3-betting in No Limit Hold Em
Part 1- Introduction to 3-betting
What is 3-betting?
3-betting is when a player re-raises the original raiser.
Let’s look at the effect of an initial raise
When someone raises preflop, they are effectively saying they have a good hand, and most of the time this is the actual truth. The result of this raise is that it should discourage hands that might have otherwise have limped in from calling, so a player should only call this raise with a narrower range of hand, usually strong hands also or if the conditions are right hands that have big implied odds.
What is a 3-bet trying to say?
So given that it takes a big hand to call a raise, what does it say about a hand that re-raises i.e. 3 bets preflop. Re-raising the raiser effectively says ‘you might be strong but I’m even stronger’. When a 3-bet is called (or re-raised (4-betted) and the 4-bet is called), it has a dramatic effect on the hand, despite the fearsome reputation of no limit hold em, the majority of hands don’t end up in massive pots, however when you make a 3-bet you greatly increase your chances of winning or losing a massive pot.
3-betting doesn’t usually happen too frequently. Most players 3-bet less than 10% of the time, in fact about 6 to 7% of the time would be in the normal range for a solid 6-max no limit player for example, but when it does happen, as we have seen, it has a major impact on the nature of the hand.
Good enough to 3-bet – The BIG Hands
When you have a big hand i.e. pocket aces, pocket kings and usually pocket queens then it should be obvious that you will be looking to build up a pot by 3-betting preflop. Just very occasionally, when you hold AA or less often with KK, you might look to trap someone who folds a lot to 3-bets, but who is overly aggressive post-flop with the aim of smooth calling them all the way.
In Part 2 of 3-betting in No Limit Hold Em we will be taking a look at some of the more typical situation in which you might see a 3-bet occur.
