Problem with 3bet pots oop, micros

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Beasty2k

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I seem to encounter more trouble in 3b pots than I used to. Consider villain unknown, 100 BB stacks, micros.

Typical example is CO raises, folds to me in BB, I raise to 3-4x his raise with say JJ. He calls.

On a low flop I value bet 2/3 pot, he calls.

On a A high flop I represent the ace and fire a bet, he calls.

Not loving turn spot in either of the cases. Obv on the A high flop I need to give up and check, at which he will bet close to 100% of the time, and I have to fold.

On the low flop, and the turn blanks, I will normally fire again (especially with a big pair). If an overcard hits on the turn or river, I can represent that but basically turning my hand into a bluff. And firing all three streets with one pair oop is not something I love.

I have tried to adjust / balance for this by also raising a bluff range such as KQ, hoping to take it down right there or if I hit a K or Q. But I am often outflopped / outplayed in that example too.

I seem to be bleeding money in this spot a lot, more often than not I am raised at some point and forced to fold, or not firing turn/river with only a pair. Pot often ends up 100 BBs.

So happy to hear some strategy tips on how to play decent hands (TT+, AQ+) from oop. Always 3bet pre? Do we always cbet when flop texture allows it? (again, consider unknown villain). How to we play turn/river?

My -guess- is villain plays (wrongly) fit / fold pre, and when they hit they stay with it, whether it be a set, dodgy 2-pair or even a weird K9 that hits a K on turn/river. Either they call all streets, or raise me off the hand at either street post.

I don't want to fold AQ+ oop pre, nor do I want to call to play fit/fold. Same goes for JJ/QQ really. (Also makes me wonder if I am not calling enough 3bets IP, and trying to outplay villains in the same manner, so happy to hear any comments on that too).
 
Aces2w1n

Aces2w1n

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Flop play with JJ

With an A flop... seriously why would you bet? Your folding out worse hands? we want to keep those hands we can beat.

So your either winning the pot on the flop so it's a small pot... or losing a big pot on the river. Unless ofc you set or somehow get a miracle board.

Think of your villains range? If he calls your flop bets he may well have AT+ quite easily. But if you check your keeping hands like 66-TT in the hand... though if your opponent is a drawing fiend u may want to bet still because he chases a lot and we can actually value bet here.

So you need to know what type of opponent you have. His tendencies to chase or plays top 10% of hands with 3bet pots?


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Betting on the flop can be good if your up against QQ KK and fold them out. But if they don't have that holding then you've lost money.
 
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Beasty2k

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Flop play with JJ

With an A flop... seriously why would you bet? Your folding out worse hands? we want to keep those hands we can beat.

So your either winning the pot on the flop so it's a small pot... or losing a big pot on the river. Unless ofc you set or somehow get a miracle board.

Think of your villains range? If he calls your flop bets he may well have AT+ quite easily. But if you check your keeping hands like 66-TT in the hand... though if your opponent is a drawing fiend u may want to bet still because he chases a lot and we can actually value bet here.

So you need to know what type of opponent you have. His tendencies to chase or plays top 10% of hands with 3bet pots?


.......................


Betting on the flop can be good if your up against QQ KK and fold them out. But if they don't have that holding then you've lost money.
Thanks, yes makes sense. I think I have completely lost my touch here and basically spewing chips.

As you say, better to keep villain's range wide, and yes he does have a lot of Ax hands in his range especially in the micros.

So say we (JJ) check the A-high flop, he bets 50% pot, we instafold?

Also, happy to hear comments if we flop an overpair on a low flop and our cbet gets called - how do we continue on turn / river?

EDIT: and if any input on balancing with KQ-ish or Ax types hands, 3-betting these oop or that a bad idea? How continue on the two flop examples?
 
Aces2w1n

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I normally check the turn and raise the river for thin value. we can check and hope to induce bluff...

That's on a dry board.


on a wet board it can be totally different and dangerous... we could represent flush chase? but then at micros we run into a problem with how often will better hands fold at the micros even when our line makes sense?

Micro's don't often fold at the best of times. so bluffing is pretty bad, ofc against tight weak players or tags it's possible to do a bluff or on regulars so we have to be selective on our opponents.
 
BenjiHustle

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I'm definitely interested in learning more through this discussion. This is a common tough spot, I believe, in the micros.

As I see it, most players aren't 3-betting any lighter than QQ. That said, they definitely love to CALL light on 3-bets. So range your opponent. You know that they likely do NOT have KK or AA. That is good. There's a possibility, but probably not. More often, when your 3-bet is flatted, you're going to be facing 22-QQ (dependent slightly on effective stacks if they're solid players; meaning that smaller effective stacks can rule out 22-66/77), AQ or AKo. In this case, there's no sense in betting an ace-high flop. However, this adds a lot of merit to betting a low runout. You can get called by worse and the only hands that are going to raise are hands that have been helped by that flop. For example, sticking with the JJ example, a flop of T74r looks quite nice to you. If you lead out and get raised, though, you have very good reason to think villain hit a set or has QQ and you can safely fold this hand. At a certain point, even undercards on the board can only mean that your opponent either hit a set or had you beat from the rip.

As for balancing, don't worry about it. Play winning hands in the micros and you'll be fine. You'll be exploitable against solid regs, possibly, but just stay focused on the fish and only go up against solid regs if you have to or have reason to believe that you have the advantage (whether because of your cards or a read).

That's my take. I'm just trying to learn here too, though, so if anyone has any feedback on that, it'll be appreciated. I could be way off base, but that's how I see it.
 
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Beasty2k

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Good input and I do agree.

About the balancing part, it's rather that I am trying to play a merged range oop, and polarized IP. I have moved down stakes after a withdrawal and suddenly think micros are extremely difficult. It used to be bet/bet done. Maybe people have tightened up, idk.

Been having so disastrous results in 3bet pots oop that I tightened up big time in these spots, basically 3-betting only JJ+ and AK. Yet, I STILL lose loads of money here.

In position, things are obviously much easier but you get called every so often here too. Happy to discuss that too (being donked into, check/raised, etc a lot).
 
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