Hi all,
I am looking for some advice regarding the above. There are many times when I have found that I have a playable hand that I assume to be ahead of my opponents range, but I don't want to 3b.
My reasons for not 3b'ing are often as follows:
I will ISO myself vs a stronger range
I don't think my opponent will call or 4b worse hands
Here are a few examples:
1) BU is unknown
Lets give BU the PS.com SH tight opening range
Spoiler
22+,A2s+,K8s+,Q8s+,J7s+,T9s,98s,87s,76s,65s,54s,A9o+,K9o+,Q9o+,J8o+,T8o+,97o+,87o,76o,65o,54o (36%)
PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) ZOOM - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BTN: $2.00
SB: $2.05
Hero (BB): $2.00
UTG: $2.00
MP: $11.12
CO: $1.97
SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02
Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has Q♠ A♣
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $0.07, fold, Hero....?
we have the following choices: 3b/fold, 3b/broke, call or fold
Fold: so we can rule this out as this is way too weak IMO
3b/broke: Obviously villain's range is going to be much wider on the button, therefore he will fold more often when raising 1st in from this position because he has such a weak range. Therefore if we 3b we are going to take down the 3.5bb + other dead money very often. However, if no worse hand could call or 4b then this would be comparable to a bluff. Obviously If we think villain is vLAG or MANIAC then we can maybe take this line. But I think that it is safe to assume that most players will only 4b hands that have AQ in bad shape.
If we take an very optimistic 4b'ing range :
Spoiler
Equity Win Tie
BU 65.60% 55.27% 10.33% { TT+, AQs+, AQo+ }
BB 34.40% 24.06% 10.33% { AQo }
3b/fold: So obviously if we get 4b then it is an easy fold against the vast majority of players. So what if we get called? This is where I have trouble range assessing correctly. Obviously this is a dynamic process of watching what our opp's call 3b's with and adapting our 3b'ing strategy accordingly. I.e if villain calls 3b's too liberally then we want to depolarize our 3b'ing range and 3b villain wider for value. If our opponent's regularly fold to 3b's then we should polarize more ( more suited connectors and less marginal value hands and QQ+ AK+). Also if we do get called what is our plan for the flop? Many a time I have posted hands in the HE forum in 3b pots OOP, I bet the flop, get called and give up on the turn. This seems to be a surefire way to burn money.
Flat call: This often seems the best line for me at the moment, especially against unknowns and especially in ZOOM where the majority of your opponents are unknown and we know nothing about how they react to 3b's. The only problem is how to play postflop if we miss. We are mostly going to have to c/f or bluff raise unimproved.
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What do you guys think? Can you link me any good forum threads, videos or articles on the subject?
Cheers
