Mike: Welcome to Upswing Poker Level Up,
the show that helps you get better at poker fast.
My name is Mike Brady and I've got Scottish cash game pro and coach Gary
Blackwood on the line to talk about how to approach three betting,
AKA reraising before the flop.
Gary: Thanks for having me, Mike.
Very happy to be here covering a very important topic.
Let's get straight into it.
Mike: Yeah, so we're going to talk about when to three bet over an open raise,
how to decide which hands to three bet for value and reveal the hands that are
the best three bet bluff candidates.
We'll also get into the nitty gritty of three bet sizing and discuss critical
factors that should impact your three bet strategy.
Let's start with something simple but important.
Why is it important to have a well thought out three bet strategy?
Gary: Well,
I think that's a great question to start with and there are two really important
reasons for us to have a solid three bet strategy.
The first one is that three betting used to happen a whole lot less than it does
now.
People used to play so many flats compared to how they play now and now many
great players play three bet or fold from so many different positions.
It's just so much more common and therefore a very important part of the game.
Secondly, given how common it is these days,
you can bet that your opponents will have a really solid three bet strategy
themselves. So it's really important that ours are up to scratch as well.
Mike: Yeah, not every opponent, if you're playing low stakes live,
micro stakes online, maybe some of your opponents don't know what they're doing,
might have unreasonable three bet strategies,
should maybe listen to this podcast, but Gary is right.
Most players out there who are thinking players are going to have solid three
bet strategies these days.
The first step to building a three betting range is to consider which hands you
want to three bet for value. So Gary,
how do you decide which hands are good enough to three bet for value pre flop?
Gary: Well,
it varies by position and also which position our opponent has opened from.
For example, if under the gun opens and we're under the gun plus one,
our value range is much narrower because our opponent has opened from under the
gun and therefore has a tighter range themselves. But if the cutoff opens,
we get to really widen that value range up.
A perfect example is that some pre-flop charts will have you folding ace queen
offsuit a little bit and folding ace eight suited pure, MP versus under the gun.
But when the cutoff opens,
we've got ace jack and ace ten offsuit in our range along with all the suited
ace X and some other hands in there as well.
Mike: So you touched on there how position should impact your value three bet
threshold, but how does the open size impact it?
Gary: So this is a really good question and it's really important that we don't
have just one three bet size.
Generally we want to go three times our opponent's raise size when we're in
position and four times when we're out of position. However,
people have gotten pretty smart these days.
They know that when they open from under the gun and MP,
they're going to play a pot out of position very often and therefore they use a
smaller opening size to counter this.
So if our opponent uses a standard 2.5x open size,
then just three betting to three times that raise size is fine.
But if somebody opens to 2.2x or even a min raise,
they're doing this to keep the pot small out of position.
So if we only three bet to three times that raise,
we're allowing them to exploit us. So versus those smaller opens,
I tend to size up slightly, go around 3.5 times to stop that happening.
In terms of the range,
unless it's a really big open or a really crazy player that's opening,
I think our range should stay the same whether it's a min open,
2.5 times or three times.
Mike: Alright, now that we have the value range nailed down,
let's talk about balancing that value range with bluffs. First of all,
why is it important to include some bluffs in your three bet range?
Gary: Well, I think the answer lies in the question. We need to be balanced.
If our range is just value only,
we're not three betting anywhere near wide enough and as a result we're costing
ourselves a lot of EV.
Say we three bet cutoff versus MP and the flop comes down king six deuce,
rainbow.
We just get to bet our entire range there and our opponent folds so much.
So if we've got value only,
we're missing out on all these spots where we easily just C bet and win the pot
because our range is wide enough. There are also things like board coverage.
So if we don't have the six five suited in our three bet range,
big blind versus MP for example,
when the flop comes down seven four three or six five deuce,
our range is really struggling. And lastly,
we just become really exploitable if our opponent knows that we don't have any
bluffs and are very, very value heavy.
It's really good for your image to show down nine high in a three bet pot
sometimes.
Mike: What types of hands make the best three bet bluffs?
Gary: Let's talk about the big blind blasts.
We three bet a different range from the big blind,
but all the other positions really favor high cards. Suited ace x,
suited double broadway, even versus late position.
We have some unsuited double broadway in our range,
all those mergey type hands which are kind of on the line between being a value
bet and a bluff.
We also throw in some low suited connectors at a smallish frequency and we
immediately have a very solid, pretty wide three bet range.
Hands that should not be in there are hands like pocket threes,
king ten offsuit,
ace nine offsuit and definitely no suited gappers like six four suited,
nine seven suited, jack eight suited.
These are disaster three bets and we should always be folding these hands pre
flop. Onto the big blind now, and this is where we see some really funky hands,
especially versus the small blind and versus the button.
