Stat: 3bet

Improve Your Preflop 3bet Defense

By Sky Matsuhashi on January 16, 2020

What is 3bet Defense?

3bet defense is a strategy that you must employ after open-raising or raising over limpers preflop and somebody re-raises you with a 3bet. Your 3bet defense options are to either fold, call or re-raise 4bet (if the 3bet was not an all-in shove).

The option you choose to take depends on the 3bet range of your opponent, their tendencies in 3bet pots and the preflop hand you are holding. However, there are also steps you can take to avoid 3bets from your opponents. This is going to save you money and make poker a little easier for you.

Choose to Face Less 3bets

Yes, there are things you can do to avoid 3bets! Most of us lose money when facing a 3bet, so if you can avoid that, you’ll add more money to your bottom line.

Do you have a 3bet defense leak?

Look to see if you have a leak when facing 3bets after open-raising. Run each of the 4 filters below in PokerTracker 4 and record your resulting win rates along with the number of hands. Make sure you have a sample of at least 10,000 hands to filter through.

3bet Defense Filters

Raise First In
Raise First In and Face a 3bet
Raise First In and Call the 3bet
Raise First In and 4bet versus the 3bet

If any of these 4 filters gave you a win rate worse than -300bb/100 hands, then you have a leak to fix.

Why does a win rate worse than -300bb/100 hands signify a leak?

If you normally open-raise 3bb’s and fold versus every 3bet, you would lose 3bb’s every time this happens. Therefore, your total win rate would be -300bb/100 hands. So, this is the win rate you compare your “facing a 3bet” win rates against.

Let’s say your “RFI and Face a 3bet” win rate is terrible at -600bb/100 hands. This means every time you face a 3bet, you’re losing 6bb’s. If you had just folded versus every one of these 3bets, you would’ve lost only 3bb’s each time. So, your 3bet defense choices are costing you an additional 3bb’s. 3bet defense is definitely a leak of yours.

But, if your win rate is -100bb/100 hands, then your 3bet defense decisions cost you only 1bb every time you face a 3bet. This is great! You’re doing better than if you had folded vs every 3bet.

So, if you’re losing money when facing 3bets, I’m going to help you plug this leak now.

Listen to this podcast episode called “Choose to Face Less 3bets”

Methods for Facing Less 3bets after Open-raising

I can hear some of you right now, “I can’t control whether or not my opponents 3bet me. That’s crazy talk.”

You’re right, you can’t control your opponent’s actions. But, you can do things that make it less likely you’ll face a 3bet after open-raising.

I came up with 5 methods for facing less 3bets. They are in order of simplicity from #1 to #5. And, they’re in order of effectiveness and profitability as well. So if you only do one thing, #1 is easiest and most effective for minimizing 3bets and improving your profitability when open-raising.

1. Table Select

Table selection is purposely choosing the table that you play on, in order to have the best chances of leaving the table with profits.

When it comes to table selection, the 2 things you’re looking for are the types of players at the table and their position against you.

Most 3bets come from loose-aggress (LAG) players and Maniacs. The more of these you have at your table, the more difficult your session will be. LAG’s and Maniacs love to open-raise, so they’re going to take away your chance to open-raise frequently. They also love to 3bet, so the more of these players at your table the more likely it is you’ll face a 3bet after every open-raise.

Playing at a table with just 1 or 2 LAG’s at most will reduce the 3bets you face drastically. And make sure you keep the 3bettors to your right so you have post-flop position against them.

A dream table would be all loose-passive Fish and just you. A nightmare table would be all LAG’s and Maniacs along with you. Choose tables that are closer to the fishy extreme.

2. Use Bigger Open-raise Sizing

Players don’t like 3betting vs larger sizes regardless of whether their 3bet is for value or as a bluff.

Bluffing versus larger 3-4bb 3bets puts more chips at risk if they size the 3bet large enough to hit your pain threshold.

If they are value 3betting with hands like TT, JJ and AQ, it’s easier to pull the trigger versus 2-2.5bb open-raises. When you make it larger, they’re less sure of the strength of their hand and will often just call with these hands instead.

So, to discourage 3bets, make it between 3-4bb’s when open-raising in every position.

I know there are many coaches who recommend smaller open-raises like 2-2.5bb’s depending on position. But smaller open-raises encourage more calls and 3bets, which take you away from Bread & Butter Poker.

3. Look Ahead for 3bettors

Before you make any action on any street, you must look ahead and think about how the remaining players will react to your play.

When it comes to open-raising, before you do so, look ahead at the players on your left to see their 3bet statistic. Anybody who is capable of bluff 3betting in their current position should be viewed as a potential 3bettor. How do you know they are capable of 3bet bluffing?

The first way to know is by seeing them 3bet bluff in that position before and making a note of it. The 2^nd way is to look at their 3bet statistic by position. Anything over 7% is a sign that they 3bet bluff from that position. Take the time to look at the number of opportunities as well. 10% when it is 1/10 opportunities isn’t reliable. But if it’s 10% out of 100 opportunities to 3bet (10/100), there is a very good chance they love to 3bet in that position and they will 3bet you right now.

If you suspect a 3bet is coming your way and you don’t want to face it, you can do 1 of 2 things:

Increase your bet size (#2 above).
Don’t open-raise and just fold instead.

There’s nothing wrong with folding a hand that is worth open-raising against the blinds but not against a likely 3bet. Take a hand like QTs. I open-raise this hand all day against players in the blinds, but if I’m up against players who love to 3bet me, I’m not open-raising QTs because it’s never good enough to call and it’s not a solid 4bet bluffing hand.

4. Open-raise with Tighter Ranges

The earlier your position, the less hands you want to open-raise with. This is because with more players left to act after you enter the pot, the more likely it is you’ll face a 3bet. I recommend opening a small 10-12% range from UTG, then gradually increase it by position until you get to the BTN, which is your widest open-raising position.

Check out the difference in potential 3bets faced when opening a 25% range versus a 15% range:

The top portion of the figure above shows your total losses when you open-raise 25% of the time over your next 10,000 hands.

Open-raising 25% of the time = 2,500 open-raising hands.
Facing a 3bet 10% of the time = 250 3bets faced.
Losing 6bb’s with every 3bet = -1,500 blinds lost
That’s 15 buy-ins down, which is extremely hard to overcome even with great play in other areas.

The bottom portion shows your total losses if you decrease your open-raising frequency to 15% of the time.

Open-raising 15% = 1,500 open-raising hands
Facing a 3bet 10% = 150 3bets faced.
Losing 6bb’s with every 3bet = -900 blinds lost
9 buy-ins lost, which is much better than above.

