In this post we are going to look at a different line to take with our borderline hands… for a long time whilst playing poker I would encounter aggressive action and with my medium strength holdings like AJo or JJ, for example, I would just flat call raises pre-flop.
Today we explore a different strategy where we will either fold or 3-Bet with our hands to continue in these spots.
There are some good reasons to do this, firstly by 3-Betting:
- We will get value from worse holdings that may want to call us.
- We can allow ourselves to fold to a 4-Bet from our opponent and get out of trouble early.
- We can win the pot pre-flop a good percentage of the time.
- When we are called we will have the betting lead which is very helpful in winning the pot post-flop.
Let’s look at an example of playing passively and see what issues we have playing our hands so we can learn a little more about why this might not bet the best strategy to use…
$100/$200 Tournament Level
MP: Raises to $600
CO: Calls $600
BTN: A♣ J♥ Calls $600
SB: Calls $600
BB: Calls $600
Flop: K♣ T♦ 3♦
SB: Checks
BB: Bets $1000
MP: Calls $1000
CO: Raises to $3000
Hero: ?
So now we have to fold… even though we have a straight draw and an overcard.
The problem we will have with taking holdings like this multi-way is that unsuited hands like this will often flop poorly and play poorly post-flop too.
Better holdings to play in this fashion will be hands like J9s, 87s, K9s etc…
What if we play the same hand but aggressively
Let’s take a look at how the action pans out if we play the hand with a pre-flop 3-Bet…
$100/$200 Tournament Level
MP: Raises to $600
CO: Calls $600
BTN: A♣ J♥ Raises to $2100
SB: Folds
BB: Folds
MP: Folds
CO: Calls $2100
Flop: K♣ T♦ 3♦
CO: Checks
BTN: Checks
Turn: A♥
CO: Bets $2000
BTN: Calls
River: 2♣
CO: Checks
BTN: Bets $2500
CO: Calls
Showdown:
Cut-Off shows A♦ 5♦
BTN shows A♣ J♥
A much better result for us, we end up controlling the size of the pot trying to get to showdown with our holding and realise our equity so we don’t blown off the pot.
This is another big mistake players make, just because we have played our hand aggressively pre-0flop doesn’t mean we have to C-bet a high frequency on all boards, we can pick our spots to try and win the pot on the flop, for instance, if the flop was: Q♠ 2♣ 7♦ then we could bet this board texture with ease as we are less concerned with being raised off our hand and this isn’t a board that is going to hit our opponent often.
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