is unprofitable.
as you can see, without taking anything into account, raising to $2.20 against this player when he 3bets is automatically profitable.
of course, in reality you need to take game dynamics into account. if you have been winning a lot of pots without showdown lately, or 3/4betting a lot because you actually had a hand... then dont try 4bet bluffing as you are less likely to get credit.
if you have been relatively quiet, and the guy who 3bets you has been a bit crazy lately with lots of monkey 3betting etc, then go ahead and 4bet him. if he shoves you can fold, it doesnt matter. the play was correct mathmatically, you just got unlucky that he happened to have a hand this time.
this is quite a high variance play, and is expensive when it goes wrong, but certainly its very profitable when used correctly and taking down a $1.35 pot at nl10 is like 6.5ptbb - very much worth picking up! if you 4 table and do this once an hour on only 1 of the tables, you will be adding roughly 2ptbb/100 to your winrate