Light three bettting

There is a new trend as mentioned in recent poker magazines like card player wehre The TAG (tight-aggressive) style which used to dominate the games has really started to evolve into LAG (loose-aggressive) style. This of course leads to tougher games, and you're liable to find yourself being forced into some rather difficult spots.
One situation that comes up time and time again is when you've opened a pot for a raise and then another TAG/LAG three-bets you. It's up to you to determine if he is three-betting light and what your best plan of attack is.

The majority of players open with a wide range of hands pre-flop. The light three-bet is basically just a re-raise before the flop with a hand worse than what they would normally three-bet for value.
This play is designed to exploit the aggressive players who are opening a wide range pre-flop. Usually the three-bettor hopes to take the pot down immediately, knowing the original raiser will hold average hands the majority of the time.
This brings up an interesting question , what is the best defense against a player who employs the light three-bet?

See this tread for some good suggestions.

Fold. Whenever this person is in the pot and you recognize that he is a TAG, fold. Just don't be in the pot. :-D

Huh?... is this the 'over 50' special?

I've also been reading a bunch of stuff on 'trends' in online mtt play lately.... and the 4-bet bluff shove is also being used a bunch (yah... whoa... but have seen it employed a bunch in bigger buyin mtts). Do ya think he'd fold to a 4-bet shove from a TAG?

[quote=Poker Orifice;1037402]Huh?... is this the 'over 50' special?

Oops... not to pollute this post but to expand on my comment (to make sense of it). This is the guy who called my 3-bet O.O.P. today with A-rag, then check/called a 70%pot c-bet on 2fl J hi brd., and then an 80%pot shove on turn,.... with nothing but air, lol. (a couple rounds prior had done it as well to another player, stating, "I knew you were weak when you checked the turn... (AK vs. A-8o)" *note, c-bet when hit flop hard, check turn & shove river..... but got impatient and double barrelled instead... and was called down for almost his full stack... w air... gotta love poker, hehe

I think when faced with a three bet, I only have two options. I like to either fold, or shove. I don't like to flat the three bet unless there are a couple callers in the pot in front of me, and I have a pocket pair to go set mining with. If I have AA or KK, I will just get it in there.

Watch how loosely you use the term shove. If you want to say either fold or raise, I wouldn't agree with it, but at least I could see why you would think that. But if you are deep stacked with say 300 BBs left, are you really shoving here?

Anyway, I would sometimes call here, depending on what you have. If I have AA or KK, I'll probably try to trap by just calling. With AA, a smooth call shows weakness when in fact you're very strong. Also, you're in position, so if they try to throw out a c-bet, depending on the flop you can either go over the top, or just smooth call a non-threatening board. With KK, you don't always want to get a ton of chips in the pot early on. If you reraise, someone with AQ, AJ, etc. is actually likely getting equity on a call unless you make some insanely huge reraise (which you don't want to do because the pots you'll steal won't make up for the time you run into AA). Just call the KK and play very aggressively after any flop that doesn't contain an A.

with big hands (qq and up) i would call or RR 2-3x what they RR my original bet with. if they just call its likely a small PP or a weak paint hand. depending on what the flop is determines a bet or check raise on the flop.