Depending on the game, we should aim to defend our opening range to a 3-bet somewhere between 40% and 55% ⚽️ of the time. At lower microstakes we will respect the 3-bet ranges of the more ABC opponents we are likely ⚽️ to encounter and remain closer to the 40% defence frequency. This is also a nice defence frequency for liveR$1-$2 andR$2-$5 ⚽️ games, which run very tight in respect to 3-bet ranges. Ascending through the stakes and encountering Villains who apply more ⚽️ pressure and leverage more fold equity, it will sensible to be closer to the 55% frequency. The trick to playing ⚽️ an optimal balanced range vs. a 3-bet is two fold, we need range awareness and situational awareness.
The ability to understand ⚽️ where you are in your opening range is a bit like feeling about in the dark for a light switch ⚽️ – it will be more successful if you know your surroundings. A useful exercise in preparation for facing 3-bets is ⚽️ to map out your opening ranges from each position and count how many combinations each one includes. Then pick a ⚽️ defence frequency based on how aggressive your games play in respect to 3-betting and multiply your starting combos by this ⚽️ percentage; this is the total number of combinations you should look to defend against an average regular in the player ⚽️ pool. The next step is to prepare which combos you will use to meet this defence frequency and break them ⚽️ up into value 4-bets at the top, calls in the middle, and then a few 4-bet bluffs for balance. Th ⚽️ bluffs should be hands that are not quite strong enough to call, but have enough potential to flop something from ⚽️ time to time incase Villain is rude enough to flat our 4-bet. Overall, our defence strategy can be defined in ⚽️ the following way:
This strategy can be defined as a polar approach to defending against 3-betting and is by far the ⚽️ most standard way of handling the situation. Note that we drop our 4-bet bluffing range whenever we consider Villain too ⚽️ crazy to fold to a 4-bet or too tight in the first place to have opened a non-premium hand.
Following charts ⚽️ blindly is not the way to beat poker games. It is essential that while we rely on charts to form ⚽️ a familiarity with the rough ideas behind our defence strategy, we are also alert and capable of adjusting which hands ⚽️ we defend to a 3-bet based on the unique factors present from situation to situation. Take the following unique circumstances ⚽️ for example:
When we open the BU, we expect a wide array of hands to be profitable steals due to the ⚽️ combination of pre-flop fold equity and post-flop positional advantage. This means that we start off with a very large body ⚽️ of hands and that we will need to defend a fairly large body of hands in order to meet our ⚽️ defence requirements. Most opponents, even at the lower stakes online, will do a reasonable job of applying pressure to our ⚽️ opening range in this spot, being well aware that it usually spans something like 600-800 combinations (around a 40-60% range).
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