Range for calling a 3bet

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Gerb

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What's a standard, reasonable range for calling a 3bet OOP? I have a number of times recently been 3 bet to 3x my bet from UTG. Do you call AJo? AJs? AQo? What's a reasonable range for a standard player ie. not overly aggressive, plays typical opening ranges and sizing etc.

Thanks
 
Andrew Popov

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Betting - where?
I often see such questions on this forum, and often - without specifying discipline, format, stack size, position ... Understand that there is no universal answer to such questions in poker. :(
 
Acesinthebig

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Fold AJ AQo, rejam with AQs+, also depends on how aggressive villain has shown to be
 
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TCashMoney19

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This all depends on villains 3bet tendencies and where he is 3betting you from. If I open UTG 9-handed with AJo and get 3bet by villain UTG+1, normally I would just fold. This is not a question where you will have one answer fits all unfortunately.

However, if you want to think of it in terms of GTO, think about how many hands you are opening in the particular position you're opening from and whether it's at the top or bottom of your opening range. For example, if you're opening ATs+, 77s+, KQo, AJo+, or something like that, AJo would be near the bottom of your opening range and it becomes a fold facing aggression OOP against a standard player. Also think about how WELL your hand plays against 3bets. Small pocket pairs, suited connectors and suited broadways play better than weak Ax offsuit type hands because they can flop more equity and more draws that make your hand easier to play. You can't account for every single variable possible when facing a 3bet, there are a lot of factors that go into whether you should fold, flat or 4bet for value or as a bluff. This all depends on villain, stack sizes and relative position. Hope this helps!

~TCashMoney19
 
Acesinthebig

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This all depends on villains 3bet tendencies and where he is 3betting you from. If I open UTG 9-handed with AJo and get 3bet by villain UTG+1, normally I would just fold. This is not a question where you will have one answer fits all unfortunately.

However, if you want to think of it in terms of GTO, think about how many hands you are opening in the particular position you're opening from and whether it's at the top or bottom of your opening range. For example, if you're opening ATs+, 77s+, KQo, AJo+, or something like that, AJo would be near the bottom of your opening range and it becomes a fold facing aggression OOP against a standard player. Also think about how WELL your hand plays against 3bets. Small pocket pairs, suited connectors and suited broadways play better than weak Ax offsuit type hands because they can flop more equity and more draws that make your hand easier to play. You can't account for every single variable possible when facing a 3bet, there are a lot of factors that go into whether you should fold, flat or 4bet for value or as a bluff. This all depends on villain, stack sizes and relative position. Hope this helps!

~TCashMoney19
Good Answer!!!!
 
cranberry

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To this question you will not get a definite answer! This question need more info: what discipline (cash, MTT, SNG, etc.), limits, tables 6max or 9max, the size of the stack. With pocket cards AJo, AJs, AQo, you should not call 3-bet, especially if 3-bet was raised from an early position.
In games (MTT, SNG 9 max) for calling 3-bet, I try to stick to the range of 2.6% of hands (QQ+/AK) from any position.
 
HennieP

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Like everyone already said, it depends on a lot of factors. In a cash game AJ is trash UTG and I personally would just fold it but you can get away with a raise in some situations in that position depending on your table image and fellow players. In a tournament on the other hand it all comes down to stack size. If you have less than 13BB you would just open shove with AJ because all your chips are going in the middle no matter what. If you have a big stack of 50BB or more you might also want to play AJ from UTG with a raise to put pressure on your opponents. If a similar size stack 3bet after your raise then get out of the hand. If a short stack shoves or 3bets you might make the call depending on remaining chips and pot size.

Whenever you go into a pot with a hand always ask yourself "What am I trying to achieve with this hand?". Just raising or re-raising with a hand because this pro or that pro said so is not good enough. You must understand WHY a raise or re-raise is good play with a hand in a certain position. Because AJ is a weak hand we only want to play it in late position like from the button or cutt-off if it is folded to us. Why? Because if we raise with AJ from the button with no other bets on the table we pick up the blinds more often than not. If the SB or BB happens to have a monster hand and 3bets us we'll just fold but we raise in order to NOT see a flop. If we do get called we still have a hand that could become very strong with the right flop but we go into it know that if we miss the flop we'll check fold.

Normally it makes no sense to play it in early position because a lot of hands can beat you and everyone else still has to play after you. There are exceptions of course but that's usually limited to tournament play. The only hands you really normally want to raise from UTG in cash games is AA/KK/QQ. There's no pressure of the blinds increasing every few minutes or hours so there's no need to play recklessly. In tournaments, the same goes for big stacks unless you find that your table is weak and you want to put some pressure on them but such play can be disastrous if you're not experienced enough to handle it. Small stacks will get to a point where they shove with any 2 cards in any position just to stay alive. Medium stacks might widen their range a bit to see more hands in order to double up.

