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
"Easy" Calls to 3-bets
"Easy" Calls to 3-bets Defending your opening range is a must in today's games. You just want to make sure you're consistently doing it in the highest EV situations obviously. Some spots that come up often that are "easy" calls to a 3-bet with 100 BB effective stacks are as follows: You open on the button, a normal open button range, and get 3-bet by the big blind who has a fairly wide 3-betting range. Comments: You both know your range is going to be wider and lighter than normal. This should be one of the spots you defend against most aggressively since you'll have position and you have options between calling or 4-betting light. Assuming your opponent is 3-betting about 15% of his range, you should look to call with roughly an equal percentage of your range, or slightly more depending on how confident you are in outplaying your opponent. All things being equal, having position is your biggest advantage. If you assume a somewhat polarized range from your opponent, then you should be calling with a range similar to this (assuming you'll 4-bet JJ+, AK most of the time): 88–JJ, A9s+, ATo–AQo, KJo+, KTs+, QTs+, J9s+, QTo+, T9s, 98s, T9o, 87s. You'll have anywhere from 47%–52% equity depending on how polarized your opponent’s range is. You open on the button, a normal open button range, and get 3-bet by the small blind who has a fairly wide 3-betting range.
Comments: Very similar to the above
Comments: Very similar to the above You will both have wider ranges, but the small blind will have a slightly tighter 3-betting range on average with the big blind still left to act. You should still defend liberally, unless your opponent is on the tight side of a normal 3-betting range for this situation. So assume a roughly 13% 3- betting range, your defense range should look similar to defend the blind with a few more hands cut out: 88–JJ, ATs+, ATo–AQo, KJo+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, T9o. The goal is to have yourself around the 47%–52% equity range against your opponent’s 3-bet range. You open in cut-off, a normal cut-off range. The action folds to the big blind who 3-bets a fairly wide range.