3betting as a bluff

Hi everyone! In order to balance my 3bet preflop strategy i try to put in some random bluffs of equal percentage mixing with the nut hands. In general i like all sort of suited connectors but i would like to adopt new ideas and insight about 3bet bluffing.As for 4bets i never bluff but maybe more experienced players can mention something about that if they have some sort of analysis. Thnx in advance

What stakes?

I think you should have a larger % of 3bets being for value, but this will be villain dependent.

Tbh 3 bet bluffing at the lowest micros is pointless, as FD says just widen your value range. My 3 bet would be like 8-10% and majority of that range would be value because we can nail them post.

You play 2nl don't you? If that's the case then generally stick to a value range of like TT+ and a load of broadway cards and you can't really go wrong. Dont start getting Funky with A5 etc cos people just don't fold.

^ someone needs to explain why we're 3betting as a bluff/value etc..

fact is, we're playing an exploitative strategy, and that involves findng and 'exploiting' peoples weaknesses.

they fold to 3bets a lot? 3bet them with a polarised range, weighted towards bluffs.

they call OOP a lot? 3bet a depolarised range, with lots of KQo + AJo types of hands because they will call OOP with worse.

if they call preflop a lot and play fit or fold on flops, you 3bet a lot of value hands and bet the flop smaller.. just think, what is the best way to exploit this person.. and do it.

i play mostly 10nl but take shots at 16 and 25 when my br allows it. Im trying to create profitable situations tilting for the opponent where hes usually oop struggling to understand what im holding and when he does his move guess:its gonna be aces. I want this range to be polarized with many broadway cards , adding or removing cards depending on villain. Being predictable is what i hate making everyone fold when having rockets and 4betting me when i have qq.

I really don't care for the three bet bluff, it's only gonna work against someone with a bluff or, half of a bluff. I'd have to go with my read. That would be the only time I used it. If I thought the guy was weak in some way.

fletchdad said:

this will be villain dependent.

Click to expand...

+1

I agree it's villain dependant but if you want to expand then I would suggest choosing a single hand and adding it to the range for example 67s. It's a subtle change which wont go noticed and means you should still be percieved as being on a strong range. On occasions when you're called it plays well postflop and is very well hidden should you hit 2pr+. Try it for 10k hands and if it goes well think about adding another random hand.

At smaller stakes you should primarily focus on widening your 3-bet value range since you'll get weak opponents calling with worse, you'll have initiative post flop against players who will play a lot of hit/fold poker. Against these opponents you can win a ton of pots by just c-betting post flop. You can work on smaller sized 3-bets in position with a ton of hands, AJ,KQ,ATs, etc... because you'll get calls from worse, A9s, KJ, TQ, etc...

If you do start polarizing your ranges, it's more profitable to 3-bet w/ hands that can out flop your opponents 3-bet calling range instead of suited connectors etc. That's not to say you should never 3-bet SC's, but flopping 2 pair+ with these hands is rare, and you can easily flop second best hands a lot where you'll lose at bet or two post flop. So something like K9s/A4s is much more profitable because your opponents 3-bet calling range will include a lot of hands you can out flop TT/JJ and QQ in some cases. It's much easier to get to showdown, and you also cut out some dominated comb ranges when you do this.

Work on this primarily in position first, and then mix in some OOP ranges.