Sports & Gaming
Three-Betting
Lesson time 09:09 min
Three-betting is more prevalent now than ever. Daniel teaches you how to defend against it and how to use it in your own game without becoming predictable.
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Topics include: The Evolution of Three-Betting • How to Deal With Getting Three-Bet • Account for Stack Depth When Facing a Three-Bet • Balance Three-Betting Frequency From All Positions • Maintain a Wide Range in Your Three-Bets • Adjust Your Opponents' Ranges When They Call Your Three-Bet
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One of the weapons that's a lot more prevalent today and in use than it was when I started playing poker is the three-bet. And essentially, what that means is the reraise. The initial reason that three-betting as a weapon became very, very profitable-- well, first of all, it wasn't being done very much in the old days. And when people did it, they did it with aces or kings or queens. So they became very, very readable. And it was very clear that they had a strong hand. So in knowing that, people would fold a lot. So people were folding way too often against three-bets. So the more aggressive players realized that they can win a lot of pots with anything-- with seven deuce, with six, four off suit-- if they three-bet because their opponents were folding too often. There was most definitely a turning point in poker right around 2010 and 2011. Everyone got wind of this. Wow, if I just reraise and reraise, people fold too much. So then it became sort of a, you know, match of, like, I'm going to three-bet you. Oh, yeah? Well, I'll four-bet you. Oh, yeah? Well, I'll five-bet you. OK. Well, six bets. And you'd see the hands that they'd have. And it'd be, like, ace, six off suit and king eight, you know? So people-- it was more of, like, an ego contest. And the truth is most of those players either learned that they need to come back to, like, Earth and a little more normal, or they stopped playing because that's not a strategy long-term that can be successful in today's metagame. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years from now, we'll be talking about doing the six-, seven-bet thing. But I don't see it happening. How do you deal with getting three-bet? We've already touched on it's important if you're going to play that you should be raising if you're first in. OK. Since you're going to be doing that, you're going to have a lot more players who are going to start reraising you. And the first thing to think about when you're reraised by a player is what type of player are you up against. Is this a player who three-bets literally and is very aggressive? If so, then his range is going to be quite wide, or is this more of an old-school player who's going have a very tight three-betting range? And then against that hand, you want to fold more often. So against the more liberal three-better, maybe you're going to throw in another four-bet and push him back around. And against the tighter player, maybe you let him get away with it because you know he's not three-betting enough. So you can afford getting away with even a hand as strong as ace, queen. You raise with that. A tight player reraises you. You can just fold the ace, queen and feel good about it. That same ace, queen against a wild guy-- that might be a hand you four-bet with. OK. So the first thing we focus on is the player tendencies. The second thing you want to think about is position. OK. You should be calling far more often when you are in position versus out of position. Now,...
About the Instructor
Put yourself across the felt from Daniel Negreanu, the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time. The six-time World Series of Poker champion teaches poker strategy, advanced theory, and practice through hand-reviews of his winning games. Learn how to sharpen your mental game through demos on reading opponents and spotting tells. Join Daniel at the table to increase your win rate, grow your ROI, and get your game “in the money.”
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Daniel Negreanu
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