I've seen a lot of material about 3betting from small blind and other positions with some marginal hands to put pressure on opponents and to balance some of your strong hands.

I've seen very little out there in the way of 3betting from the big blind. I find that most opponents are very unbalanced in this position and it becomes very easy to fold to 3bets from the BB for this reason. For that reason I think a 3bet BB bluffing range could be strong to both generate folds and to create potential for when you do get strong hands in the BB.

The big blind is weird because you're getting a great price to complete a wide range of hands. So my question is this:

What do you guys think the best theoretical preflop3bet bluffing hands would be from the big blind and why?

For me hands like A5s, A4s and A3s. Ace is a good blocker and with this hands you can make some nut flushs and complete some straights that can surprise the villain.

Every one loses a massive amount of money from the BB. More folding less 3 betting IMO. Your mindset is somewhat erroneous players will figure out what you are doing after like the 3rd time. They might look to trap you or shove you into a gamble anyways with 4 bet shoves. All hands are gambles except for aces and they lose 20% of time pre-flop allins.

Originally Posted by portuga

For me hands like A5s, A4s and A3s. Ace is a good blocker and with this hands you can make some nut flushs and complete some straights that can surprise the villain.

Feels like those hands are too good to not just complete. Would be a waste to fold to 4b imo. I'm thinking a range of hands that you're ok with folding to a 4b.

Originally Posted by playinggameswithu

Every one loses a massive amount of money from the BB. More folding less 3 betting IMO. Your mindset is somewhat erroneous players will figure out what you are doing after like the 3rd time. They might look to trap you or shove you into a gamble anyways with 4 bet shoves. All hands are gambles except for aces and they lose 20% of time pre-flop allins.

I don't want to complete 100% of hands in the big blind. I want a bluffing 3b range to balance when I get high pairs / AK in the blind. I'm not sure what hands would be good to use.

Originally Posted by qqkazzoo

Feels like those hands are too good to not just complete. Would be a waste to fold to 4b imo. I'm thinking a range of hands that you're ok with folding to a 4b.



I don't want to complete 100% of hands in the big blind. I want a bluffing 3b range to balance when I get high pairs / AK in the blind. I'm not sure what hands would be good to use.

53s,42s,64s,57s,56s,76s,T8s,JTs my opinion

Suited Gaps and low pockets IMHO

Well it quite much depends who and what positions you are 3betting against. I would assume easiest range would be against utg with blockers, knowing the standard calling range given the villain type and knowing utg is typically very tight and we need to play oop when called he is mostly super strong.

To make your own balanced 3bet range is rather hard! Better first use hand charts.

Originally Posted by Unashamed88

Suited Gaps and low pockets IMHO

+1. I think these are decent starting points especially against late position raises. But as everything this is villain dependent and how they are likely to react

Originally Posted by JackleOfCrackle

+1. I think these are decent starting points especially against late position raises. But as everything this is villain dependent and how they are likely to react

Ofcourse it would be foolish to forget about your villains!

Think your 3 betting range should depend
1) on your opponent (against a calling station no bluffs only value hands)
2) on your position (given here as it is the BB as BB closes the action there is less need to 3 bet in general)
3) on the opponents position
4) .....
Against likely callers no bluffing range but only a value range and against likely folders incorporating more bluffs with blockers like A5-A2 and depending on your opponent and position of opponent K5-K2 probbaly only suited though if you want to incorporate more bluffs small pairs are also candidates.
Would not include suited gappers as they are overrated