The numbers above assume that you’re playing exactly the same and you’ll have the same results versus 3bets that you’ve been having. But, if your decrease your open-raising ranges, this will naturally decrease your losses when facing 3bets. This is due to your smaller and stronger open-raising ranges. When you choose to defend against a 3bet by calling or raising, you’ll have stronger hands than before. Therefore, your preflop equity will be greater in 3bet defense situations which will lead to less losses and more profits.

5. Become Known as a 3bet Defender

This is not the way I recommend to avoid 3bets. Becoming known as a “3bet defender” is a natural result of being the kind of player that does not fold to 3bets.

“If they ain’t folding, you ain’t bluffing.”

I’m sure you follow this idea when it comes to 3bet bluffing, especially from the blinds because you’re OOP. Many of your opponents feel the same way. They target players with bluff 3bets who open-raise and then fold a lot.

So, if you purposely choose to be the kind of player who calls and 4bets frequently, your opponents will pick up on this and you will face less 3bet bluffs. This means that most 3bets you will face are for value with some of the strongest hands. Becoming a “3bet defender” can backfire on you this way.

What also happens when you become known for your frequent 3bet defense is players will call you much more often. They will call with hands like AJ and KQ and 99 which are way ahead of your open-raising range. So you will be seeing the flop with weaker ranges and often out of position (when players call from the CO or the BTN). You will also see more multi-way pots because the 1^st caller who doesn’t want to 3bet is going to entice additional callers.

You could also become known as a 3bet defender if you play ultra-tight ranges. But I don’t recommend that style of play either because the ultra-tight players are too easy to read and easy to steal from when they don’t show aggression.

Use Methods #1-4 On-the-Felt

If 3bet defense is a weakness for you, get to work on this during every play session this week. Start with the 1st method above and choose more profitable tables that do not contain LAG’s nor Maniacs on your left. Beyond this, use the 2nd method of larger bet sizing to limit the 3bets you face. Always be on the lookout for 3bettors still to act and consider whether or not your hand is worthy of open-raising (3rd method). If you’re still having issues with facing 3bets move on to the 4th method open-raising with tighter ranges.

Listener Feedback

After listening to this podcast episode, long-time listener Jon Homan gave me two more great steps to take to face less 3bets:

6: Site selection – Ignition Poker, for example, seems to have less 3bettors (at least at micros) than other online poker sites.

7: Change Stakes – If 3bet defense is an issue, move down in stakes so improving your 3bet defense skills is less costly. Also, lower stakes contain less aggressive 3bettors.

3bet Defense Ranges

If you use preflop ranges (such as my KISS Cash Game Ranges), they probably include 3bet defense hands for calling or 4betting. Of course, you can follow the ranges strictly and avoid critical thought by just playing as the ranges direct you to.

Listen to this podcast episode called “Mount a Solid 3bet Defense”

But, a critical concept that I teach all of my students about ranges is that you MUST NOT follow them blindly.

Your preflop ranges are there to help you make decisions because they tell you the hands that are mathematically acceptable to play in certain spots.

However, there are some huge drawbacks to using ranges. Your ranges don’t know:

Type of player that 3bet against you
Player’s history of 3bet showdown hands
Player’s 3bet-related statistics
Size of the 3bet
Size of the stacks involved
How your opponent views you

So, your preflop ranges should be kind of a guide, but not the arbiter of your 3bet defense decisions. That’s up to you, as well it should be. You’re potentially committing 9bb’s or more by calling and 22bb’s or more by 4betting. Committing so many chips before seeing the flop must never be done lightly.

Your 3bet defense decision to either call or 4bet hinges on your opponent’s range and how your hand plays against it. So, the first thing you need to do is visualize the 3bettor’s range.

Want to see how I created my 3bet defense ranges?

How do we visualize a 3bettor’s range?

The following 5 pieces of information are critical in helping you build a 3bettor’s range as either being extremely value-oriented or possibly containing 3bet bluffs.

Player Type

Passive players, like Fish who do mostly calling, have very strong 3betting ranges. Often, it’s just KK and AA. These players are fine calling QQ and JJ preflop because they’re scared you hold a stronger hand. If your ranges tell you to 4bet bluff, but the 3bettor only has KK and AA in their range, you’re in for a world of hurt.

There are other players like LAG’s and Maniacs who 3bet bluff a ton. You’ve seen these players 3bet with hands like JTs, 44, A5s and KJ.

Statistics

If you’re an online player, you probably use a HUD like my Smart HUD for PokerTracker 4 to give you more information to work with.

When you face a 3bet, you MUST look to see what the player’s 3bet statistic is. A 1% 3betting range is probably just QQ+ and a 4% 3bet is TT+, AK and AQs.

At 7%, the 3bettors range is potentially 99+, AJ+ and KQs. I say “potentially” because once a 3bettor goes beyond TT and AK, they have particular hands they prefer to 3bet or call with. Some players 3bet with AJ, others never 3bet with it but choose to call instead.

The 3bet statistic is a start, but you have to visualize each 3bettor’s range independently. It’s never a one-size-fits-all thing with 3bet ranges.

Position

The 3bettor’s position matters, especially in relation to their 3bet statistic. A player’s total 3bet percentage is helpful, but even more helpful is looking at their positional 3bet percentage.

If you’re facing a BB 3bet and the player’s percentage is 1%, you know they mean business and have a strong hand. Other players treat the BB as a great 3bet resteal position. You’ll see their 3bet stat in the SB at 10% or more (12.5% in the screenshot above).

Be more willing to believe their 3bet if it comes from a position they normally don’t bluff in.

History

One of the things I love about PokerTracker 4 is that it takes automatic notes on hands that went to showdown:

All of these hands went to showdown so PT4 records the hands and how they entered the pot with them. This player’s 3bet range as seen at showdown is AA, 88, 73s, AKo, A4o-A5o. Yep, we’ve found a bluffer.

If you don’t use PT4 or you’re a LIVE player, you’ll have to rely on note taking to remember what hands your opponent has 3bet with in the past. The more 3bet bluffing hands you’ve seen, the more likely they’re 3bet bluffing once again.

3bet Sizing

The 3bet sizing your opponent uses can clue you in to the strength of their hand.

In general, the smaller the size of the 3bet, the more likely it’s made with a weaker hand. This is because they don’t want to commit too many bluffing chips. Or, they’re not sure of how valuable their hand really is.

Does this tiny 7bb IP position 3bet from a TAG feel like it’s for value? Heck no. 4bet bluff!

The larger the 3bet, the more likely it is for value.

I’m sure you size your 3bets properly to hit your opponent’s pain threshold and to make it hard for them to read into your 3bet hand strength. However, many opponents don’t put thought into their 3bet sizing.

