How To: 3-Bet Like A Pro In 6-Max

In today’s aggressive online games it is important to have a well-adjusted 3-betting poker strategy.

For some veteran players this will be a bit of a review, for others learning the ins-and-outs of re-raised pots this may be very important info.

Why Do We Want To 3Bet?

Re-raising regularly has many benefits. The simplest is that it makes you look crazier / more aggressive, which will in turn let you win bigger pots with your “premium” hands - AA, KK, and to a lesser extent AK, QQ.

Additionally, we put ourselves in spots to win medium-to-large sized pots without having to show down a hand, since many opponents are timid in re-raised pots for fear of being stacked.

These two may seem contradictory - it is important to pay attention to how your opponents are reacting to your re-raises, if anyone is steaming or complaining in chat, etc.

Some nitty players will let you steal pot after pot and never fight back. Others will let you take one or two, then they will “blow up” with some low-quality hand because they feel they need to “make a stand.”

So, lets get down to the nuts and bolts.

For the purposes of this article we will focus on 100bb effective stack sizes.

What Poker Hands Are Best To Re-Raise?

In general, there are two types of “wider” re-raising ranges:

• “Nuts-Or-Nothing”
• “No Bluffs”

“Nuts-Or-Nothing” describes a range where you 3bet premiums (AK, KK, AA, sometimes QQ) and also some pure bluffs, like 76s, JTo, etc.

“No Bluffs” describes a range where you 3bet the top X% of your hand range for value - limit players will recognize this as a “normal” type of reraising range for LHE.

An example is: KJs+ AJs+ KQo, AQo+, 99+.
There are no pure bluffs here, but we have used a wider-than-normal range.

How Do I Choose What To 3bet?

This depends on a few things:

• Your opponent’s raising and calling range preflop
• Your opponent’s postflop tendencies

Preflop:

If your opponent is raising a wide range, and folds outright a large % of the time, reraising a nuts-or-nothing range can be very effective.

If your opponent is raising a wide range, and calls the reraise a large % of the time, we must look at how he plays postflop to determine the best counter-strategy.

Postflop:

If your opponent calls a wide range of hands preflop, and plays very stubbornly with any piece of the board - either a fish or a bad-aggressive LAG - then reraising a “No Bluffs” range is usually best.

Be willing to get it in with TPGK+ with this range, against this type of player.

If your opponent calls a wide range of hands pf, and then gives up unless he hits the flop hard, a “Nuts-Or-Nothing” range can be very effective. Continuation bet flops liberally, but shut down if you get called - he’s finally found a hand.

These are two extremes, and while there are many variations on these two general player types, hopefully this will give you a good idea about what to start thinking about when re-raising.