$25 NLHE 6-max: To 3bet or not?

$25 NL HE 6-max: To 3bet or not?

Not enough hands on villain for any relevant stats. But he doesn't appear to be a major aquatic life form.

Just to start out the hand, I wanted to see peoples opinions here, and reasons for, a 3bet or a flat from the blinds.

poker stars $25.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $31.50
CO: $16.60
BTN: $26.00
Hero (SB): $34.20
BB: $34.35

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with T T
2 folds, BTN raises to $0.75, Hero....

Don't flat. Don't fold. 3bet.

TT is way ahead of his range. 3bet and he often loses all of his equity in the hand by folding the bottom of his range, a lot of which still has reasonable equity against you (Ax, Kx, Qx, Jx), you also give him the opportunity to make a mistake and call with something you dominate which is all of the above plus SCers and smaller pocket pairs. When he does call you his range is still a lot wider than JJ+, especially with only seeing the flop and not all five cards you've got his calling range absolutely crushed (and when he doesn't 4bet you, you're even further ahead, when he does 4bet you then you get out cheaply).
You also have the initiative which you're going to need on almost any flop.

If you just call what are you hoping for? I'm assuming you're not set mining (which would obviously be bad), so what do you plan to do, donk into him on the flop or c/r or c/c? Either you're going to get almost no value for your hand or you're going to be put in a position of bluff catching. About the only flops you want are low flops which appart from being uncommon aren't entirely safe since he can have a ton of SCers and pocket pairs in his range.

There's also the advantage that if you 3bet him, he's going to think twice about blind stealing next time. He really should keep hammering away at it, but who knows maybe he'll tighten up his range.

thepokerkid123 said:

I'm assuming you're not set mining (which would obviously be bad)

About the only flops you want are low flops

Click to expand...

Set mining would only be bad here if your post flop skillz suck, if your looking to play fit or fold postflop then flattings bad here, but if you can read the board well and know what would be a good spot to check-raise then flatting with any PP is fine, depends on the BB as well ofc, but as long as there isnt an aggro/squeezy villain in the BB then i'll flat with most PP's and have a look at the flop at least, but then i wont be calling to hit my set or fold, i'm confident that i can take down a lot of dry boards with a c/r against most LP stealers.

To the op, depending on how confident you are with your postflop game flatting here is fine, if your postflop has work to be done then 3bet, just make sure you still fire a cbet off on J/Q/K/Axx flops, dont 3bet and c/f if an overcard appears on a dry board b/c you'll be suprised how often a just over 1/2 pot cbet will take it down

What are we 3betting from the blinds if not TT?

I'm ok w a mixed strategy - flatting against someone who will fold a lot (a lot of btn opens will) and 3betting against someone who calls 3bets a lot (some btns will) - but I'm curious what our 3bet range is if it doesn't include TT.

Orangepeeleo, maybe I've got the definition of set mining wrong. I was under the impression that it meant calling in order to hit a set or fold. If you're intending to take down the pot unimproved, then my only issue with calling is how you're going to get more value from TT here than you would by 3betting.

orangepeeleo said:

if you can read the board well and know what would be a good spot to check-raise then flatting with any PP is fine, depends on the BB as well ofc, but as long as there isnt an aggro/squeezy villain in the BB then i'll flat with most PP's and have a look at the flop at least

Click to expand...

I agree that mid to high pocket pairs can be played like this (just not as proffitably as they can be played in a 3bet pot), but flatting small pocket pairs is definately a leak.
Set mining (trying to hit a a set) is horribly -EV in these spots because LP raisers have a very wide range that they aren't going to play for stacks with very often. Getting paid for your sets enough to make up for all of the times you don't hit just isn't going to happen. You have to make up for the lost equity unimproved and small pockets have almost no showdown value, or at least, no showdown value that isn't dominated by your opponent's range so you're going to have to bluff (a lot).
bluffing OOP is an expensive habbit, but much easier in 3bet pots as the aggressor. When you 3bet your range is stronger and the pot is a lot bigger relative to the stacks so your opponent can't float as lightly.

thepokerkid123 said:

how you're going to get more value from TT here than you would by 3betting.

Click to expand...

B/c a raisers range is going to be widest on the BTN so you can pick up value from all the SC's and random crap that may hit the board in w/e way, all of which would fold to a 3bet leaving you with a 4bb pot for your premium hand, against a standard TAG reg if you 3bet you fold out most of the stuff that you have equity against imo, if i raise QJo on the BTN and the small blind (who hasn't been 3betting from the SB much) 3bets me, i'm folding, hell i'd prob even fold AQ if the 3bettors tight enough, if i have anything that beats TT i'm either 4betting or flatting and trapping their ass, thus if you have a normal 3betting range from the SB, namely JJ+ AQs+ AKo, the pfr so only really wanna be calling a 3bet with an equally strong range

thepokerkid123 said:

Set mining (trying to hit a a set) is horribly -EV in these spots

Click to expand...

When i say i flat any PP i'm not only counting on value from set-mining, granted i've only ever played up to 10nl, and i may have to change this as i move up, but i'm quite comfortable playing some postflop poker, if the stacks aren't big enough to be set-mining then i obv tighten up, widen my 3bet range to include maybe as low as 77+ and fold the rest, but 100bb stacks i'd say TT and under i'm flatting with 2 possibilities for the flop a)i hit a set or b)the board comes dry or hits me a little bit, ie for TT the board coming 9Jx, and i can c/r or c/c depending on what sort of range i've got the PFR on

thepokerkid123 said:

so you're going to have to bluff (a lot).

Click to expand...

I do

EDIT: I have only been playing 6max for like 9k hands and it has been at 4nl so all of this may be bad advice, but if i do a filter for cold-calling in the SB i'm pretty sure that i would be making money, not that i do it a lot, doing it too much and pissing around post flop gets into FPS, but the odd time against the right villain i like to play some frickin poker! lol one of the reasons i love poker is the logical nature of the game, i love looking at a board and working out how likely he is to have hit it and what cards i'll lead out the turn on etc etc

slycbnew said:

What are we 3betting from the blinds if not TT?

I'm ok w a mixed strategy - flatting against someone who will fold a lot (a lot of btn opens will) and 3betting against someone who calls 3bets a lot (some btns will) - but I'm curious what our 3bet range is if it doesn't include TT.

Click to expand...

My 3betting range from the blinds is generally JJ+ for PP's, i will 3bet TT against the right villain but i prefer to keep a pot small oop and play around a bit post flop, so generally i dont 3bet TT, although it is villain dependant

You want to three bet the crap out of him with pocket cards like this. If the bet was from early or middle I might call and c/r any low flop or one high card flop. Player dependant really.

You have to no if it's for value or a bluff. When you work that out the choice is easy