Take a note if you ever see a sizing-related tell, like a tiny 3bet size with A5s, but later, they 3bet to 12bb’s with AA. Knowing that they size their bets differently based on their hand strength will improve your 3bet defense and help you exploit the 3bettor.

Use this hack to help you visualize your ranges

With these 5 pieces of information, you can now visualize the 3bettor’s range and respond appropriate by folding, calling or 4betting. Is your opponent on a value-3bet range or can they have a bluffing 3bet range? Of course, if they have a bluffing range, it also contains value 3betting hands, so don’t ignore that.

3bet Defense vs Value 3bet Ranges

Value 3bet ranges are very small. The widest they go are TT+, AK and AQs (4% in the screenshot above). Let’s look at your options:

Fold

You’re going to fold your open-raising hand most of the time against a value 3bet range. When you know your opponent only 3bets with KK and AA, it’s a super easy fold. If you call with a hand like KJs or 33, you are way behind and just wasting those 3bet calling chips.

Don’t be ashamed of folding your hand versus a 3bet. If it pains you to fold, look at it this way: your opponent just gave you information telling you that their hand is very strong. Be happy that they let you know this preflop instead of “cluing you in” with bets and raises when the pot is larger.

Call

It’s okay to call a 3bet with a hand worthy of 4betting, like AA, in an effort to keep their entire 3betting range in the hand in order to earn more profit from them post-flop.

It’s also okay to call a 3bet with a hand that can crack big 3betting hands. KJs can get you into a world of hurt versus AA, KK and AK. But calling with a hand like 76s can crack those big pocket pairs if you get lucky to hit a straight, a flush or a nice 2p hand. But before you call with a speculative hand like 76s, make sure the 3bettor has a big enough stack to make it worth calling the 3bet (you only hit 2p+ with 76s 5.6% of the time). Look for a stack that is 20 times the size of the 3bet you have to call.

Flopzilla shows us that 76s hits 2p+ only 5.6 of the time on the flop. And it fails to hit a “made hand” 65.4 of the time.

It also helps if the 3bet is on the smaller side so you aren’t risking that much with your speculative hand. If your opponent made a small 3bet for only 4 more bb’s, that makes a calling mistake much less costly than if you had called an additional 9 bb’s.

4bet Re-Raise

Because your opponent is on a value 3bet range, you will only 4bet with a value hand ahead of their range. That probably means you’re only 4betting AA or KK. Don’t make the mistake of 4betting with an inferior hand like AK versus a range of QQ or better.

3bet Defense vs Bluff 3bet Ranges

Bluff 3bet ranges can be all over the board. Of course, they contain the strongest hands, but they can be a weird mixture of suited-connectors like 76s, pocket pairs like 44, suited Aces like A5s or any other random hand that the 3bettor feels like bluffing with.

Fold

Again, you’re probably going to fold more often than call or 4bet even against a bluff 3bet range. There is no reason to continue in the hand if they are not going to fold vs a 4bet or if calling puts you in a money-losing spot post-flop.

You can always tag tough decisions to revisit them for off-the-felt study.

Call

You only want to call with hands that are at the top of the 3bettor’s range. If they 3bet with AT or better, you’re making a huge mistake calling with AT or even A9. If they can 3bet with 99 or better, you’re asking for trouble if you call with 99 or any lower pair.

You want your calling hand at the top of their 3betting range to give you a mathematical advantage over them. If you can call with AK while they 3bet with AT or better, on that Ace high flop you have now crushed their range.

You can also call preflop to slow play some of your biggest hands. If you have AA and you think they fold most of the time versus a 4bet, then calling is a decent option because it keeps their entire 3betting range in the hand on the flop.

You can also call in order to exploit a flop honest 3bettor later on. If the 3bettor only cbets in 3bet pots at 35%, they check when the flop doesn’t help. You can call their 3bets from in position and steal the pot on the flop as soon as they check.

4bet Re-Raise

If you hold a very strong hand like AA or KK, it’s easy to 4bet for value. You know their range is full of bluffs and your hand crushes their bluffs. So, if you think they can call you with worse or maybe even come over the top with a 5bet with weaker hand, go for max value and 4bet with your strongest hands.

Don’t slow play your best hands if they’re capable of giving you value now.

But most of the time you won’t hold AA or KK. Instead, you’ll have the opportunity to 4bet bluff very often. So, you’ve got to ask and answer the question, “Can they fold versus a 4bet?”

The 1^st thing you want to do is look at their Fold to 4bet statistic. You should have this in a HUD pop-up by position.

The “3bet/Fold” line is their Fold to 4bet statistic

This player doesn’t 3bet bluff a ton, but they fold a lot in the CO and BTN vs 4bets.

Look for players who have a high 3bet percentage in their position coupled with a high Fold to 4bet % in the same position. You’re looking for somebody who 3bets greater than 7% and folds greater than 50%. And of course, the higher these 2 percentages the more likely your 4bet bluff will succeed.

Visualize Every 3bettor’s Range and Defend Appropriately

Through your next 5 play sessions, pay attention to the action and every time somebody 3bets, visualize their 3bet range. It’s either a value range or a bluffing range.

If you are involved in the hand, realize that you have 3 options to either FOLD, CALL or RAISE. Make the most +EV decision that’s most likely going to yield the result you want. If you’re calling, you have a hand ahead of their range or you see an opportunity to bluff them later. If you are raising, you’re doing it either for value or as a bluff because they can fold.

If you are not involved in the hand and you see a 3bet, continue to practice visualizing their 3betting range. Watch the action of the hand and hopefully at showdown you can confirm your read.

Now I challenge you to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Support the Podcast

Mark S. picked up PokerTracker 4, the best poker tracking software. I love it and use it everyday! In appreciation, I sent him a copy of my Smart HUD for PT4. With an ever-growing database of hands to study and all the helpful features, PT4 is the go-to software for serious poker players.

Jeff bought the Smart HUD for PokerTracker 4 (and it comes with a 1.5 hour webinar!). It’s the best online poker HUD in the business, and you can get the Smart HUD by clicking here.

Big V picked up the Poker Mathematics Webinar ($5 off). This was held in conjunction with Mark Warner of ExceptionalPoker.com. We taught you all you need to know about preflop math, post-flop math and Expected Value.

Simplifying the Top 10 Poker HUD Stats | Podcast #204

By Sky Matsuhashi on September 28, 2018

I simplify the Top 10 poker HUD stats by telling you the 3 things you MUST know about each.

In episode 203, I discussed how recording and reviewing poker play sessions is the #1 strategy that you MUST employ.

If you can’t explain it simply… (2:50)

This episode is inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein:

My goal today is to simplify the Top 10 HUD Stats so you can get more out of your HUD starting with your next session tonight. But we must begin with the type of number HUD stats present to you… percentages.

