Hi all,

I've spent the last 6 months working on my game playing online, 16NL on Pokerstars mostly. Been great, a slightly winning player (around .5bb/100 after rake) over 20k hands, but soon I'll be back playing live at 1/2 tables.

My game's improved a lot online, but now that I'm going back to live I know I'll have to adjust. I remember all the passive play, the multiway pots, and the bigger mix of skill levels. If a rec player even has a 3betting range, it's almost always AA or maybe KK, and then there's all the limping in with those hands.

I also remember accepting as a golden rule not to 3bet "light". Last year, it was pretty much JJ+ and AK. Can someone remind me why this extremely tight range worked so well? Or was I just being too nitty, even for live 1/2?

Thanks in advance.

Very easy reason why that tight 3betting range works very well in general: because your opponents call too wide which means you see flops in bigger pots with a significant range advantage.

That said, not 3betting light doesn’t mean you can only 3bet a super narrow range. For example, if you 3bet somebody who rarely folds to 3bets, you certainly don’t want to do that with 73o because then you are going to see the flop against a significantly stronger range. But against that player, hands like AQ or KQs are very clear value 3bets.

FWIW, there is one common player type that you can (and should) 3bet light: the guy who doesn’t fold preflop but always folds on the flop unless he made a hand.

Thanks, Madlex. So it seems I should bring my expanded 3betting range with me this year - depending on the villain of course.

1) Know your players
2) Know your position
3) Know your image ... and how you are running at showdown
4) Know your stack sizes

If you are going to be a table captain just make sure you can quickly assess all those points once the Flop comes out. If a Flop checks through and the Turn 'almost' does the same with you in late position, just bet and take it down. If an OMC/Nit limps from EP don't give him a chance to 3-bet by opening unless you have the right implied odds via his stack or other limpers 'dead' money.

Rec players love to snap off big 'TV' hands, that's why it bodes well to watch your 3-bets (and the position you make them from) carefully. If a loose player opens and then 3-4 other players flat, then that's not a bad spot to 3-bet wider from position to either isolate or take it down. You should only really have to worry about the opener in those spots and you probably only have to win 1 of 3 of those spots to show a profit. GL

I appreciate this reply, answer20, because you struck on the vague uncertainty I had about 3betting with a wider range in live 1/2.

Online at 16NL, a 3bet pot is usually heads-up, and if it's not on the flop it usually is on the turn. Also, there aren't many new players who are apt to take it "personally". At live 1/2, rec players and OMC's or just people with a chip on their shoulder can react strangely to 3bets - especially once you show AJs. Or, as you point out, they might backraise too liberally. And because of all the calling and passive play, there chance is bigger for more people to be involved, and the weirdness escalates.

One thing I've learned this year playing online is that it's really about ranges. So if OMC is backraising light to "teach me a lesson" or 2 passive regs call my 3bet, it's really about position and whether I'm ahead of them or not and have decent postflop skills (which to be honest are better than last year meaning I'm more confident on the turn but I can still get lost on the river). On the other hand, deepstacked at 16NL if I make a mistake might cost me $40, whereas live 1/2 that's a much bigger number.

Also, you mentioned "table captain". Not my goal, but it did remind of the emotions that you have to deal with live which you can ignore online. I have no desire to get the whole table against me, which is a factor.

FWIW I use a default 3bet range of JJ+/AK and widen or loosen it according to the players involved.

So what I perceive to be tight UTG raises, especially ones made with a large bet size (if I think it's a tell), I drop off AK/JJ and sometimes even QQ.

Looser raises, I add AQ first and TT.

Raisers who can fold to 3bets get some semi-bluffs with small suited aces in position.

What makes wide 3bet ranges difficult to play is that a lot of live players play strong hands in a weak manner (not raising AQ into limpers, overcalling AK) and the likelihood is high of getting called, multiway, with one or more players having position on you. So a 'boring' narrow value-only range as default is probably a good idea.

Example from last game: Villain raises 5bb, I have A4ss in HJ. Villain raises quite wide and unusually, folds to 3bets a lot. I make it 14bb, a young drunk guy flats in SB, BB folds, villain folds. Pot is 30bb, I have weak Ace high.

You can expect this kind of stuff to happen quite often...doesn't mean its not a good spot to make moves but be aware of what you are going to do on various flops.

Great stuff. I remember that kind of situation. It's the "young drunk guy" factor (in this case). Online, he's uncommon, but live there could be 3 of them.

I'm not much of a gambooler so I have an instinctive distaste for (for example) getting a healthy stack in the middle with an overpair. I'll put my stack in by calling an agrodonk (or maybe the young drunk guy depending on what I've seen) but rarely betting. The bigger the pot, the less often we should bluff as a general rule (right?) but at 1/2 villains tend to bluff more into bigger pots. So 3betting with a wider range feeds into that tendency and requires a lot of sighing and calling.

Good point too about the slowplaying (not just AA).

At this point in my skill level, I'm able to make a plan that spans at least the flop and once the flop comes often the turn.

Well with large live preflop bet sizing and tendency to multiway pots, if you can navigate flop and turn properly you are sorted 99% of the time anyway.