We'll have all the hands that we've just mentioned,
but we've also got some queen eight suited,
jack seven suited hands versus the button and then versus the small blind,
we have such a crazy wide range including hands like king eight offsuit,
ace deuce offsuit, ten deuce suited and so on.
I just want to quickly say that big blind versus small blind we three bet so
many hands like this and it's so important that we find these three bets and
that's because we get to deny so much equity from better hands that have to
simply fold versus that three bet. If you look at king six offsuit for example,
say the small blind opens and we three bet the big blind with king six offsuit,
we fold out all the better king x, like king ten, king nine, king seven suited,
and so many hands like ace four, ace eight offsuit, all those better hands.
And if our opponent does peel our three bet,
we're playing a three bet pot in position,
which is actually a very profitable situation for us.
Mike: All right, so we've covered value three bets generally.
We've covered bluff three bets generally and later on in this episode I want to
kind of do an example range where we talk about the specific hands we would
three bet in a specific positional matchup.
But before we get into that, I want to clarify one thing.
So you had talked a little bit about three bet sizing earlier going about three
times the original raise in position and four times the original raise out of
position,
but there's one position that's very special and actually requires a little bit
of an adjustment in three bet sizing.
Can you talk about what that position is and what size to use Gary?
Gary: Yeah, absolutely.
We've just spoken about our big blind three bet strategy.
The big blind is the only position where we're really quite polarized.
So when we're out of position from the big blind versus the button,
we've got jack seven suited and queen eight suited.
We don't have those types of hands from the small blind and therefore we're a
little more polarized. And I like my sizing scheme to reflect this.
I generally go 4.5x just to allow my sizing to reflect the fact that I'm
polarized and I've got some hands in there that I don't have when I'm in the
small blind.
Mike: Yeah, a little fun fact for people.
If you ever watch those super high roller tournaments with some of the best
players in the world battling with very deep stacks,
you'll see three bet sizes out of the big blind upwards of seven times,
eight times the original raise because they're just really trying to pump up the
pot with a very polarized range. Always interesting to see that, but yeah,
generally speaking, if you're playing 100 BB cash, like Gary said, 4.5x,
5x the original raise is going to do just fine.
So continuing our discussion on three bet sizing,
how does stack depth change the optimal size?
Are you adjusting your size when stacks get deeper or when stacks get shorter?
Gary: It's really simple to adjust to different stack sizes because obviously
not everyone plays 100 big blinds deep all the time.
If you're playing against a shorter stack,
you want to just go a little smaller with your three bet size to allow for a
little more playability post flop. And on the flip side,
when you're playing a little deeper,
you just want to size up ever so slightly to account for those deeper stacks.
Mike: Yeah, and if you want some related reading on that topic,
go ahead and Google stack to pot ratio.
You'll find an article on Upswing Poker that covers that concept quite in depth
and it's kind of the key concept behind why you want to increase your three bet
size when you're deeper. There's one other thing I want to add there too.
If you watch the Doug Polk versus Daniel Negreanu heads up challenge,
you may have noticed Doug was actually decreasing his three bet size when he was
out of position as stacks got deeper and he increased all of his raise
sizes when he was in position.
I think this is a heads up exclusive concept because the best six max players in
the world don't do that, but a lot of the best heads up players in the world do.
The very interesting and nerdy reason behind it. When stacks get deeper,
the value of position goes up.
So by making the three bet size smaller out of position,
your opponent is winning more of a smaller pot. Now again,
that's pretty esoteric stuff if you don't play heads up,
it's kind of totally irrelevant to you,
but it's something I just wanted to throw out there. Alright,
I want to flesh out in position versus out of position play a little bit more.
So Gary,
can you speak to in position versus out of position three bet sizing and ranges
a little bit more?
Gary: So our range that three bets is quite similar to be honest whether we're
in position or out of position.
And the difference is that we use a larger three bet size out of position.
Think about just how wide your opponent could peel if you used a 3x three bet
size out of position,
they would just continue their whole range with such a great price and the fact
that they're in position. So we have to use that bigger size out of position.
But like I said,
the range that three bets is really quite similar and the fundamentals of a
tighter range versus an EP open and a wider range versus a later position open,
they still stay the same.
Mike: Let's talk about some specific ranges.
Let's take the small blind for example. Gary,
can you talk about the type of range that you would three bet from the small
blind versus an early position raise and then compare that to the range you'd
three bet from the small blind versus a button raise?
Gary: Yeah,
so I'm looking at the advanced solver ranges from the Upswing Poker Lab to
compare these two spots and say EP opens,
our range is really quite narrow here that when we three bet from the small
blind, we've got pocket eights and above,
all the suited broadways and some ace queen and ace five suited.
That's such a narrow range and if we compare that to small blind versus button
where we've got way more suited ace x, king jack offsuit, ten eight suited,
pocket fives, it's just so much wider and it's important that we understand why.