Percentage

Most of the HUD stats you’re presented with are in terms of a percentage. A percentage is simply a part of a whole. Once you understand the whole, you understand that smaller part. $1 is 100 cents, so, 50% of $1 is 50 cents. 1 hour is 60 minutes, so, 25% of one hour is 15 minutes.

HUD Stat percentages are parts of 2 different wholes:

This first whole is the number of starting hand combinations you can be dealt in NLHE
The second whole is the number of opportunities presented to the player

1. Total Starting Hand Combos = 1,326

You can be dealt 1,326 starting hand combos in NLHE. The stats that relate to this whole number are VPIP, PFR, Raise First In, 3bet and Fold to Steal.

10% of hands = 133 combos (rounded down to 130 for simplicity)
20% of hands = 260 combos
30% of hands = 390 combos (rounded up to 400 for simplicity)

Let’s look at the 10% range in relation to the Raise First In statistic:

A 10% RFI might be somebody’s UTG range of hands.
10% might be 55+, AT+, KQs and KJs for exactly 132 combos.

Now, let’s look at a 10% Call 2bet statistic:

This is still 130 combos, but it’s not going to contain AA, KK, QQ or AK.
This 10% calling range might be 22-JJ, AT-AQ, QTs+ and T9s+

Both ranges above were 10% and 132 combos, but the cards within each vary based on the preflop action taken.

2. The Number of Total Opportunities Presented

The other “whole” used for HUD stat percentages are the total opportunities present. These are stats like Fold to 3bet, Cbet and Fold to Cbet.

Let’s look at the Cbet stat. A Cbet of 70% means they cbet 70 times out of every 100 opportunities. It’s important to note that most ranges hit the flop with a TP+ and a good draw about 35% of the time. So, if somebody is cbetting at 70%, half of the time they are cbetting with worse than TP, weak draws and complete bluffs.

Before you draw this conclusion with everyone who cbets at 70%, it’s important to consider how frequently they have the opportunity to cbet.

Somebody raising only 10% of hands preflop gets to the flop less often but with a stronger range of hands. The 10% range flops TP+ and good draws about 40% of the time. If they cbet at 70%, more than half of their cbetting hands are TP+ and good draws.

Conversely, somebody who plays 50% of hands flops TP+ and good draws only 29% of the time. If they cbet at 70%, more than half of the time they’re doing it with weaker hands and draws.

Here’s a rule of thumb for HUD stats: the higher the percentage, the weaker their range.

Somebody playing 50% of hands and cbetting at 70% is much weaker on the flop than another who is playing 10% of hands and cbetting at 70% as well.

Another way to look at this is you should be more inclined to believe the person with the smaller range.

Trusting the Stat Percentages

Here’s a question for you: How do you know a stat percentage is reliable?

As you gain experience using stats to exploit your opponents, you’ll begin to gain a sense of when to rely on a stat and when to ignore it.

Stats aren’t so reliable at 10 opportunities. They begin to become reliable at 20 opportunities. At 50 they’re very reliable and at 100+ they’re extremely reliable.

So, a 10% 3bet seems high, but 10% is only once out of 10 opportunities. That’s not enough to say that this player is a 3bet bluffer. If it’s still 10% after 50 opportunities, it’s likely they like to 3bet bluff. And at 10% over 100+ opportunities, you’ve found a 3bet bluffer.

The Top 10 Poker HUD Stats (8:50)

Here are a few guidelines I gave myself for simplifying the stats:

I’m only allowed to give you 3 sentences per statistic
I’m going to assume that you know some common poker terms (ex. “positional awareness”)
I’m also assuming you know the definition of these stats and how they’re calculated (ex. I won’t define nor give you the formula for “3bet”)

So, this is geared towards people familiar with HUD Stats, but they might not know HOW to use all the stats HUD.

The 10 stats are broken up between 6 preflop and 4 post-flop.

I’m giving you all these stats in order of importance. So, if you can only use one stat in your HUD, #1 is it. If you can only use two, use #’s 1 and 2… and so on

Preflop Stats (9:50)

#1: VPIP or Voluntarily Put Money in the Pot

The key word here is “voluntarily” and this stat refers to an exact range of hands they choose to play.
A VPIP > 40% indicates a very loose player that you should try to play hands against.
Make sure to also keep this stat as a pop-up displayed by position because positional awareness is an important indicator of your opponent’s skill level.

#2: PFR or Preflop Raise

This is a sign of overall preflop aggression and includes 2bets, 3bets and beyond.
Anything over 25% is too aggressive and must be fought back against with value 3bets and bluff 3bets if they’re capable of folding.
Also keep this as a positional pop-up because again, it’s an indicator of their positional awareness and how strong they are as a player.

#3: RFI or Raise First In

This correlates exactly to the range of hands that they choose to open the pot with when they’re first to act or it’s folded around to them.
Keep it as a positional popup because this will tell you exactly which positions they choose to steal pots from.
Positionally aware players have an increasing RFI as position gets later, with the CO, BTN and SB numbers being the biggest.

Start your audiobook learning by picking up ‘Preflop Online Poker’ through Audible.com. Click the pic above to begin your free 30-day trial or to purchase the audiobook version if you’re already a member.

#4: Preflop 3bet

As a total %, it’s useful in your HUD but takes on greater significance when it’s broken down by position in a popup.
Percentages by position less than 3% is a strictly value-oriented range and you should only 4bet or call with your strongest starting hands.
Anything greater than 6% by position tells you where they like to 3bet bluff from, so plan for it and respond accordingly.

#5: 2bet/Fold to 3bet

Make sure to use the “2bet/Fold to 3bet” instead of the regular “Fold to 3bet” stat because this gives you more relevant information that you can use to exploit the preflop raiser.
If it’s over 70% by position, then you can make very profitable 3bet bluffs with good bluffing hands like suited blockers, suited-connectors and pocket pairs.
If the stat is below 50%, you only want to value 3bet against them or bluff when you’re in position with a good blocking hands like suited Aces and KQs.

#6: Fold to Steal

Great stealing targets have a Fold to Steal above 70% and the higher it is, the better.
At less than 70% look at their 3bet and their 2bet Call stats before stealing from them.
You can multiply the Fold to Steal stat of the SB times the BB to see how often they fold together to steals.

Where’s the Attempt to Steal Stat?

Observant listeners might have noticed that I left out the Attempt to Steal stat. It’s not a necessary stat because this is the same as RFI from the CO, BTN and SB. You should have these in a popup, so there’s no need for ATS.

