Need some general advice. This is a huge leak for me I’m sure. I keep reading you need to be aggressive in 3b pots, but seems like I never get folds as much as I’d expect, and I’m never sure when to give up.

Rather than posting about a specific hand history, I’d like to hear about your general approach to HU pots where you were the 3bettor pre against a full stacked, unknown villain and you miss the flop. What is your thought process, what factors do you consider, what lines do you take?

generally speaking,

mainly c/f your high cards with no backdoors on low flops oop in 3b pots blinds vs co/btn
low flops don't hit utg/hj 3b flatting ranges as much so you can be more liberal with your cbs

blinds vs btn/co
bet overpairs
if it's a 2 suit flop, bet your Ax of that suit combos, esp if you have 2 overcards , i.e. AdQc on 6d3d9h. AhJh would also be a cb here with the bdfd
bet some bdsd+bdfd (JhTh on 6d3d9h)
bet vulnerable pairs (As6s)
bet fds/oesd. A high fds and pair+fds can also be used as c/r if your opp likes to stab and you don't mind gii otf

these flops should be cb (depending on how nasty they are) between 20 and 50%, so think about the best x% of hands in your range and bet those

some flops are so bad for oop range that you need to check close to 100% of your range
i.e. 543, only now you have a strong checking range and can c/c your AK-AJ

This is super helpful, thank you. It sounds like small differences in equity matter a lot in these hands. Regarding bet sizing, is your thought process in 3bet pots any different from single raised pots? Usually in single raised pots I’m betting between 1/3 and 2/3 pot depending on flop texture and position, but anecdotally it feels like 1/3 pot bets in 3bet pots never get me folds

bet sizes (esp on flop and turn) don't matter too much ev wise as long as you are betting the corrects hands for that sizing
the idea is that bet sizes should reflect your equity (your share of the pot). so instead of thinking in a vacuum "he folds x,y,z if I bet this big, but only x,y when I bet smaller", think about how weak you want the hands you're beating to be , i.e. "do I want to bet AdTd or 99 on Jd8c2h"

if you want to bet weaker hands, you pick a smaller sizing with your whole range. solvers think there's no real ev gain by having multiple bet sizes on flops and turns, all that matters is that your range is correctly set up for that particular sizing so you end up betting enough of your hands. If all you want to bet on Jd8c2h is TP+ and T9s, then cb 2/3p, there's no reason to go smaller. say you know the guy's a station and will call you down with any J and some 8x on bricks. chose the appropriate value/big draw hands and increase your bet sizes.

betting 1/3p on that flop would allow you to bet hands as weak as 77 and KQo, but you don't necessarily want to be betting that much.
a happy medium would be 1/2p , you can bet all the hands you like, that have good equity vs your opp's continuing range and/or can turn good draws, allowing you to barrel: TT/99 for thin value and denying your opp's overcard equity, any suited broadway that has one the suits on the flop for the backdoor fd/sd barreling potential, AKo
1/2p would not allow you to bet KQo/AQo, AXs with bdfd but then again you don't really need to bet these hands as you will often have to c/f them on turns and a good part of your ev when betting these flops comes from being able to barrel turns and fold your opp's weak pairs and draws/floats

an example on c/r sizes
say you call an ep open in the bb. flop comes 6s5c2h. your opp cbets and you decide to c/r with a bdfd and gutshot, As4s. you should size your c/r smaller, rather than potting it because you are just trying to fold the airball/broadway part of his range. you are not trying to make him fold pairs. all you are doing is punishing him for betting that flop too much with the wrong parts of his range. he should be doing quite a lot of checking on that flop considering bb range has sets and 2p and his ep range doesn't.

This is really insightful and gives me a lot to think about. I really appreciate your responses. This style of thinking about range construction makes sense to me in theory but will probably take me a while to get it down in application. Anything good you recommend reading to get better at it? Or do I have to just start playing with solvers?

I've actually just been doing a review of my play in 3bet pots as the 3 bettor.

With my "light" raises, I'm getting folds on my c-bets less than 40%* of the time. That surprised me slightly as a lot of the advise is that 3-betting then c-betting is simply printing money. I think what my review shows is that there is definite merit in being much more selective with our c-bets.

I've also always been 2/3 pot by default for my c-bets. The comment above about only needing to fold out our opponents air makes sense. If I'm not getting many folds, then I'm losing money by c-betting so much on my whiffed flops.

The important thing is my light 3 bets are successful around 75% of the time. Since that shows an immediate profit, then I guess being more willing to give up on bad flops is fine.

*My success rates with premium hands are different, presumably due to card removal effects