How to get paid off 3 betting light

Just so long as you're at least mostly 3bing in spots you shouldn't really ever be cold calling, like you're in SB or HJ-, they raise 5bbs+, there's a raise and multiple callers, etc, the "light" 3bs will come pretty naturally.

You don't even have to do anything too fancy. You could never 3b anything worse than AJo/77/QTs (or hell, even AQo/99/KTs), and even make all the standard undisciplined flats with PPs and janky suited aces in these spots for all I care, and still gain a reputation for being someone who 3bs more than premiums.

Still not sure the motivation for these sorts of plays is to have your premiums get paid off more, per se. The more you expand your range, the more indifferent you become to whether they're paying off your value hands or letting you over-realize with your marginal hands.

So when I 3 bet with mid suited connectors or small pocket pair i am generally going to be bluffing most of the time post flop when i whiff ?

And when i do show down some funky 2 pair, set or straight it is good for my table image right?

Not necessarily. If you have picked your target correctly, they will be folding a lot to your three bet. When u three bet a sc, you want to target players who will mostly fold to your three bet, not those who will continue liberally. But at the same time you don't want them to be too nitty with their preflop raises. Otherwise they will be able to continue simply on the virtue of their preflop range alone. That they don't fold might indicate they have a really strong hand, against which bluffing would be fruitless.

Thanks for the feedback - I think I have been approaching things incorrectly. It sounds like the intent with more frequent 3 betting is to win more uncontested smaller pots rather than to play a big pot for stacks.

You need to fire the flop and turn with air on many boards after 3-betting 76s and getting HU. If they fold when you hit, this is good. Usually, you won't hit it hard.

At 1/2 or 1/3, there is a lot of limping, and raises are often strong, so they may be calling the 3! with like TT/JJ. 3!s are often KK/AA. So you may be able to get them to fold mid pps.

However, you might 3! light more people who are raising light or who seem to have a marginal hand based on sizing and position.

Here's how 67s wins big in a 3bet pot, not versus JJ. UTG opens lighter than you think, he has 88. Flop is 458, he thinks he's got you since you're supposed to have AA in his eyes, he sets the trap. Turn and river brick and his mind is blown that you show up with the nuts. Generally speaking coolering people is not the expected outcome; massive FE is. You might think your opponents are playing balanced and raising based upon position but you'd be wrong. A lot of these people are either already opening too light or opening complete air for reasons aliens will be studying in the distant future. We're talking J5s, Q3s, etc. Even against other pros they will often just overfold to your 3bet because they dont want to play a big pot OOP.

Stick to the 3bet/fold mantra whereby you 3bet literally 100% of your standard opening range (but only from late position) and you will chip up real fast.

At 1/3, people are not usually opening so light and don't usually fold to 3!s. They particularly won't if you seem to be playing 3! or fold. You need to usually bet the flop and turn, risking throwing away a lot of chips with 7-high.

Mix in some light 3-bets, don’t force big pots.

In this specific scenario - check the turn.

Betting the flop 1/3rd is something you probably do with range so that's an easy call with a ton of hands. But when the board pairs you have an absolutely dominating hand while your opponent can't have much. So when you follow up with a bet, it looks super strong to V because are you betting with AK on that turn? (you shouldn't be). V isn't going to have a lot of 6x or 7x. V's range is fairly weak with 88-JJ probably the top of his range. This simply isn't a board you can expect to get paid on a lot going b/b/b. So when you turn the nuts and your V has a weak range, check. Give him a chance to catch up or the courage to bluff. Because if you check turn and the river is a brick, a lot of Vs are going to value bet JJ, and some will even bluff with a hand like KQ if you show weakness on the turn because checking the turn looks a lot like AK looking to get a cheap showdown (and you in fact should do this with AK). Sometimes, the best way to get the most money in the pot is to pass on a betting opportunity because that makes Vs believe they might have the best hand or that they can bluff you. In this case, I'd expect most Vs to bet most rivers with JJ and if the river is something like a T, V is going to have a really hard time folding JJ to a decent raise because he isn't going to think you can have AA/KK/QQ after checking the turn.

As a more general idea, if Vs are overfolding to you - great! Winning 3! pots consistently is going to win you a ton more money than coolering people in big pots. In this line, you won around 22bb right? (Assuming you made it about 15bb pre, and another 10 bb on the flop) That's 22% of a starting stack.

