Strategy - 3-betting pre-flop

As promised in my previous post I want to write something about strategy and 3-betting seems like a nice subject as it so important when moving up. When 3-betting or calling 3-bets there are some things to keep in mind:

* Who is the PFR/3-better - someone who raises 15-17% of his hands is not only 3-betting with AA/KK/AK, but someone who raises only 8% is probably only doing it with QQ+/AK.This is also an important factor when making a 3bet.

* Position - Someone who raises UTG has offcourse a much smaller range then someone who raised from the button. Most 3-betting is in the typical blinds-steals. Keep in mind that ranges are very wide here, for both raising and 3-betting from SB/BB.

* Stacksize - Especially when calling 3bets with holdings that have implied odds (PP's, SC's)it is important that you both have at least a buy-in. Also be careful with 3-betting shortieswith marginal cards.

* Image - when your 3-betting a lot, people get angry and will play back on you when they think your full of it. Keep this in mind when players are pushing all-in for example, they are probably not doing this with AA/KK only and so your calling range should increase.

Some practical tips:

* I don't like to call 3-bets with hands like AQ/KQ and even AK. I rather fold them or make a 4-bet against an agressive TAG (21/17 kind of player). When 4-betting you need to keep in mind the stack sizes. For example: When stacks sizes are $100 and I open with AK to $3,5 UTG and the BB makes it $11, I usually make it $27 or something like that, that gives me a chanceto fold when he pushes, but he also knows that when he calls, he plays for stacks, so hiscalling range is very small (QQ+/AK, in general). When you have position on the 3-better, for example in blind wars on the button, I callwith a lot more hands like T9s for example if stacks are deep enough.

* The size of a re-raise is also important, you always see a lot of players make mini re-raises.
This is offcourse never good. My rule of the tumb for 3-betting is always:3 times raiser + 1 BB if there is only one raiser. And 4 times raiser + 1 BB when there isa raiser and a caller behind.

So thats it for now. I hope that some people can learn something from it. I think that this advice is mostly applicable for NL100+, because at lower levels you don't see that much 3-betting and when you do see it, its almost always AA/KK and at NL200 you might see TT/T9s as well, so that makes a big difference in play.