This week's article is primarily directed towards beginners. For that purpose, I've selected some standard situations where hero faces a 3bet after he has raised preflop.
Hand 1
As already mentioned, the sample hands here are more directed towards beginners and once again I'd like to emphasise some standard moves in particular, with which you have a solid tool in the micro limits.
In the following hand, an opponent attracts our attention due to his solid play, it's possible that he is also a member of Pokerstrategy.com.
Preflop: Hero is SB with K:h , J:s
8 folds, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.
Flop: (6.00 SB) J:h , 8:s , 7:s (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.
Turn: (5.00 BB) 4:c (2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.
River: (7.00 BB) Q:d (2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.
Final Pot: 9.00 BB
Everybody folds to us and we raise with KJo in the small blind. Of course, we call the 3bet of the solid player.
We hit top pair (with good kicker) on a flop which offers a lot of draws/chances. We should see us ahead on average. Villain has faced us with a 3bet preflop, however, in a small blind vs big blind situation. Depending on the aggressiveness of villain, he can 3bet with hands like A2s-AKs, A2o-AKo, K6s-KQs, K8o-KQo, 33-AA.
So we are ahead against a lot of his hands and want to put money in the pot as well as to protect our hand. We have no position on the flop and since he made the last raise preflop, he will almost always bet on the flop in a heads-up situation. Thus we check in order to check/raise villain so that we easily get an additional small bet.
The turn brings another harmless card and hero is still holding the best hand most of the time. Therefore we bet once again to extract value from weaker hands and also to protect our hand. If we face a raise, we should call and also do so on the river. Villain is able to bluff, semibluff (i.e. playing a draw aggressively) or just raise a weaker jack in this spot (e.g. if he has 3bet QJ, JT preflop).
The river brings an overcard with the queen, nevertheless we should bet for value here. The queen mostly didn't help villain and he will often call with hands like A8, K8, A7, K7 or even worse hands in the case he puts us on a bluff. If we check, he will bet only his good hands in the majority of cases.
Hand 2
Preflop: Hero is SB with T:c , 9:c
8 folds, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.
Flop: (6.00 SB) J:c , 8:h , 5:h (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.
Turn: (5.00 BB) J:s (2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.
River: (7.00 BB) 7:d (2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.
Final Pot: 9.00 BB
A similar situation like in sample hand 1. But this time, hero holds a strong draw instead of a made hand. Every 7 and every queen makes a straight and even a T or 9 could make the best hand for hero.
On the flop, hero should play this draw in the same way like the strong made hand in the previous sample hand. Villain is absolutely capable to fold ace high and king high against a bet on the turn. After all, it's a flop which is inconvenient for cards like AK, A3, A4, A6, KQ, etc., that's why we could force tight players to fold their hand with such a bet on the turn.
So the turn brings another jack and we bet, hoping that villain may fold now above mentioned hands. In case of need, we still have our outs.
Villain has called our bet and we hit our straight on the river. Naturally, we bet for value now. If we would just hit the 9 or T, we should bet as well since worse pair like A8, K8 might pay us off and we can seldom induce a bluff by checking the river against a solid TAG.
If the board pairs again with a 8 on the river, I would rather give up on the bluff since an ace high will always call and also sometimes a K high. Altogether I see too few hands that would fold to another bet.
Hand 3
Preflop: Hero is BU with 9:h , 9:s
7 folds, Hero raises, SB 3-bets, BB folds, Hero calls.
Flop: (7.00 SB) 7:h , 6:h , 2:s (2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.
Turn: (4.50 BB) T:c (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.
River: (8.50 BB) T:d (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.
Final Pot: 10.50 BB
Here, we play against an aggressive opponent which has already often faced us with 3bets from blind position. With such reads, we could also cap 99 in a button vs small blind situation (For the beginning, it's better to call according to SHC).
On the flop, we have an overpair and assume to hold the best hand. Since villain is aggressive and 3bets with a lot of hands, he will most certainly bet on the turn as well. Therefore we decide to play the standard line call/flop and raise turn. We choose this line here because we also have position on villain. Using this line, we almost surely get a big bet from villain on the turn and thus extract mostly the most value.
Although the turn brings an overcard with the T, it's very likely that it didn't help villain and we can raise in order to get money from weaker hands. Our opponent will often put us on a bluff or a semibluff with a chance to a straight and may call down with ace high. Also smaller pairs might pay us off.
With an ace on the turn, we shouldn't raise because villain has already beaten us most of the time. But overall, we are still in front against small pairs and K high hands, thus we should just call on turn and river in order to induce bluffs from our aggressive opponent.
Naturally, the second T doesn't change anything in our situation. Hero is in front most of the time and we can bet for value against ace high and smaller pairs.
