How to play three-way pots

Just how different are pots with three players compared to heads-up pots? The answer may surprise you.

I have been studying multi-way strategy a lot latelty, and I have identified on heuristic that surprised me. 

Most players know you need a stronger hand on average three-way compared to heads-up.

However, the big surprise for me so far is how much three-way strategy mirrors heads-up strategy.

If you are in a three-way pot, a useful heuristic is to emulate how you would play against whichever player has the strongest range, but just be tighter.

Consider the two strongest ranges

So if it is UTG vs Button vs Big Blind, and you are UTG, play as if you are UTG vs Button most of the time, but much tighter.

However, it does depend on the board. If the flop is AK3 rainbow then you should play as if it is UTG vs Button because the Button is likely to have a piece of that board. If it is 654 rainbow, then play as if it is UTG vs Big Blind, because the Big Blind has a strong range on that flop.

Then play as if the third player...almost....wasn't there. But play much tighter overall because we need a much stronger range to beat two players than to beat one.

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