Post-flop Stats (17:00)

#7: Flop Cbet

This is the part of their preflop raising range that fires a bet on the flop, so the smaller their preflop range, the more likely a cbet is for value.
70% is a “standard percentage” for most solid players, and because ranges only hit the flop at 35% on average, a 70% range contain at least 50% marginal pairs, bluffs and semi-bluffing draws.
Keep this stat in a popup as well so you can exploit any difference in Cbet % when IP vs OOP.

#8: Turn Cbet

This is the famed “double-barrel stat” that tells you whether or not a player is one-and-done on the flop or if they fire the turn as well.
Compare the Flop with the Turn stat to see which street they get honest on as the honesty street has the lower percentage.
Again, relative position is useful so have this in a popup for in position or out of position honesty: most players cbet more frequently when in position than out of position.

#9: Fold to Flop Cbet

The higher and closer to 70% this number is, the more honest they are versus cbets, which makes these players good bluffing targets.
You want to view this by relative position and actual position in a pop-up because seeing these will tell you when the opponent is most honest so you can make profitable bluffs.
The wider their calling range is preflop, the more marginal pairs and draws they’ll have in their flop calling range.

#10: Fold to Turn Cbet

Compare this with the Flop % to see which street they’re honest on versus cbets and make sure you have the chips and stack sizes big enough to bluff on this street.
Fold to Turn Cbet at around 60% or greater must be bluffed frequently.
If below 40%, you can semi-bluff with your drawing hands and when in position, but keep your cbets mainly for value when they hate folding.

Challenge (19:35)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: Pick one stat that you’re not at all comfortable with and practice using it to exploit your opponents in your next session. Keep in mind the 3 pieces of info I gave you on each stat, and do some research on your own to learn more about it. The research and learning are easy. The tough part will come from putting your knowledge into action and using the stat to exploit opponents. But, the only way you’ll learn how is by doing it. So, do it!

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Support the Show

Jeremy Thiam purchased the PokerTracker 4 Smart HUD and I’m sure today’s episode will help him out in his pursuit of player exploitation. Along with the HUD, I sent him some bonus videos to help him get more from it and PT4. Click here to get the Smart HUD.

Guy Brooks purchased a webinar I did with Mark Warner of ExceptionalPoker.com called “Poker Mathematics Webinar”. We got tons of great feedback from this one, and if you’re looking to bone-up on your poker math, click here to get $5 off the webinar.

Q&A: Stop the Zoom, Taking LIVE Poker Notes and Popup Stats | Episode 196

By Sky Matsuhashi on July 26, 2018

I answer 3 questions about frustrations in the micros and avoiding Zoom poker, taking LIVE poker notes and learning to use popup stats.

In episode 195, I gave you strategies to employ to help you pull the trigger on +EV aggressive plays and ditch the fear surrounding them.

Q1: Improving Many Areas of Play (1:50)

From: CB

Q: Longer email, just the important details:

I still can’t even beat 5nl zoom after 4 years.

I can’t afford expensive products like poker tracker or subscriptions to advanced training software or coaches

I’m a very formulaic thinker and try to develop optimal lines given specific situations

Post-flop play is still incredibly frustrating, even when I know advanced poker concepts, they just don’t seem to be helping even when I’m supposedly applying them correctly.

I will stack off with what many sites consider reasonable hands for stacking, only to have my opponent show up consistently with a better hand.

Thanks, CB.

Answer:

Stop playing Zoom.

It’s antithetical to profitable poker. You MUST employ table and seat select, and Zoom doesn’t allow for that. The number of hands you play doesn’t matter. What matters is making good decisions and putting yourself in money-making situations.

Study and Play with Purpose.

You say you study a lot, but do you focus on one topic each week and play with intent of practicing that topic? Here are a couple examples:

For an entire week, study being the aggressor in 2bet pots. Use the ranges you’ve already formulated/found. Before every button click, say aloud why you’re raising. “It’s in my range” isn’t good enough. “The BTN folds a lot, so I’ll have post-flop position. The SB is tight so he’ll likely fold and that will leave me HU with the fishy BB, and that’s a good money-making spot.”
Example for facing cbet study. You called preflop so your opponent has the opportunity to cbet. Assume your call was +EV (you’ll have to spend a different week studying 2bet calls preflop), so you have to study board texture and how they interact with different 2bet ranges and your own calling ranges. Study cbet stats and double-barrel stats. Find opponents in your database (more on this below) who are “flop honest” and only fire with pair+ and the best draws. Study their cbet hands that went to SD. Find other opponents who are double-barrelers and study their SD hands. As you’re playing, when you face a cbet ask yourself, “What’s he cbetting here?” If there are plenty of bluffs in their range, then you can continue wider. Try using cbet raises and check-raises occasionally for value and as bluffs. Before you decide to continue on the flop, make a plan for turn and river play. What future cards help or hurt you? What helps or hurt Villain’s range? Which bet sizing will you call on the next street and what will you fold to?

Work on your mental game.

Tilty things happen all the time (players catching gut shots, constantly facing 3bets). Figure out what sends you on tilt and work to overcome it. You said you read a lot of books, so I imagine you’ve read ‘The Mental Game of Poker’. Re-read it and dedicate one month to getting the most from this book. Fill out Jared Tendler’s questionnaire fully to help you understand your issues. Create your own logic statements and use his. Work on keeping your cool in every play session.

Buy PokerTracker 4 and Flopzilla.

These are tools in your arsenal that will give you a database of hands to study as well as help you become a hand reader. The HUD is incredibly important because it gives an advantage over the opposition. Give up lunches and coffee, or eat Top Ramen for a month if $ is an issue. Do what you have to do to pay for these, they’ll change you game.

Get PokerTracker 4

Get Flopzilla

Post-flop Play.

Bet for value when you believe your opponent can call with worse and be able to name the hands. Bet as a bluff when you think they can fold hands and be able to name those hands. When you face big bets or raises, or even just double-barrels, ask yourself, “Do I beat the worst hands they’re making this play with?” If the answer is no, then definitely fold. For example, they double-barrel on an AKT8 board and you called preflop with A9 (your kicker plays but it’s pretty weak). If they can double-barrel with A7 or worse, or a King or a Q or J with a gs, then call. But, if they’re only barreling with AQ, AJ and better than 1p hands, you’ve got to fold.

Do daily hand reading practice every day.

Watch my 66 Days of Hand Reading videos and do exactly that for 66 days. Choose a hand that’s related to the topic you’re studying that week. This practice will do more for your game than anything else.

Stop thinking of “optimal lines”.

If you think you’ve got the best hand and your opponent can pay you off with worse, bet for value. If they show strength, especially on the turn or river, they’ve got 2p+ and you can easily fold. Start believing your opponents more often when they tell you they’ve got the goods with their bet sizing and actions. Also, when you flop a value hand, ask yourself how many streets of value can I get? If it’s a TP hand, that’s often worth one or two streets of value. A set? 3 streets. A 2nd pair? Maybe one or two streets but often as the caller while you let an aggressive player bet at you.

