A 3-bet in poker is the first re-raise on a betting street. You will see it most often before the flop, when one player raises and another player raises again.
Most players get the first half of 3-bet poker strategy right. They re-raise aces, kings, and ace-king. Then they call or fold everything else, which makes them easy to read and leaves a lot of money on the table.
In this guide, I will cover why you should 3-bet in Texas Hold’em, which hands to do it with, how big to make it, and how to adjust to the player who raised.
What Is a 3-Bet in Poker?
The term 3-bet refers to the first re-raise made on any betting street, although it is most often used for the preflop betting round.
Before the flop, the big blind counts as the first bet. The first raise is the second bet, which is why you will sometimes hear it called a 2-bet. The next raise is the third bet, or 3-bet.
For instance, in a $1/$2 cash game, a player opening to $5 would be 2-betting, while a player re-raising to $15 would be making a 3-bet.
The same count works after the flop. Say a player bets $10 on the flop, a second player raises to $30, and a third player makes it $100. The bet is the first bet, the raise is the second, and the re-raise to $100 is the 3-bet.
So a 3-bet has nothing to do with the raise size. It only describes the spot, which is the first re-raise on that betting street. If someone raises again after a 3-bet, that is a 4-bet.
Why We 3-Bet in Poker
In my experience coaching players at all levels, the value reason is obvious to almost everyone, and many players fall short on the bluffing side. Recreational players treat a 3-bet as a signal of hand strength, so they only re-raise when they hold a premium hand.
There are two main reasons to 3-bet, and you need both.
3-Betting for Value
The first and simplest reason to 3-bet is for value. When your hand is very strong, you want to build the pot and get as much money into the middle as you can.
For instance, imagine holding two black aces in the small blind in a $0.25/$0.50 online cash game. The cutoff raises to $1.25, and the action is on you.
You want to 3-bet this hand every time. The only decision left is how much to raise, and that depends on your position, the raiser’s position, and the stack sizes.
3-Betting as a Bluff
3-betting as a bluff is harder to get right, and many players never do it at all. That is one of their biggest mistakes, so it is worth brushing up on how to bluff before you add these plays.
If you only ever 3-bet huge hands, your opponents will work it out quickly. Even an untrained eye notices the player who re-raises once an hour, and nobody pays that player off.
A player who also 3-bets some bluffs gets far more action on premium hands. The bluffs also win the pot before the flop a good chunk of the time, which lets you profit with hands that would otherwise be folds or marginal calls.
The hands you choose matter. Good 3-bet bluffs are usually suited, and they often contain an ace or a king, because those cards are blockers that make it less likely the raiser holds aces, kings, or ace-king.
A hand like A5s can make the opener fold better ace-highs such as A9 offsuit, and it still has a straight and a flush to fall back on when it gets called.
You do not need an exact ratio of bluffs to value hands. Just make sure your 3-bets are not only premium hands, and that your bluffs are hands with something going for them, not random junk.
Benefits of 3-Betting
Beyond value and bluffing, a 3-bet does a few things that a call can never do. Lee Jones covers the cash game side of this in more detail in his five reasons 3-bets work so well in cash games.
Isolating Weaker Players
You want to play as many pots as possible against weaker players. When a weak player raises and you just call, the players behind you and the blinds can come along, and now you need to make a real hand to win.
If you 3-bet instead, the other players fold most of the time. You get the weak player heads-up, usually with position, and you win a lot of pots after the flop when both of you miss.
Thinning Out the Herd
In live cash games in particular, you will often see one player raise and several players call. A 3-bet over a raise and one or more callers is called a squeeze play, and it often lets you play the pot against one player instead of three or four, or win it right there.
Taking the Lead
When you 3-bet before the flop, you tell your opponents you could have kings or aces, and they have no way of knowing whether you do.
When you call a raise instead, your opponents know you rarely have the very best hands. Having the lead lets you win more pots with a simple continuation bet, including many pots where you hold nothing.
Which Hands Should You 3-Bet?
There are two ways to build a 3-betting range, and the right one depends on what the raiser is likely to do.
Polarized, the Best Hands Plus Some Bluffs
A polarized range is your very best hands plus some bluffs. The good hands in between just call.
Use it when you are in position and happy to see a flop with your middling hands, or when the raiser folds to 3-bets too often.
Our tournament charts for deep stacks give a simple framework for it:
- Value 3-bets are the very best hands, such as QQ and better and AK, with JJ and AQs added against late position raises
- Bluff 3-bets are hands with good blockers and little value as calls, such as A2s to A5s from the button and small blind
- Calls are hands that play well after the flop in position, such as suited connectors, medium pocket pairs, and Broadway combos
This shape makes your life easy against a 4-bet. You either have a premium hand that is happy to put more money in, or a bluff that you can fold without a second thought.
Linear, Just Your Good Hands
A linear range, which is also called a merged range, is simply your best hands and your next-best hands. Think premium pairs and ace-king at the top, followed by strong but non-premium hands like ace-jack, king-jack suited, and pocket nines. There are no weak bluffs in it.
Use it when the raiser calls 3-bets too often and almost never 4-bets, and when you are out of position, especially in the small blind.
