1) people generally dont call 3bets out of position and then lead on Axx flops. if they wanted to make a play at it then they would do so by trying to check-raise.

2) typically, players arent going to be getting too tricky in 3bet pots. mostly they will be playing fit or fold. even though when i check back the flop my hand looks a lot like QQ, unless he wants to bluff by betting the turn and river (i would definitally call if he bet the turn after flop checked through), then he isnt going to be winning the pot. bluffing 2 streets in a 3bet pot is an expensive option, and most people just arent going to be doing it.

i would bet all my Ax hands on this flop, and id be planning to get the stacks in when i had top pair. i would also bet this flop when i had nothing, because i can represent a hand like AK/ AQ quite well and get him to fold.
while it sounds contradictory, basically he wont have a hand that can continue all the time, so a bluff should work a lot. if he does have a hand that can continue then i get value with top pair, and if he folds then it doesnt matter because i pick up the pot anyway.

the only way to cope with tilt is by quitting the tables and taking a break.

in fact, what seperates most players as you move up is their ability to cope with tilt. if you tilt off 1 buy in every 10k hands, i think it works out to affect your winrate by 0.5bb/100. obviously if you tilt off 1 buyin every 5k hands, or every 2k hands, its going to affect your winrate by a lot more than that

So you bet all your Ax hands in this situation, but check behind with QQ. Since you have experience from mid-stakes games, at which level do you think opponents generally become good enough so that you need to check behind here with Ax hands from time to time in order to balance your range? Or is it even that big of a concern in reraised pots?

i begin to balance not by betting less Ax hands, but by betting more QQ type hands.

reason being, if someone has TT for example, they arent going to necessarily believe me when i bet Axx flop in 3bet pot, so they will call 1 street thinking i either have nothing, or i have an ace. by betting QQ, my value betting range is therefore more balanced.

people arent going to really be check/raise bluffing flops in 3bet pots when u r 100bb deep because its a very expensive bluff and leaves them basically pot committed if they have any equity at all.

i think if u were really active at that table and opening and cbetting a ton on the button, the villain was prob tryin to c/r hoping u'll fold since the board wasn't particularly wet

if you think he has a 9 why arent u betting at least half pot? I really dont think a lot of players are getting away from a 9 here for half pot at 10 NL.

gl jack with this again looks like your really folowing thru

well this hand was from aaaaaages ago so cant remember it exactly.... but...

most people would be checking there in my position, so tbh it was more a point that you can make thin value bets and get paid by trash. a lot of players in this situation would be scared that werent going to get paid by worse

i could have bet a little bit more to get paid by a 9. here though you can see he called with A high which he wouldnt do for half pot. he might also not be inclined to bluff-raise me if i bet half pot whereas he can totally spaz out when i do something like this.

Just watched your first video and in it you show a balanced 3bet range and a polarised 3bet range. Do you not think a balanced 3bet range is bet for the micro limits as it just seems your value towning yourself using the polarised one? Or am I just thinking weak tight here?

You dont need to worry about balancing your 3betting range below NL50 imo.
At least until you have some experience and are solidly beating the games.

at micros we should probably be sticking to a value heavy 3-bet range both in and out of position as our default simply because so many players will call too often OOP/IP. it can still be fairly wide, but against players that are calling too often we want to be 3-betting hands that play well postflop in 3-bet pots, not 83o.

you will be more likely value-towning yourself with a hand in the 'balanced' 3betting range, since it means you will be 3betting hands such as TT/ 99. if you flop an overpair with those - say on a 247r flop - its going to be incredibly hard to get away.

on the same flop, if you have a hand like 45s - which would be part of a polarized 3betting range - then you are going to have a much easier time folding, should you get played back at.

i would say that you should adjust your 3betting range depending on villain - if your villain in a weak-tight nitty reg, who folds to 3bets ~85%, then you want your 3betting range to have a lot more bluffs in than value hands. if anything, you should be more inclined to slowplay big pairs vs these players by just calling their pre flop raise instead of 3betting.

if your villain is a loose fish with 30% fold to 3bet, then you want your 3betting range to include a lot more value hands such as AJ/ 99/ KQ etc.

i would hope the reasons why are pretty intuitive.