So yeah, there's no straight forward answer. Think about why you're getting into the pot and take it from there.
 
Nr98

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To this question you will not get a definite answer! This question need more info: what discipline (cash, MTT, SNG, etc.), limits, tables 6max or 9max, the size of the stack. With pocket cards AJo, AJs, AQo, you should not call 3-bet, especially if 3-bet was raised from an early position.
In games (MTT, SNG 9 max) for calling 3-bet, I try to stick to the range of 2.6% of hands (QQ+/AK) from any position.

You mean even close to the button? As soon as your opponents catch on to that you're most likely to be exploited.

However I do agree that calling a 3-bet with AJo utg would be a very bad idea indeed.
 
Nr98

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Like everyone already said, it depends on a lot of factors. In a cash game AJ is trash UTG and I personally would just fold it but you can get away with a raise in some situations in that position depending on your table image and fellow players. In a tournament on the other hand it all comes down to stack size. If you have less than 13BB you would just open shove with AJ because all your chips are going in the middle no matter what. If you have a big stack of 50BB or more you might also want to play AJ from UTG with a raise to put pressure on your opponents. If a similar size stack 3bet after your raise then get out of the hand. If a short stack shoves or 3bets you might make the call depending on remaining chips and pot size.

Whenever you go into a pot with a hand always ask yourself "What am I trying to achieve with this hand?". Just raising or re-raising with a hand because this pro or that pro said so is not good enough. You must understand WHY a raise or re-raise is good play with a hand in a certain position. Because AJ is a weak hand we only want to play it in late position like from the button or cutt-off if it is folded to us. Why? Because if we raise with AJ from the button with no other bets on the table we pick up the blinds more often than not. If the SB or BB happens to have a monster hand and 3bets us we'll just fold but we raise in order to NOT see a flop. If we do get called we still have a hand that could become very strong with the right flop but we go into it know that if we miss the flop we'll check fold.

Normally it makes no sense to play it in early position because a lot of hands can beat you and everyone else still has to play after you. There are exceptions of course but that's usually limited to tournament play. The only hands you really normally want to raise from UTG in cash games is AA/KK/QQ. There's no pressure of the blinds increasing every few minutes or hours so there's no need to play recklessly. In tournaments, the same goes for big stacks unless you find that your table is weak and you want to put some pressure on them but such play can be disastrous if you're not experienced enough to handle it. Small stacks will get to a point where they shove with any 2 cards in any position just to stay alive. Medium stacks might widen their range a bit to see more hands in order to double up.

So yeah, there's no straight forward answer. Think about why you're getting into the pot and take it from there.

Why you folding AJ on the button tho? It's on the top of your opening range there right. Folding there in a tournament will most likely make you blind out really fast.
 
HennieP

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Why you folding AJ on the button tho? It's on the top of your opening range there right. Folding there in a tournament will most likely make you blind out really fast.

I didn't say just fold AJ on the button. I said raise and IF either blind re-raises you (3bet) then you might want to fold depending on your stack size. If you have a small stack it doesn't matter just push all-in. If you have a big stack and the blinds also have big stacks it might be prudent to pick a better spot.

In a cash game you'll have to decide if a re-raise from the blinds are worth the hassle. If you know you're up against tight players a fold might be good. If not then go for it.

AJ is a hit or miss hand. You'll either hit the flop hard or miss by a mile. How much chips you're willing to gamble on that is up to you. I prefer to be cautious with a hand like AJ but others might like to play it like it's Aces.
 
cranberry

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As soon as your opponents catch on to that you're most likely to be exploited.

Maybe. But I try to adapt to the game opponents. 3-bet opponents I can also check out of late position, not necessarily with a tighter range of cards.
 
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karl coakley

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IDK,

1. If you are raising AJ or AQo 3x from UTG, sounds like a big leak. If you hit an Ace are you good? Looks like a way to win a small pot and lose a big one.

2. I don't know how you can call a 3 bet with AJ or AQo.
 
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LFC_yllnwa

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I'd say make a raise with 78s is much easier than AQ-AJo generally a good raise but also with AK does not guarantee anything, despite the many books tips Pro raise to show a strong hand only possible with (AA,KK,QQ) everything else is not to give opponents to see the flop cheaply. As can be seen in game especially on pokerstars the flop quite often shocking.. ))
 
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