If he's folding JJ on the b/b line with this runout, you're printing against this V. Keep going b/b on every flop with every hand until he does something to tell you he has a monster. Winning 22bb with 76 vs JJ is larceny. If I saw someone fold JJ in a 3! pot when he flops an overpair - I'm going to be 3! the poor soul every chance I get. Because if he folds here, he's also folding if any A, K, Q comes out. Basically, he is only calling me down when he turns a set or better - I win because that's only going to happen about 15% of the time.

So on this runout, if he is calling flop and folding turn unless a J hits, we win 22 bb 85% of the time. Say we always pay off the all-in averaging 100bb if the turn is a J (which with this exact hand we do though there are certainly a lot of hands that we wouldn't). Even in that scenario 22bb * 85% = 18.7. 100bb * 15% = -15 bb. So we win 18.7 bb, we lose 15 bb. We're printing 3.7bb if we are so terrible that we go all-in with KQ on a J turn. V's strategy in this hand is extraordinarily flawed to the point that it doesn't matter what our cards are. We can bet/bet/call all in with 100% of hands and we win. If he's playing this bad on this runout, he probably is on others too. So we should 3! this V every chance we can and just take his money 22bb at a time, and we'll win often enough to offset when we lose an all-in.

This actually isn't terribly rare at $1/2 or $1/$3. Many people are making these mistakes in 3! pots because they aren't used to them, and the pot starts out larger and grows faster. The tendency of a lot of players is to play "fit or fold", and when you identify a player doing that, exploit it mercilessly. They might figure it out eventually, but they aren't going to figure it out today and change their entire playing style while you're playing this session. They will chalk it up to "bad luck" when you pull the same pattern on this guy 3-4 times this session and make 60-80 bbs just from him in just those hands.

So against this V, I'd strongly favor the b/b line with my bluffs and 3!s that don't connect. I'd slow down and check turn with thick value. And I'd do everything in my power preflop to get into a 3! pot in position against this specific player as many times as I can because when we get in that situation, we know we are printing. Keep printing until V evolves.

You want to have some light 3!s and represent JJ+ or AK postflop if you get called. I don't think 3! or fold is a good approach at 1/3 or 2/5. Maybe is tough games, and maybe a solver would recommend it.

Tactics:
3Bet in position, Check-Raise out of position

These weapons are nuanced and can be used to reduce the field, isolate, exploit over-folders, flush out villains strong hands (gain info), and win hands without showdown (redline).

You probably want to use more subtle lines for value. Many players only 3bet/x-r with premiums and that’s a big leak. You need to know these players and get out of their way.

As others have stated, you don’t need to go crazy, but make villain fold to some weaker hands, not just the nuts. I don’t know if there’s an exact ratio, but recognize opportunities when they come. Small pairs & Ax suited are good, because although you want them to fold, you could hit a monster.

There are times that these tactics can be used for value, it all depends on the villains you face and your image at the moment. But the takeaway is that with these strategies, you’re mostly going to get folds, so mix in some semi-bluffs, especially if you’ve been card dead.

We’re talking pre-flop and flop here. As ranges narrow on later streets, recognize that these strategies will contain mostly value. Play strong hands in position aggressively, but when you miss everything on the flop, these tactics can be your friend.

Thanks for all the advice. Will take on board and try and implement some of the tactics suggested.

As reasonably new to the game I feel like I have being getting outplayed post flop by more experienced players, hence a lot of my winning pots are without seeing a flop. Initially when being the pre flop raiser say with AK and missing the flop I would still C bet but then shut down once called after not hitting the turn. I have started double barrelling these spots when the board is not coordinated or not in my opponents perceived range and I have found this has been quite successful. I do find it hard to fire the 3rd barrel after being called on flop and turn as I dont think many players are floating multiple bets without a reasonable holding - is this a correct assumption or should I be committed all the way with the line I am taking?

The main advantage of 3-betting 76s is not to get paid off with trips. You make draws and can play them strongly representing a big pair or AK on a high flop. When you totally miss, you can keep firing on dryish boards, and it is easy to give up if that doesn't work, since you only have 7-high.

Obviously, it would have been a great result in the hand you mentioned if you got a fold on the turn taking the same line with another suited connector with a draw or air.

A small pp is not good to 3!. First of all, you don't want to narrow the field and there is profit playing it 4 or more way against loose players. Then it doesn't make many draws and you don't know if you are ahead when you miss. You can make a big hand, but that is similar to what you are representing but better.