Q2: Taking LIVE Poker Notes (12:40)

From: Jordan

Q: When you play live sessions, how do you record hands? Is there an app where you enter in stats as you go, or do you use the old-fashioned notepad? I realize I have leaks in this area, but because I only play live and not online, it can be hard to track and know my stats. Thanks ?

Answer:

Apps:

Evernote – the best way, they’ll think you’re texting. Do it under or away from the table.
Notepad – quick and natural for an old guy like me. Downside is everyone sees what you’re doing. Don’t let them know you take the game that seriously.
Share My Pair – too much time taken to input a hand. Do this later to share important hands.
Bankroll management: Poker Manager and Poker Income Tracker

Hand details to record:

positions, stack sizes, hole cards, street by street actions with sizing in terms of pot % or $

Stats:

Don’t calculate stats as you play, just record # of instances and do the math in a spreadsheet later
#’s to record: hands dealt into, VPIP, PFR, call 2bet, 3bet, call 3bet, 4bet. # of flops seen, Cbet or call cbet, also raise cbet and fold to cbet. Same #’s for the turn.
At home you can use Excel to calculate your session stats

Play online poker for cheap and easy ways to practice strategies. Play as if you’re at a LIVE table.

Q3: Popup Stats (18:50)

From: Mark

Q: Need help with popup stats

Answer:

When it comes to understanding popup stats, there are 3 things I’d recommend:

1. Focus on one stat per week and study it.

For example: 3bet. Learn everything you can about this stat and how players use it to make optimal decisions. Look for videos on YT or your favorite training site that discuss the concept in detail. Know the formula and how it’s calculated. Look at your own stat by position and analyze what hands you’re 3betting with from each position. Pull up some of your loosest opponent’s stats and review their 3bet stats by position. Also look at the 3bet hands they’ve shown down to get an idea of the hands they’re 3betting with and compare them to the %’s they’ve developed in that position.

Make sure you know exactly where the stat is in your HUD and your popups. Color code the stat or enlarge the font or something to make it more noticeable as you play and refer to it.

2. Focus on this one stat in each session you play this week.

Pay attention to this stat in everyone’s HUD at the table so you can pick out the frequent 3bettors and start to develop a plan against them. You will also notice those who rarely 3bet, and you can plan how to react to their 3bets as well. When anyone 3bets, open up the popup to look at their stat by position and quickly try to determine what likely hands fall within that %. Make the most appropriate fold, call or 4bet once you’ve done this.

3. Off the felt, run range and equity calculations using %’s of your opponents.

For example, again with 3bet, let’s say your opponent over 2K hands has a 3bet of 11% on the BTN, 9% in the CO and 5% in EP. Ask yourself questions like, “What ranges fit each percentage? What hands can you 4bet with and how often will he fold? How often will he call or 5bet?”

Challenge (21:40)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: I know there was something I said in one of my answers that struck a chord with you. Maybe it was about utilizing Evernote to record LIVE hands, maybe it was about focusing on one stat at a time in your HUD and popups, or maybe it was about never playing Zoom style games again. Choose the ONE thing that you think will make the biggest impact to your game and get to work. Today is a new day and you’ve got the opportunity to improve your game for the better.

Now it’s your turn to take action and do something positive for your poker game.

Support the Show

Kaarel Lieb supported the show by purchasing my PokerTracker 4 Smart HUD. I hope CK is utilizing the HUD to crush their opponent’s faces into the felt.

Maximizing Your HUD Part 4: Percentage Form and Color Coding for the Win | Podcast #60

By Sky Matsuhashi on May 3, 2016

This is the fourth episode in my Maximizing Your HUD series: Percentage Form and Color Coding for the Win. In this episode, I teach you about percentage form and how to color code your HUD stats. This helps for quick and easy reference and to find frequency exploits in a player’s game.

Listen to episode #60: Percentage Form and Color Coding for the Win

What do these numbers really mean? (4:00)

So far in this series I’ve discussed HUD usage for online poker. I gave you the essential elements that every HUD needs, as well as additional stats that you can use to exploit your opponents. I also talked about the popups and why they’re so useful, and I gave you some ways you can practice using your HUD.

But we haven’t really discussed how to understand and think about the numbers in your HUD. What does it mean when “Robbing Robbie” raises from the BTN 75% of the time, what’s it mean when “Fit-or-Fold-Francis” cbets only 20%, and how strong is “Debbie-Double-barrels” range of hands when she’s cbetting the flop and turn 70% of the time?

Percentage Form (4:45)

The first step to understanding the stats we see on the HUD is understanding Percentage Form. This is a shorthand way to describe a range of hands. Instead of saying, “He 3bets Jacks or better and AK” you can just say, “He 3bets 3%” and someone versed in percentage form will understand that.

Get Flopzilla Pro to help you learn ranges in percentage form.

Enter in a range of hands and it’ll tell you the % of hands that comprises. There’s a huge difference between a 10% range and a 50% range of hands, and understanding this is very useful for hand reading.

HUD’s give us the % of how often somebody does something, which helps us be more technical players rather than feel players. Knowing how often they perform certain actions, which tells us the likely range of hands they’re doing it with, helps us to make plans and develop plays to combat them.

Pre-flop Raise

PFR is the % of the time that a player put in any raise pre-flop. This stat tells us how aggressive a player is.

If a nitty player has a tiny PFR of 5%, it means he only raises 5% of the time, or 1 in 20 chances. That’s only 77+, AK and AQs. He’s not even raising AQo, AJ, KQ, or 22-66.

Contrast this with an opponent who raises 30%, which is 6x more often than the nitty player opens, so it’s 6 out of every 20 chances. In the picture below, we see that 30% is any pp, A2s+, A7o+, every Broadway, K2s+, Q8s+, J8s+, 75s+ and 54s+.

That’s percentage form in action: looking at a stat and being able to understand what range of hands it correlates to.

3bet

This stat tells us how often the player decided to 3bet pre-flop. It’s another stat that looks at a players aggression and the % we see here is very telling.

You’ll often encounter people who only 3bet 2-3% of the time, which is JJ+ and AK. That’s it, just value hands.

Contrast this with somebody who 3bets 6% which is 99+ AQ and KQ. Quite a bit looser than the 3% 3bettor. And at 12% we’re looking at 55+, AT+ and KJ+. Now that’s getting aggressive with lots of hands that aren’t really doing so for value.

Cbet

Stat percentages tell you how often a player does something, but doesn’t always correlate to a range of hands. Cbet, or continuation bet, tells us how often the player bets at the flop given that he made the last raise pre-flop.

