Triple barrel bluff at the micros?
Posted by PokerVagabond
Posted by
PokerVagabond
posted in
Low Stakes
Triple barrel bluff at the micros?
Hi guys,
First post and new to the forum so sorry if there is already a well known article or post on the subject. Also might be a bit vague but maybe some of you guys could point me in the right direction.
After looking at my database (and just generally knowing how I play) I am extremely aware that I never, ever 3 barrel bluff at the micros. This is something that I would like to incorporate into my game (even if not very often considering it's the micros) but I really do not know where to start when it comes to understanding WHY I think a triple barrel bluff could work. I don't want to just do it randomly and would like to understand the reasons I should have for attempting it.
Anyway hope you guys can help with me understanding the play a little bit better and hopefully I'll be able to post an attempt in the coming week.
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This is a complex subject, in a sense that it takes a lot of information to make a good decision, for example: villain is station or not, villain has a wide or condensed range, your hand blocks his calling or folding range, your perceived range has enough value hands or only bluffs, the cards you barrel are better for your range or villain's, just to mention a few. I suggest you pick a flop texture and try to build a triple barrel range BU vs BB for example, giving your sceario the specific assumptions that are needed to build your range. After that you will probably be able to identify weak ranges more easily and then expand your triple barrel range in different kinds of spots. I'm not going to get too extensive on this because I think the main job has to be done by you, and also because I still work on that myself. Good luck anyway
Hey thanks for the comment. I knew it was a pretty intense topic with a range of possibilities but you've made it a lot clearer about how I should go about trying to implement it slowly into my game. Certainly going to look out for spots when I'm on the BTN vs BB and I guess go from there. I'll be looking to post a hand in the coming week or 2 in that specific scenario and see what you have to say about it.
Cheers buddy
Welcome to RIO!!!!
keep posting for sure!
Saulo's post is nice.
In general, first step to build up good 3barreling game is to be aware on what situations/textures your opponents range's are weak. FE. when turns/rivers are scarry for him and he will most likely fold all hands that called flop and dont improved to river. Its really nice to be also aware when your opponent is capping himself - like in situations where board is really ugly and he should raise monsters like tripz/two pairs.
On micros its all about your opponents ranges, not exacly about your perceived range, coz when you are 3barreling you always look strong.
And also - dont be afraid to bluff, even if you gonna fail at start, remember that you gotta often need only ~40% FEQ to make a good bluff, so just accept that you gonna be caught on your bluffing sometimes.
I think that's a really good point about our perceived range - unless you've got some kind of history with the villain, your 3rd barrel is always going to look super strong (because you just don't see 3 barrel bluffs that much).
Yeah I think the whole idea of 'getting caught' is pretty interesting. At least after posting this and reading through the couple of responses I have an actual rough idea of what my thought process needs to be and understanding that thought process is a lot more important than the result on a given hand. I've read that villians with a low WTSD are perfect for trying out a 3 barrell bluff because they rarely get to the river without something close to the nuts. Any truth in that?
I think you want to be looking at WTSD and W$SD together because there's definitely two very different versions of a villain with a low WTSD:
1) Low WTSD and high W$SD suggests villain doesn't get to showdown much because he fold a ton of mid-strength hands (hence the high W$SD - he rarely calls when there's any chance he's not ahead).
2) Low WTSD and low W$SD suggests villain doesn't get to showdown much because he's barreling like crazy, winning lots of pots without showdown (but also inevitably getting caught a fair amount, leading to the low W$SD).
I'd also expect villain 1) is likely to have a fairly low aggression factor, whilst 2) will have a super high aggression factor.
Now I think about it, you could actually make a case for 3-barreling both villains a little more than average... villain 1) for the obvious reasons - he just folds a lot. Villain 2) for a less obvious reason but also pretty strong - he's so aggressive that when he's not betting / raising it's pretty likely he has a mid-strength hand at best.
So yeah - maybe a low WTSD is actually a reason to 3-barrel some more than average regardless of the villain type. But either way there's definitely two pretty definite villain types with low WTSD.
I like to triple barrel bluff on the btn vs. a villain in the blinds who isn't playing a ton of hands. I think players fold mostly when the turn and river are both over cards to the flop (but only if it's likely that you would have one of those over cards in your hand). Also, if your credibility at that table is bad, then you really shouldn't try for a triple barrel bluff. If you get called down one time, you'll just look like an aggro fish that doesn't know what he's doing, and people will eventually start calling you with middle pair. This is when you start 3 barrel value-betting your top pair, good kicker hands.
With that being said, I never bluff with zero equity and obviously there are a billion other things to take into consideration, but for beginning purposes, I think this is an easy situation to bluff, and it works a decent amount of the time.
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