Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
Looks like it's just about the same EV
Looks like it's just about the same EV if we take the hand to the flop, but this time our opponent has initiative, and they are continuation betting. We're also saying we're only folding to a continuation bet in position 47% of the time to a roughly 3/4ths pot sized bet (5.5). Again, this doesn't take into account equity when you call versus your opponent’s range. Everything is the same, except that it's a single raised pot, and now you don't have initiative and you're not continuation betting. You're also not applying much pressure to your opponent beyond calling and perhaps floating a decent amount of flops against them. Both plays are pretty close in EV, and exact in the case of using our numbers, but the goals are slightly different.
The primary reason you'd employ this 3-betting strategy over flatting a hand like
The primary reason you'd employ this 3-betting strategy over flatting a hand like KJs is to apply pressure, keep your opponent on the defensive and in re-raised pots out of position against you. You're not going to be 3-betting this same hand nearly as often out of position. This is purely an in position strategy to use against certain opponents, and in certain games.