Yeah I understand what you mean. Thanks for replying to my post I've always wondered how the polarised 3betting ranges work. I'll try to incorporate this thinking into my game and change my 3betting range depending on villian so.

hey jack, when u talk of some1 who's weak tight that u could 3bet lighter, I just wonder how would his stats look like?

initially, someone who folds to 3bets too much - 80%+

also, you want to watch how people play in 3bet pots, they might be the sort who never 4bet, but call 3bets wide, then just check/ fold when they dpnt make top pair/ overpair, in which case you are going to be picking up the pot a lot with a cbet.

stats dont really tell the whole story tbh, you need to watch players and take notes.

im nl50 player and wanted to ask one question about floating,when i see reg cbeting dry boards i sometimes float his cbet with intension of raising turn (i usually do this when he opens from middle/late position).
I do it because majority of players use baluga theorem and fold even decent holdings in such spots (they put you on 2pair/set) ofcourse more often they have weak hands and just cant continue. Is that standard or i leveled myself and spew money considering the amount of cash i need to commit to run this bluff.

is a high risk, high reward situation really. you need to obviously work out whether your opponent is the sort of player who can lay down top pair/ overpairs.

its something that wont work as well as you move up further purely because people stack off lighter in a lot of spots since you dont represent very many hands.

at nl50 though it should fairly well so long as you dont do it all the time, and so long as you figure out whether your opponent knows what the baluga theory is

Aww man your soo amateur.

Y u not see other players in here not taking advice and let'n noobs suck it all in?

^^^^^

i honestly do not see your motivation for posting here. if you want to offer anything positive then please go ahead. no ones stopping you. but i literally cannot see what you or anyone else gains from posting negative things on a free public forum.



for those interested in the thread, i am going to be updating after the weekend, i have been on a bit of a break from poker as i have to resit exams for university.

Impressed with your thought processes Jack, well done. I play NL50 and below is where I think I get into trouble most.

Do you ever fold AK preflop against a single opponent (even if they move in over the top of you)?

Is it ever right to donk bet?

What's your thoughts on AQs or AQo behind a raiser both IP and OOP?

What's your thoughts on defending your BB after all folds and the SB raises?

i dont know what your stats look like/ how you play, so i can only give advice regarding how i play at these respective levels.

What do you think of this hand and how should have I played it with the knowledge I had at the time? Before this hand I had been at the table for two rounds and the button had been at the table for five hands. I'd never played against him before, but when he came he bought in for 8.80, posted the blinds oop and won that hand when he just minbet the flop and the big blind folded. In the very next hand he was in middle position and called UTG's (who had a full stack) raise, the flop came 447 two spades and he minraised UTG's cbet, the turn came a K that didn't complete any flush draws, and he shoved all-in 2x the size of the pot when UTG checked and UTG folded.

So I just called here with TT after the UTG raised and BTN called. I didn't know anything about the UTG player either and he had played only two hands before this so that's why I just called. When the flop came all small cards I decided to try a checkraise. I think the UTG can be cbetting here with whatever he has and the BTN could be calling with a flush draw or if he hit any pair on the flop. In hindsight, I think my raise was too small on the flop and depending on how loose the BTN plays he might call with just two overcards here. So the turn was an overcard I wasn't happy about it and I checked and he checked behind. Then the river is another six and also completes a flush draw. At this point I don't see any point in betting so I check again and the opponent went all-in.

But I think I set myself to play this hand badly with that small of a check-raise on the flop. Had I raised more I could have just shoved all-in regardless of what the turn card is when I already have enough $ in the pot.



Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $14.30
BTN: $10.20
SB: $9.20
Hero (BB): $10.00
UTG: $11.00

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with T T
UTG raises to $0.40, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.40, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.25) 2 6 4 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.90, BTN calls $0.90, Hero raises to $2.50, UTG folds, BTN calls $1.60

Turn: ($7.15) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($7.15) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $6.30, Hero folds

What's your thoughts on AQs or AQo behind a raiser both IP and OOP?

vs a LP opener, i would generally 3bet, again with the intention of shoving over a 4bet for value, the vast majority of the time.

ok, let's assume you have 100BB each. At NL50 what hands are you expecting AQ to come up against when you get 4 bet. The 4 bet bluff % is close to zero wouldn't you say? Therefore I don't see you being favourite against any hands.


I've been using Pokerstove for a while, but only for hand v hand match ups. Thanks for the tips about using it against ranges. Some of the things are very enlightening.

Why is the villain's 4bet% close to zero?

great topic,i just wanna say thank you for doing this,ur great man

It's the 4 bet bluff % that's close to zero.

I have about 60,000 hands at 25NL and 25,000 at 50NL. Apart from maniacs which are easy to spot and don't tend to last too long, I've only seen a 4bet bluff a hand full of times. At 25NL, there aren't that many people who 3bet bluff either if you ask me.

Maybe my sample is too small or maybe the 4 bet bluff is more successful than I imagine because the 3 better folds. Unfortunately, I lost my PT database a couple of weeks ago following a PC disaster so I can't drag out any useful stats.

I'm a fairly tight player and don't 3 bet bluff that often, but will if I think the other guy is full of it. 4 bet total bluff for me is probably non existent.