That's completely normal - when you're new you're going to be outplayed, you're going to make mistakes, and some of those mistakes will be expensive. The hard part of poker is that whether you won or lost money with a particular hand is not an indicator of whether the play itself was a mistake. In live play especially, you aren't getting enough volume to really know if something is working or a mistake or if you are simply experiencing positive or negative variance. That's where studying off table with the assistance of solvers can be useful.

Pre-flop can be made relatively easy, postflop play is extremely complex and factors beyond math become much more important.

Should you barrel off with AK when you whiff? Sometimes. If you're doing that in all situations, you're torching money. Are there draws on the board? How likely is it that this particular V would x/r? Some Vs will never x/r, it's like they don't know it's an option, other Vs will x/r every chance they get if they have any kind of backdoor draw. Some will only x/r with value, others will primarily x/r with bluff, a few will find a very dangerous balance.

In post-flop play, your exact hand is far less important than being able to figure out what range of hands V has until the river. The best thing you can do for your postflop poker game is to try to categorize people's hands based on the actions they take. Practice identifying whether a player has a nutted hand, strong made hand, moderate made hand, weak made hand, air, weak draw or strong draw on each street. Save yourself a ton of money by doing this in hands that you're not involved in. So many people don't watch the game and miss out on a lot of info paid for by others When you see a showdown or you can coax someone to show their cards, that will confirm or deny and you can adjust your assumptions.

Look for clues like if someone is in position and checks back a moderate to reasonably strong hand you know that when this person bets the river in position their range is polarized - they are either super strong or bluffing.

That V who bets turn when you check, is the V betting very frequently whenever their opponent checks turn? What happens when someone puts up resistance like a x/r or call and it goes to the river? That's kind of an obvious spot that many $1/$2 players will find to bluff because most players will c-bet far more than they should. That's why in the OP, I suggested checking the turn because that will look weak to a lot of Vs and many will then bluff or value bet more thinly. In general, b/b/b is a line that minimizes fold equity. If you get called the first two times, odds are high you will get called the third on many runouts. b/xr/b is a much stronger line that will get more value hands to fold. A line like b/xc/xr is a good line against Vs who bluff too much, its terrible against a V who is going to play mostly honest and is only value betting strong hands.

But it all comes down to what kind of hands does your opponent play this way? If you can solve that, then finding your action becomes a lot easier. Don't try to put them on specific hands, just identifying if they have made hands vs bluffs and strong vs moderate vs weak when they take certain actions. Because that will dictate what the "right" play is against that specific player. Preflop is a lot more about the math, post flop is a lot more about what your opponents are doing.

It sounds like you’re progressing well. It’s a great game. You have to take calculated risks, which means adjusting based on new information or actions. It’s a game of making less mistakes, more than great plays.

Hungry made a good point that checking the flop (instead of c-betting) can have positives. (Especially OOP) Now you see the turn, is villain still checking, maybe you fire now. If villain has seen you shut down on the turn, he may well float a couple of streets waiting to take it away.

I will tell you that when I call your cb, and you check the turn, I will bet the pot most of the time whether I know you or you just sat down and no matter the board or my cards. So, it’s not a great line.

I will say that I have followed through on the river and got many folds I never expected. Can’t make any kind of sense of poker sometimes. Try not to start a story without a good idea of how you want it to end.

Finally, don’t compare yourself to others or give them too much credit. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Experience is over-rated, lot of bad habits out there. Keep playing tight, but slip a knuckleball in there once in a while. Have fun, you got this!

I invite you to play on ClubWPT and pay to see holecards if you need a nice snapshot of fishy floating ranges. As Marc Goone highlights it's nearly 99% "monkeystabs". Fish just feel compelled to bet with literally any pair/draw when checked to. Their goal is to win hands, not money. I've actually heard this brought up at a debate live. The exact quote was "when someone checks to you and you have a pair, you just GOT to bet it. I mean YOU HAVE TO". Nobody asked why, they just all nodded in agreement. It's easy to understand from their POV: Fish calls a raise with 45o. Flop KJ5 and you check. They're going to bet bottom pair because they dont want a turn card to beat them somehow. Their goal isnt value motivated, it's fear motivated. They just want to 'end the hand now' so they can scoop the pot without any more decisions later. This is why I agree with Marc's strategy to extract a little more value out of them by checking a lot, check raising a lot, and check folding when you super whiff.