We already covered what hands to c-bet in single raise pots both on low-card boards and ace-high flops, and now we will dive deeper into 3-bet pots.
Today, we will use the PeakGTO solver to analyze strategy on low-card boards in 3-bet pots.
We will cover both dry and connected boards when tackling these situations to illustrate strategy differences, and will wrap it up with core takeaways for each situation.
C-Betting On Low-Card Boards In Position – 9s5h2c vs. 8h6h4d
We will use an example of a wide poker range where our opponent opens from the cutoff, we 3-bet from the button, and he calls.
Key assumptions:
- The hand is played 100 bb deep
- Our opponent is opening from the cutoff
- We 3-bet from the button, and the CO calls
Let’s start with a dry flop and take an example of 9s5h2c to see how we should be playing this spot after 3-betting preflop.
Our opponent will be checking to the player who 3-bet preflop all the time, and we will be c-betting around 53% of the hands and checking around 47% of our range.
It is essential to note that we will stick to the big sizing of 70% of the pot in almost all cases, which makes our strategy much easier to follow.
As always, we will follow a mixed strategy when picking the actual hands. We will mostly c-bet strong holdings like overpairs that might lose equity with unfavourable runouts and add bluffs to balance it out.
The strategy for disconnected boards is fairly straightforward, but things change significantly on wet flops. Let’s look at a different example of 8d6d4d.
These are the flops where our c-betting frequency will be the lowest, at around 20% to 30%, since it clearly favors the callers’ range.
In this exact spot, the game theory optimal strategy suggests c-betting just 27% of the hands and checking with 73% of your holdings.
While you should still prefer larger bet sizing two-thirds of the time, we should now employ a mixed strategy, varying between 70% and 30% pot size bets.
The c-betting hands a spread almost equally between all holdings, meaning we will stick to a truly mixed strategy with pretty much all of our hands by checking them most of the time.
By checking back, we control the size of the pot and deny them the opportunity to check-raise us on dangerous textures, while still being able to extract value from our strongest hands on future streets.
Key takeaways
- C-bet around half of the time on dry flops and bet vulnerable one pair hands and bluffs
- Use almost exclusively big bet sizing when c-betting on dry flops
- Check much more often on connected boards with at least 70% of your range
C-Betting On Low-Card Boards OOP – 8s6d2c vs 8h7h5s
Now let’s break down some examples when we are playing OOP. We will analyze a spot where our opponent opens from the button, we 3-bet from the big blind, and he calls.
Key assumptions:
- The hand is in a cash game played 100 bb deep
- Our opponent is opening from the button
- We 3-bet from the big blind, and the button calls
Let’s firstly see how our strategy looks on a dry board of 8s6d2c.
The solver suggests betting around 49% of the hands and checking 51% of the time with a fairly even distribution between the hands. That said, we should be betting overpairs more often than other holdings and balance it out with some overcards containing runner-runner draws.
We are employing a fairly mixed poker strategy with the rest of the range by checking and betting the same hands at nearly equal frequencies.
As for sizing, we should mostly stick with the larger one and use a 60% pot size c-bet when we decide to continue our aggression after the flop.
Since wet flops featuring low cards are not ideal for the preflop 3-bettor, we will often check to control the pot size and avoid difficult spots. Let’s see an example of 8h7h5s.
We should be checking a lot OOP, and in this exact spot, we are only betting 27% of the hands and checking the rest.
The hands that we bet most often include overpairs and good runner-runner draws, but even in these cases only bet half of the time. With the rest of the hands, we are only c-betting some of the time and checking as our preferred play.
Key takeaways
- C-bet around half of the time on dry boards and use bigger bet sizing
- Use overpairs for value and overcards as a buff for betting more often
- Check over 70% of the time on connected boards