So a cbet of 20% means he bets the flop as the pfr only 2 out of every 10 times. A Cbet of 70% means he bets the flop 7 out of 10 times. That’s a huge difference, and one is obviously more aggressive than the other. But what do these two percentages really tell us?

We know that most ranges only “hit” the flop about 33% of the time. By hitting the flop I mean flopping TP+ or an OESD+. We know this by using a program like Flopzilla Pro that shows us how often a range of hands will hit flops. Here’s a screenshot of Flopzilla showing how a 25% raising range hits an average flop 34.2% of the time:

If an opponent has a cbet higher than 33%, you know he bets when he doesn’t hit the flop well, and the higher the % the more often he’s bluffing. If the cbet is below 33%, then you know he’s fit-or-fold and only fires when he hits the flop really well.

Color Coding for the Win (12:05)

Statistical Ranges

Color coding stat percentages helps to quickly spot frequency issues in your opponent’s game.

For PFR, I use a red/yellow/green/orange color scheme for my stat ranges. Red designates nitty stats, yellow is for reg stats, green for fishy and orange is for beyond fishy like LAG’s and donks.

So my own color coding ranges for PFR are:

0-8% and color coded red, which denotes a nitty player who raises infrequently
8-18% and color coded yellow, to denote a reg player who is raising somewhere in the range that’s considered to be optimal
18-24% and color coded green, which denotes a player getting too loose and aggressive with the hands they choose to raise
24-100% and color coded orange to denote a LAG or very donkish player

Another way that color-coding helps to spot frequency issues is when two different stats have opposite colors. For example, if their flop cbet is green (which is high and fishy or aggressive) and their turn cbet is low and red (which is nitty), then you know the opponent is turn honest and only bets here with the goods. This is like an opponent with a cbet of 70% on the flop then only 30% on the turn. Target these guys and take it away from them when they check the turn.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to color code your ranges, and even the ranges you select aren’t right or wrong. It’s just your opinion and whatever helps you exploit your opponents.

Ultimately, what I recommend you doing is writing down each stat in your HUD, and on a scale of 1-100, give thought into the ranges that comprise a nit’s, a reg’s, a fish’s and a LAG’s ranges.

My color coding ranges for:

3bet

0-6% red
6-9% yellow
9-16% green
16-100% orange

Cbet

0-50% red
50-66% yellow
66-100% green

Backgrounds and Font Sizes

Another part of color coding to make stats more user-friendly and quick to identify is background colors and font sizes. I increase the font sizing of the most important stats in my HUD, namely stack size in BB’s, VPIP and PFR.

The other thing I do is color code the backgrounds of stats that work well together. If you look at the screen shot of the 6max SNG & MTT SMART HUD below, you’ll see the following:

Steal related stats all have a black background
RFI, Fold to 3bet and 4bet are all teal
Calling 2bet and 3bet stats are dark grey
Cbet flop and turn stats are green
And Fold to cbet flop and turn stats are on an olive background

Ultimately, it’s up to you to make your HUD as user-friendly as possible, and the goal should always be to make it so your HUD helps you exploit your opponents. That’s why you’re using the HUD after all.

Podcast Challenge (16:10)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: Create some of your own color coding ranges for the most important stats in your HUD. I recommend doing this for the stats mentioned today, as well as Attempt to Steal, Fold to Cbet, # of Hands Played and VPIP. Take the time to create these on your own, giving careful thought to what the percentages mean. Use Flopzilla Pro to aid you in this process. This practice of thinking about each individual stat and what the possible percentages mean will be great for your ongoing poker development.

Other Episodes in the Maximizing Your HUD Series

1st Part: HUD Essentials

2nd Part: Exploiting Opponents

3rd Part: Using Popups

Purchase the SMART HUD

Get 10% off my SMART HUD for PokerTracker 4. It includes a 1.5 hour webinar showing you how to use it. It’s the best HUD in the business, so don’t pass this one up.

And if you don’t own PokerTracker 4 yet, if you purchase PT4 through my affiliate link and forward me your email confirmation, I’ll send you my SMART HUD for free. What a deal!

Maximizing Your HUD Part 1: HUD Essentials | Podcast #54

By Sky Matsuhashi on April 14, 2016

This is the first episode in my Maximizing Your HUD series: HUD Essentials. In this one, you will learn best practices in how to gradually adopt a HUD (heads-up display) into your game and the 7 essential elements you must learn first.

Listen to episode #54: HUD Essentials

Gradual Implementation (3:00)

Step One: Learn what the stats tell you.

Answer this one simple question for every stat on your HUD and popups: How does this stat help me exploit my opponent?

Step Two: Learn the layout

Write the layout of each HUD and popup on separate pieces of paper. Make additional notes regarding the stats there and how you can use them to exploit your opponents.

Step Three: Play with intent

Each session you play, choose two specific stats to focus on as you play. Try to find spots where you can use these stats to exploit your opponents.

The 7 HUD Essentials (7:30)

1. Note Editor

While not a stat, it’s still super useful. Take notes on opponent reads, tendencies, what they’ve shown down, plays they’ve made and your general thoughts on the player in question. Don’t use the notes feature within the poker site’s software. This will be very useful during HH reviews as well.

2. # of Hands Abbreviated

Helps to determine how reliable your other stats are on the player in question. 100 hands is ok, 250 hands is good, 500 hands is very nice, and 1,000+ hands is great.

3. VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money in the Pot)

How often the opponent chooses to play hands. The higher it is, the weaker their range of hands. For example, a VPIP of 10% means they play all pp’s, AJ+ and KQ. At 30% it’s all pp’s, almost all Aces, all broadways and connectors and suited connectors down to 64s, and some weak suited and off-suit K’s and Q’s as well. The stronger the range, the less likely a bluff 3bet will get them off, and the wider the range the more likely I can get them to fold post-flop.

4. PFR (Pre-flop Raise)

How often the player gets aggressive with raises pre-flop. High PFR means they raise with lots of junk, so 3bet resteals could be in order. A very low PFR like 4% means they only raise w/TT+ and AK, so it’s pretty easy to play post flop with these guys.

Together, VPIP and PFR can tell us what player type we’re up against.

The gap between VPIP and PFR is crucial to understand as well. A gap of 30% means they call 30% of the time, which is most pp’s, most Aces, lots of suited and connected cards and every broadway. A smaller gap of 4% means they call with small-med pp’s to set mine and some suited broadways like KJ, QJ and KT maybe, and maybe some suited Aces as well.

