Sports & Gaming

Three-Betting: Hand Review

Daniel Negreanu

Lesson time 04:23 min

Using footage of a hand from an EPT Barcelona Super High Roller event, Daniel illustrates the importance of modifying your three-betting strategy when encountering resistance.

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Topics include: Three-Betting From the Small Blind vs. Steven Silverman

Preview

INSTRUCTOR: The hand we're going to look at here takes place in Barcelona, and it represents a situation that you should find yourself in a decent amount. And it's going to involve a three-bet and a four-bet and how we react. And let's just play the hand, and we'll talk it through. ANNOUNCER 1: Actions been folded to Elky. ANNOUNCER 2: Who is a big sweetie. ANNOUNCER 1: Now on Reinkemeier. ANNOUNCER 2: Sweetie. ANNOUNCER 1: King-five, off suit. ANNOUNCER 2: You can tell even Tobias isn't crazy about raising this, but feels like he has to, or he'll ruin his street cred. ANNOUNCER 1: He does raise. And then raised to $6,000. Ace-10 for Daniel. ANNOUNCER 2: Daniel could very well three-bet here. I think, in position, he just flats, but in this spot, he'd probably rather get some folds than play too many pots out of position. INSTRUCTOR: So in a situation like this, you're going to find yourself often in the small blind against the button raise. Now one thing we understand about the button player, is the button player's range is far wider than everywhere else at the table. So the button may be opening in the neighborhood of 50% of hands, or some guys, even more so. And I know that Toby Reinkemeier is a pretty aggressive player, so he's going to have a wide range. Now the question is with a hand like ace-10 off suit, it doesn't play that well post-flop. It's not a hand that is connected or suited that, you know, could develop into something big. It is one of those hands where I'm definitely way ahead of Reinkemeier's range. And the question is not whether I'm going to fold it, but am I going to just call here, or take initiative in hand. And I decide, especially with my image against Reinkemeier that it makes sense for me to go ahead and take initiative. So I decide here to three-bet it to $18,000. ANNOUNCER 1: He three-bets from the small blind to $18,000. Steven Silverman has ace-jack suited in the big blind. ANNOUNCER 2: And this is probably right around the bottom of Steve's four-betting range. He could probably go either way here. He does have position on the three-better. ANNOUNCER 1: That is a four-bet, so $45k. Reinkemeier's out. INSTRUCTOR: So interesting decision here from Silverman, as you can see. So he is paying attention to what's developed here. Where the raises come from, what position, has a huge impact on how you play a hand. So for example, if in this situation, you know, Reinkemeier raised under the gun, and I'd reraised. Silverman's going to fold this hand. He's not even going to consider calling with a hand as strong as ace-jack suited. But because the raise came from the button, we know that's a wide range. Then, factor in my three-bet-- well, my three-bet doesn't have to be that strong either, because it's very clear that I could be taking advantage of a loose open from the button. So now Silverman can widen the range of hands that we have in this spot. So that ace-jack s...

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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