Against a player who never folds, a weak bluff accomplishes nothing. A hand like ace-jack, on the other hand, gets called by plenty of worse hands that it dominates.
The downside is that the bottom of a linear range hates facing a 4-bet. That is fine against players who only 4-bet their absolute premium hands, because folding to them is easy.
Position Changes Everything
Which poker hands you 3-bet depends on two positions, yours and the raiser’s.
An under the gun raiser has a strong range, so there is very little you can 3-bet. Even hands as good as pocket jacks are usually better as calls. In our 100 big blind cash chart, the button 3-bets only about 4% of hands against an under the gun raise.
Red is a 3-bet, green is a call, and blue is a fold. Notice how little red there is. Aces, kings, and ace-king suited always 3-bet, queens and jacks mostly call, and most of the bluffs are suited hands with an ace or king in them.
Against a cutoff or button raise, the opener has far more hands that cannot stand a 3-bet. You can 3-bet more hands for value, and you can add more bluffs alongside them.
The blinds are a special case. In the small blind, calling is a poor option, because the big blind can come along cheaply and you will be out of position for the whole hand. In cash games, mostly 3-bet or fold from the small blind.
In the big blind, you will call a lot because you close the action. Still 3-bet your best hands, and add a few suited hands as bluffs. Most players never 3-bet from the big blind without a premium hand, and it makes them very easy to play against.
For the exact hands in each seat, study the preflop charts for the format you play. Cash game and tournament ranges are different, and tournament ranges are usually wider, so use the charts that match your game.
Adjust to the Player You Are Facing
Charts assume your opponent plays well. Most of yours will not, and each one gets it wrong in a different way. Before you 3-bet, ask what this player does when someone re-raises them.
- If they fold too often before the flop, 3-bet more bluffs, and choose hands with an ace or a king in them
- If they call before the flop and then give up on the flop, 3-bet more suited hands that flop well, and follow up with a continuation bet
- If they call everything, drop the bluffs and 3-bet more good hands for value
- If they are tight and only raise strong hands, 3-bet less and just call with hands like AQs or pocket jacks
That last one catches a lot of players out. You beat tight players by getting out of their way when they show strength, not by re-raising them.
Be honest about how much you really know, too. Seeing someone fold to a 3-bet twice is not a read. Start close to the charts and move further as the different player types at your table show you what they do.
How Big Should You 3-Bet?
The most common mistake when sizing your bets before the flop is letting hand strength decide, making it bigger with aces than with a bluff. Against anyone paying attention, that gives your hand away. Pick one size for your whole range in a given spot.
That size depends on position first. When you are out of position, you will have a harder time realizing your equity after the flop, so you benefit more from a fold. A bigger 3-bet also gives the in-position player a worse price to call.
Cash Game 3-Bet Sizing
Our cash game charts for 100 big blind stacks open to 3 big blinds. They 3-bet to 10 big blinds in position and 12 from the blinds, which is a little over 3 times the raise in position and 4 times out of position.
As a rule of thumb, anywhere from 3 to 3.5 times the raise in position and 4 to 4.5 times out of position is fine.
So, if a player opens to $10 from the cutoff in your $2/$5 game, make it $30 to $35 on the button and $40 to $45 from the small blind.
There are three adjustments worth knowing:
- When there is a raise and a caller, make it bigger by about one extra raise for each caller
- When the opener raises much bigger than normal, as many live players do, 3-bet a tighter range, because they are risking a lot to win a little and should have a strong hand
- When a player never folds to 3-bets, you can make your value 3-bets bigger against that player
Tournament 3-Bet Sizing
In tournaments the opening raises are smaller, so the 3-bets are smaller too. Our tournament charts open to a little over 2 big blinds. At 30 big blinds they 3-bet to about 3 times the raise in position and about 3.5 times from the blinds. With deeper stacks the 3-bets get a little bigger.
As stacks get shorter, you bluff less, and your bluffs shift from suited connectors that rely on implied odds to high cards that can make top pair.
Many players think that 30 big blinds means shove or fold. It does not. You can still make a small 3-bet and you can still call.
Here is the rule of thumb I use. If a normal 3-bet would put in about a third of your stack or more, go all-in or fold instead. Once that much is in the middle, you are getting too good a price to fold to a shove.
You can check the sizes and ranges for any stack depth in PeakGTO, PokerCoaching’s own solver.
What to Do When You Get 3-Bet
Building your own 3-betting range is half of the problem. You also need a plan for when someone 3-bets you.
The short version is to call with suited hands and pairs that flop well, far more often in position than out of position, and to fold offsuit hands like KJ and AT that are dominated too often. I cover the details in my guide to 3-bet calling ranges.
For the re-raising side, read my 4-betting strategy guide.
3-Betting Strategy Summarized
The next time you are dealt a hand you would normally call a raise with, stop and ask whether a 3-bet would do more. Against a weak player, in position, or from the small blind, the answer is often yes.
Keep the framework simple. 3-bet your best hands plus some bluffs when you are in position or against anyone who folds too much, and 3-bet only good hands against players who call everything. Size up when you are out of position.
Get those things right, and your 3-bet poker strategy will already be ahead of most of the players you face. From there, the biggest gains come from studying the exact ranges for the games you play and fitting them into the rest of your poker strategy.
