Dealing With an Aggressive 3-Better
note: cross posted from Andrew's blog at http://www.thinkingpoker.net/Blog/
Both of these hands are against a real 3-betting fiend. He's ridiculously loose and aggressive pre-flop, especially when he has position. Even though I think he's taken it to the point of exploitability, it's still a tough and high-variance playstyle to combat. There are a lot of adjustments you need to make against a player like this, but one is just to call down with more medium-strength hands than you ordinarily would. Basically you are going to make money off of his bluffs, so you need to set him up to bluff and then be prepared to catch bluffs with weaker hands than your ordinarily would. Two examples:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (9 handed)
MP1 ($1000)
Hero (MP2) ($1000)
MP3 ($1316)
CO ($1035)
Button ($1000)
SB ($1069)
BB ($440)
UTG+1 ($160)
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9s 9h
2 folds, Hero raises to $35, 1 fold, CO raises to $95, 3 folds, Hero calls $60
Flop: ($205) Kd 10s 8d (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $135, Hero calls $135
Turn: ($475) 4s (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $365, Hero raises to $770 (All-In), 1 fold
Total pot: $1205 | Rake: $3
I didn't necessarily expect a fold here, but I did think my 9's would have enough equity against his range, which probably includes a TON of semi-bluffs, to get it in.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (8 handed)
SB ($1018.50)
BB ($1088.50)
UTG ($440)
UTG+1 ($104.50)
MP1 ($953.75)
Hero (MP2) ($1177)
CO ($1417)
Button ($760)
Preflop: Hero is MP2 with As Jh
3 folds, Hero raises to $35, 2 folds, SB raises to $115, 1 fold, Hero raises to $250, SB raises to $1018.50 (All-In), Hero calls $768.50
Flop: ($2047) 7c 3h 8c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: ($2047) 7h (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($2047) 3d (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $2047 | Rake: $3
He had Jacks here, so I lost. I'm less confident about this one, as it was my first 4-bet of the night, but I think that could also increase his bluff frequency because he knows I know he's been running me over. With a suited AJ, I'd definitely just call pre-flop. Even here, it might have been better to flat and then jam a lot of flops or something just to induce an additional bluff. But this is the kind of thing you need to do against overly aggressive opponents.
February 26th, 2010 - 22:10
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CALISTA