Texas Holdem 3 Bet Range

admin  4/5/2022
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I've made it pretty obvious on this site that I'm a regular poker player here in Baton Rouge. I've began keeping records to verify that I'm improving or at least not hemoraging money with my play. At the Argosy Casino Baton Rouge you usually have a choice of 4 games to play which are 3-6, 4-8, 10-20 and no limit. No limit is my favorite game. Its the game I win at consistently and its the game I understand the best.
I don't understand the 3-6 table yet....
but I am getting better at it. When you go to the Argosy no limit players usually are sitting at a slow and methodical grind waiting and
playing poker for the most part. Low limit players tend to be less poker educated and consist of more gamblers with much faster play. Most no limit players, such as myself, have a really hard time adjusting to the value of hands and what they should do with them after the flop. Its torture because depending on the hand you'll very often be golden on the flop and dead on the river.(winning nothing but frustration and stories for when you get your no limit seat)
I decided playing and figuring out how to beat this game is the best defense against steaming(get used to it in the steam room of poker games) and a good way to build patience. I'm also of the opinion that you can't be a good poker player if you only know how to play one game. I've about got it cracked with the help of Lee Jones low-limit Texas Hold'em poker book combined withh a good bit of patience and willingness to try and crack this bugger.(I love punishment) For me to do well in this game it requires an insane degree of patience. Despite its loose and fast appearance if you don't want to be practically gambling you have to tighten up and play only premium starting hands. HOWEVER premium starting hands in this game are very different from no limit and you've got to be willing to just throw your 3-6 initial hand investment away often. It feels like getting pushed around and just watching other people take pots but in reality you're saving bets and waiting for optimum opportunity. To me they should change the name of this game to 'set or better' because thats what it takes to win at it regularly.
Starting Hands
Suited connectors, 1-2 gapper suited, A or K and any other card suited are my favorite hands. Play ALL pairs the same unless you're in early position pre-flop in which you might run enough people out with big pairs.(otherwise I just call and hope for a set) Get off of your AK, AQ, AJ, AA, KK, QQ hands quickly after the flop if it appears you could get sucked out on easily. Suited is very important as the flush is a big money hand in this game. Top pair is a weak hand that you can expect to get beat at least 30% of the time.
Table dynamics
Player types affect your stack more than your actual play in this game. Sometimes people always want to raise, re-raise, cap pre-flop and flop. This turns getting to see 4 cards for 3-9 dollars into 12-24 dollars. No big deal in the grand scheme but if you're looking to practice at this game like me and just wait around then you should try to get to a table where players aren't so aggressive.(alot of times its just good drunken fun at the boat on 3-6 Texas Hold'em)
The dollar per hour ratio works out to making something like $15 per hour which is a hell of a grind. Maybe something to consider if you're a college student or have alot of free time but if you see me there its just because I'm waiting for my game. I've actually gone in and played to win several hundred dollars playing this scheme. It was a lucky night and I hit alot of flush and 2 pair/houses.
Since coming up with this strategy I've won consistently instead of giving away free money before going to no limit. It works for me but I probably haven't completely described it here so be cautious if you apply any of this. I'll go over it later and fill in some gaps. - Jerry Odom
September 15, 2005

A 3-bet as most players use the term means the act of putting in the third bet, technically the second “raise”, the “3-bet” during any given round of action. It’s only in recent years that the term has become popular, indicative of its use during online play. For flop games, such as hold’em and Omaha, the pre-flop 3-bet is. If you only three-bet a tight range – say AA-QQ and A-K – your opponents know that when you three-bet you can only have one of four hands. Obviously, that’s not a balanced range. When your re-raising range is so narrow your opponents can always make the right decisions.

Texas Holdem 3 Bet Rangers

Test

Aggression. It can be measured in several ways – aggression factor (AF), aggression percentage (Agg Pct) or aggression frequency (AFq).

Tradition requires that we mention the classic Aggression Factor /AF/ calculated as (Bet + Raise) / Call, checking or folding with no effect.

3bet Clothing

The drawback of this indicator is that due to its formula it can’t differentiate between a hyper-aggressive player raising any two cards and a fit-or-fold player throwing away everything but the pure nuts. Basically, all a high AF tells you is that the player doesn’t like to call.

I myself don’t rely much on this indicator, but it’s a part of the so called Holy Trinity of Poker HUD stats (VPIP, PFR, AF) so you have to know what it does.

In order to see a nuanced picture, you need different indicator – and which one you’ll use depends on your poker HUD program of choice.

Aggression percentage /Agg Pct/ is used in Holdem Manager and represents the frequency a player takes an aggressive action on a given street. So if I bet the flop but check the turn and river I would have 33% Agg Pct because I made 1 out of 3 aggressive actions.

Aggression frequency/AFq/ is used in Poker Tracker and is calculated as (total bet + total raise) / (total bet + total raise + total call + total fold) * 100, the idea being to include all possible actions in the divisor of the equation.

There is a slight difference in the way Agg Pct and AFq are calculated, as Agg Pct sees checking as passive and AFq as neutral. Some players say that counting checks as neutral is OK as the player could intend to check-raise, but I personally prefer the Holdem Manager Agg Pct statistic – it’s more straight-forward. The probability of a Check-Raise can (and should) be analyzed using the separate Check-Raise statistic, but more on that later on.

Texas Holdem 3 Bet Range Extender

Both Agg Pct and AFq start to become useful for the different streets after about 300 hands. Knowing these stats allows you to clearly identify overly passive and aggressive players. As far as ranges go, an Agg Pct less than 30% is extremely passive and more than 60% extremely aggressive. AFq range is similar – too passive when less than 35% and too aggressive over 65%. The slight difference occurs because checks are neutral in AFq and not counted as passive. These ranges depend heavily on the limit and the type of table – lower limits usually have more timid players compared to the higher limits and shorter tables see more aggression than full ring tables.

As always, remember to look at the stats for the individual streets – often players are very aggressive on the flop but proceed differently on the turn and the river.

Examples using Agg Pct and AFq
/For sake of simplicity we’ll assume all opponents have stacks of about 100BB/

FR (full ring) table, you are in middle position with a pair of 6s. A player in EP (early position) limps in, you limp in, and the BB (big blind) checks. Flop comes 259 rainbow (of different suits). The big blind bets half of the pot and the early position player folds. Now what? Well, let’s look at his stats (we’ll assume a decent hand sample is available).

a) VPIP=27 / PFR=15 / Agg Pct=55 (Agg Pct Flop=64).

Texas Holdem 3 Bet Range Game

The opponent is definitely a loose-aggressive player (LAG). He obviously plays a lot of trash hands, so his flop aggression percentage of 64 is borderline crazy. He didn’t raise pre-flop, so a big overpair is unlikely; probably he caught something on the flop. Against a passive player we can consider folding here, but this particular opponent can bet just as easily second or third pair, or simply two overcards. You should at least call, but a better option may be to look at the villain’s Fold to F Raise percentage and if it’s high enough, raise him to force a fold.

b) VPIP=12 / PFR=5 / Agg Pct= 22 (Agg Pct Flop=28).

Texas Holdem 3 Bet Range Chart

A weak-tight player bets two opponents out of position – a definite sign of a big hand – at least top pair with decent kicker. He probably would have slow-played a set or two pairs, but a nine in his hand would explain the bet as protection from overcards on the turn. Anyway, under the circumstances we have no more business in the hand and should fold.
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