Under the gun's opening range is tight and our range has got to be tight as a
result, but when the button opens,
their range is really wide and our range can get much, much wider as a result.
The exact same logic applies to in position, the wider the opening range,
the wider our three betting range becomes.
We should also try and play a strategy that involves no flats in the cutoff or
in middle position. And there are two huge reasons for this. Firstly,
if we flat, we kind of cap ourselves to never having hands like aces, kings,
ace king and then the players behind can just make our lives a misery by
squeezing relentlessly and we just end up out of position with a weak range so
often and bleeding money on the flop. Secondly, the rake,
the rake is really high, higher than some of us might realize,
and if we're flatting too much then the rake starts to eat away at our win
rates. But if we three bet correctly,
it has much less of an impact on our results.
So let's be sure we're not flatting in the cutoff and MP or in the small blind
and we're playing a three bet or fold strategy from all of these positions.
Mike: Yeah, playing a three bet or fold strategy from the small blind.
I think that's something that a lot of players have been doing for a long time,
but it's a little bit more of a modern approach to also play three bet or fold
from those other positions like the cutoff, like middle position,
early position if you're playing a nine handed game and Gary touched on the
reasons why you do that,
the rake really makes your calls suffer and there's the potential that you will
face a squeeze behind which puts you in a really, really tough spot. And lastly,
of course your range is really capped. When you call a raise from the cutoff,
it's pretty clear the types of hands you're going to have.
You're going to have pocket pairs,
you're going to have some double broadway hands, maybe like a jack ten suited,
maybe some offsuit aces like an ace jack, ace queen offsuit.
It's just kind of obvious for your opponent which boards are going to connect
with that range.
It's going to prevent them from paying you off when you hit a strong hand,
it's going to allow them to bluff you effectively.
It's just a situation you can avoid by playing three bet or fold. Now that said,
there are situations that make sense to call. Really obvious one,
in tournaments or in any situation where there's an ante,
it makes a lot more sense to start having a calling range because that price
that you're getting is so much better pre-flop. Additionally,
if you have some really weak players behind or maybe the player that raised is
very weak and in addition you have weak players behind,
you can start to consider mixing in some calls because in those situations you
want to take advantage of the player who raised if they're a bad player and
you're not really worried about the players behind squeezing you out of the pot
because well, they're not going to do it very often.
So there are some situations that you can keep your eye out for to start having
some calls, but generally speaking as a default strategy,
you're going to want to play that three bet or fold approach.
It's also going to be a lot easier for you to play post-flop because when you
three bet your range is going to be a lot stronger,
it's a more simplified approach. It really just makes a lot of sense.
One last note,
a lot of poker players really suck at playing against three bets and playing
three bet pots. They get scared, they get timid.
Sometimes certain guys get spewy.
You get to take advantage of that by three betting more often. Alright,
we've covered a lot of ground in this short episode,
but I want to wrap it up with a quick example and it's going to be a little bit
of a quiz too. So suppose you're in a two five cash game,
your opponent in the hijack raises to $15. You're in the cutoff,
one seat to his left.
What hands are you going to be three betting there if you're playing a three bet
or fold strategy that has no calls? Pause the podcast really quick,
consider what hands you'd three bet and then Gary will reveal the answer when
you unpause.
Gary: So let's start with our pocket pairs. We've got eights, nines, tens,
jacks, queens, kings and aces. We've got all of our suited broadways, jack ten,
queen ten, et cetera. We've even got king queen offsuit, ace queen offsuit,
ace five and ace four suited as well as ace nine suited.
And then we've got ace jack offsuit and then sometimes rather infrequently we've
got seven six, six five and five four suited. Really important we find these,
but not too often because obviously we need that board coverage.
As mentioned earlier in the podcast, if the board comes down six five deuce,
you're just struggling on a board like that if you don't have these suited
connectors from time to time.
Mike: Yeah, and Gary,
I believe you were reading right off the advanced solver ranges right there.
Gary: That's right. A really fantastic tool that all the Upswing members have.
The advanced solver ranges are fantastic. I strongly recommend them.
Mike: Yeah, so if you want to get access to the advanced solver ranges,
all you have to do is sign up for the Upswing Lab training course on
upswingpoker.com. You don't just get the ranges too.
You also get 85 plus lessons that each cover a crucial strategy topic,
hundreds of play and explain videos in which the coaches demonstrate a winning
strategy and access to a community where you can ask questions, get answers,
and participate in discussions that will help you improve your skills.
Keep in mind, you can cancel any time,
you're not locked into a contract or anything like that.
We hate contracts and would never impose them on our members. Anyway,
thanks very much for listening to the three betting episode of the Upswing Poker
Level Up Podcast. We'll see you next time. Gary: Take care guys.
See you next time.