To 3-Bet or Call with KK

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To 3-Bet or Call with KK

Poker, as incredibly complex as it is, has some basic fundamental thoughts to base decisions. One certainly is:
Induce mistakes by betting to get a worse hand to call.

With this said, I have situations that makes me ponder whether or not I am playing optimally.

A player is OOP to me and I have KK. I can safely assume I have a better hand and can raise for value. But if that player folds to 3-bet over 90% of the time, by 3-betting and the OOP villain folds I have only helped him play correctly. So should I call in-position to this villain? Of course, this brings up the point about polarized 3-betting this type of villain. If I never 3-bet big hands, this can easily be used against me. So the question is, do I call with KK knowing he is almost always folding to a raise, but can not polarize against this player?

I am thinking along these lines:
1) If the OOP villain has a low 3-bet to fold, raising is perfect. You get a call to your value bet.
2) If the OOP villain has a high 3-bet to fold, I have to also raise because I need to win more smaller pots with polarized 3-bets.

A second, "I have best hand situation", is the following:

1) I call IP with 99 and the flop is 27T rainbow. Villain c-bets. Do I raise or call? More times than not, I have the best hand and vulnerable to any broadway card turn (bluff or villain makes hand). By raising, I am making a big pot with a weak holding. So raise or call flop?


6 Comments

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thedoors 12 years, 2 months ago
for 3bet
you re right if he allways fold to 3bet you have to call your kings. Poker is an adapatation game, so you flat KK and 3bet Axo.
If he starts to 4bet you or call oop you can now 3 bet your KK. Just be sure you are a move ahead of him

for the flop situation
more difficult to me but i believe you have to call with you 2nde paire and let him bluff because you are ip
imSiankO 12 years, 2 months ago
slowplaying monsters and 3betting the bottom polarized of our range against people that fold too often to 3bets is the right play, meaning you want to cold call with TT+/AK/AQ while 3betting Axs/Kxs and sometimes some suited gapers and suited connectors, knowing when to 3bet those hands will depend on positions and villain's raise 1st%. When he starts to tilt/adapt then you can start shift toward the higher part of your value polarized 3betting range while keeping a couple or few bluffs depending on how drastic he's trying to adapt.
with that said, if villain is really folding as high as 90% to 3bets, you can even 3bet hands like A8o, K9o because you'll just be printing money from him folding too often preflop. Just make sure you do it in the right positions and try to guess his range once he calls, if you flop a pair to know when to cbet or not.

about the flop play it's a clear call, raising here would be turning what's probably the best hand into a bluff.. which doesn't make any sense at all, i'd much rather raise a hand that has a backdoor flush, for example A2ss on say 2h 7s Td since our hand probably can't call another cbet on the turn but has disguised implied odds for when we hit an A or 2 on the turn, not forgetting that we can cbet turn when we pickup our flush draw. While 99 is a lot less vulnerably and you'll can sometimes call the turn. With that said, never forget to look up at villains stats before raising in a situation like i said and to know when to call a second barrel with the 99.
Parker Muir 12 years, 2 months ago
The way I approach this situation is that I make the assumption that someone with a 90% F23B isn't really "there" at the table. What I mean by "not there" is that he is just playing his cards exactly as they come, but he's not really thinking about his or your ranges or exploitation or anything like that.

Using this assumption, I just play an exploitable strategy vs him. This includes flatting almost all my premium hands and just weighting my 3b range hugely towards bluffs. Exactly how you feel like you should be playing against this type of villain.

Then I wait for him to adjust and if he does I will change my strategy to be less exploitable and re-adjust to him.

In your 99 example, the flop is a clear call. Just because you are ahead of his range is not reason enough to raise. The only times he will continue to this raise are times he has you crushed. Thus you are building a huge pot with a hand that is way behind.

The times that you are ahead of him, he will likely fold to your raise. So in effect, your raise is accomplishing the exact opposite of what you would want. its getting all better hands to call and all worse hands to fold.

With regards to his overcards being live. That will certainly be the case and sometimes he will hit them, which is just variance. Sometimes he will also continue to barrel with the worst hand on a scare card though. You will just have to continue to make good decision on the turn and river aided by your feel for him as a player. You can't always avoid tough decisions later in a hand, they are just a part of the game.
Thebing72 12 years, 2 months ago
yea, you want to exploit players when they are not playing optimal (ie, 90% FT3b). You don't need to worry that you're playing exploitative because this player type is not looking to adjust

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