5. 3bet pre-flop

How often they come over the top of another raise pre-flop. The higher this is, the more likely they do it as a steal, and lower is more likely just for value. A 3bet of 2% is only JJ+ and AK, whereas a higher 3bet of 7% is 99+, AJ and KQs. Beyond this, and over a large sample, you’ve found a restealer, so a 4bet resteal might be in order, or possibly calling with intent to extract value post-flop from his cbets and barrels.

6. Fold to Steal

Knowing how often opponents fold to a steal is key in MTT’s and SNG’s, but also helps improve win rates in cash games. Players with Fold to Steal greater than 80% must be stolen from 100% of the time. If they don’t give up vs steals, you can size your bets bigger with your value range to make money from their unwillingness to fold.

7. LIVE Amount BB’s (for MTT/SNG players)

This is only for MTT/SNG players. Having this stat saves you the time from calculating it for every player in every hand. This saves your brain space for more difficult decisions and helps you to notice when it’s push/fold time for yourself or other players at the table.

A basic HUD with all the essentials

Podcast Challenge (13:10)

Here’s my challenge to you for this episode: Get your HUD on. Choose two stats to focus on during each session you play. Write out the 2-3 ways you can use each to exploit your opponents, and make sure you look at these stats as you play each hand to get comfortable using them.

Other Episodes in the Maximizing Your HUD Series

2nd Part: Exploiting Opponents

3rd Part: Using Popups

4th Part: Percentage Form and Color Coding for the Win

Purchase the SMART HUD

Get 10% off my SMART HUD for PokerTracker 4. It includes a 1.5 hour webinar showing you how to use it. It’s the best HUD in the business, so don’t pass this one up.

And if you don’t own PokerTracker 4 yet, if you purchase PT4 through my affiliate link and forward me your email confirmation, I’ll send you my SMART HUD for free. What a deal!

Post-flop Poker Playability and Increasing 3bet Aggression

By Sky Matsuhashi on June 18, 2015

Like most players new to poker study, I’ve heard many pro’s and coaches say things like, “JTs plays well post-flop” and “Q6o doesn’t play so well.” I never really looked into it to learn more about what playability is or what it means to “play well.” I just figured “Yep, suited hands can flop flushes, Q6o makes weak pairs with which we lose money.” I didn’t think any deeper on the subject, or how a hand’s playability could lend power to specific plays in poker.

That’s how I thought at least until I read the latest Tournament Poker Edge article written by theginger45 titled ‘Playability and Blockers: The Keys to 3-Bet Bluffing.’ It opened my eyes to the equity you can gain by choosing the correct cards to aggressively 3bet and 3bet shove with pre-flop. I suggest you click on the link above and read the article. Here, I’ll dive into playability and give you some charts which you can use to help you create 3betting ranges.

What is Post-flop Poker Playability?

Post-flop Poker Playability refers to how well a hand hits various flops, and how easy it is to play beyond the flop. A hand like JTs is a great hand to play post as it hits lots of decently strong top pair hands, flush draws and nut straight draws. With so many ways to hit flops, it makes it a good candidate to not only win at showdown, but allows you to take down many pots by firing multiple barrels with decent equity to catch your hand should the opponent continue.

On the other hand, Q6o makes weak top pair hands, has very little potential to make straights and flushes, and doesn’t often give you enough equity to barrel opponents off of hands. How comfortable are you firing two or three or even two streets with Q6 on a QJ924 board?

Playability Allows for Increased Aggression

A common issue players have as they improve their skills is increasing their aggression in a way that doesn’t leave them off balance. Having a 3betting range with only value hands (JJ+ and AK) makes you super easy to play against. Throwing in some bluffs like A5o and K3s helps, but it polarizes you between very good and crappy hands, and makes it so you can only continue when you hit the flop well (which is harder to do with those bluffs).

But, throwing in hands that play well post-flop and have good equity when called make it so you can 3bet bluff or 3bet shove steal more frequently. And as we know, increasing your aggression makes you harder to play against (especially when IP) and makes you hard to read, allowing for more stealing of pots post-flop. Including hands like 76s-JTs, 55-99 and suited 2-gappers 86s+ really widens your range and makes it harder for opponents to put you on hands. These hands all play well post-flop, can win super big pots when they hit big, and allow you to fire multiple barrels to win hands without showdown. The A5o’s and the K3s’s really don’t make playing post-flop any easier.

One of the big things I’ve been struggling with lately is increasing my aggression as MTT’s reach the middle levels. When antes kick in is the time to really ramp up the aggression to gain chips. Being passive in the middle stages is a sure way to survive longer, but you’ll often get to the bubble with a small stack and barely make the money. Survival isn’t what the pros play for; they go for the win. Using the chromatics below allow me to 3bet more often knowing that if I get called I’ve got a hand that can win in more ways than just relying on its strength at showdown. I’m now playing with hands that I can barrel with because I’ve flopped some decent drawing equity.

Playability Chromatics

Here are two Playability Chromatics I made using Flopzilla. They show you the likelihood of flopping certain hands and draws.

Mid-pair+, oesd+ and pair+gs or better

Top pair+, fd+ and pair+oesd or better

There’s a few important takeaways from these two graphs:

Only 3bet bluff with suited cards. Suited cards can give you up to 11% more equity when called. If you must 3bet an off-suit hand, make sure it’s got big card strength like AQ or AK, and if not then making a 3bet bluff shove is best for maximum fold equity (at 20bb’s or less).
Suited connectors all the way down to 54s are very playable post-flop. They all make great candidates for 3bet semi-bluffing, and often you can get away from many flops where you have little equity and the opponent shows aggression. It’s much easier to fold a 56s than an A6o on a J62r board when your cbet gets c/r and you’re pretty sure he’s got you beat.
Pocket pairs have very good equity when called. It was surprising to me to see how often 77-TT can flop some decent equity, allowing for a couple barrels even if you don’t hit your set.

3bet Ranges

Please use these chromatics to help you devise your own 3betting ranges and to help you ramp up your aggression in MTT’s when it really counts.

When creating 3bet ranges, you want to incorporate value hands, semi-bluffs (suited connectors and small pocket pairs) as well as a few bluffs. You can create these ranges then test them out in real-world play in tournaments or cash games. If you haven’t made any 3betting ranges before, use the following ratios:

Value hands 7%
Semi-bluffs 5%
Bluffs 2%

This will give you roughly a 14% 3betting range, but of course you won’t be doing this blindly every time you have one of these hands. Use your better judgement and avoid 3betting unless it’s for value when you’re reasonably sure your opponent will reshove. A common example of this is a nitty 15bb stack opens to 2.5bb’s UTG. Your 3bet will likely just get him to 4bet shove, so don’t do it without the top of your range.

If you found these useful, please drop me a line to let me know how you used them.

Make your next session the best one yet!