Strategies for Identifying Soft Competition through Linear and Polarized Three-Bets, as Explained by Jonathan Little
"Isolate and Dominate with 3-Betting"
Poker guru Jonathan Little shows us one of the most lucrative plays in poker - isolating weak opponents with strategic 3-bets pre-flop. By 3-betting, you can block blinds from entering the game and often end up heads-up against a feeble player, who may make blunders in post-flop stages like overfolding to your continuation bets. This guarantees you an edge in both tournaments and cash games.
In poker, a linear 3-bet range consists of valuable hands such as high pocket pairs, AQ+, and high suited cards. This is a smart approach to collecting pots and isolating weak players - especially when you've got the advantageous position against a wide-opening player who rarely 4-bets. Meanwhile, a polarized 3-bet range replaces premium hands with bluffs like A5s, allowing you to maintain balance while applying pressure in tougher games.
But how do we effectively take advantage of these feeble opponents? Here's the rundown:
Exploit the WeakFirst, you need to recognize a weak player at your table, but just spotting them isn't enough. To reap the benefits, target their mistakes and play them aggressively. Employ straightforward tactics against them, as leaving money on the table is a missed opportunity.
When they raise, they've got a somewhat normal range, but they don't call 3-bets or 4-bet much - a chance you should definitely capitalize on. By 3-betting and isolating, you'll trump them. Your aggressive pre-flop and post-flop playing style will help.
Feeble players will struggle to risk substantial amounts, hoping to hit a good hand. Many open too wide pre-flop, hoping to hit the flop. If you spot someone raising from early position, 3-bet them confidently with strong or medium-strength hands, as this puts them in a stressful situation. Their range won't sustain your aggression, leading them to fold – particularly out of position.
Isolating weak opponents with a 3-bet increases the chances of you being heads-up with them. This puts you in control of the post-flop game and makes it possible to win the pot more frequently than your cards suggest. When your opponent misses the flop, you can bet and make them fold, securing the pot for you.
If you merely call weak players' open-raises, you allow other players, particularly blinds, to enter the pot. With multiple players in the pot, someone is bound to hit something on the flop. In multi-way pots, you should play based on the strength of your hand, but in heads-up pots, if neither you nor your opponent hit the board, you can usually take the pot with aggression. Therefore, it's essential to maximize opportunities of having a heads-up clash with a weak player.
When you're holding a strong but not premium hand, you may be tempted to call, aligning with a solver's strategy against an ideal opponent. However, if they overfold to your 3-bet, you should 3-bet more regularly than optimal strategy expects - especially when you're in position.
Leverage Their FlawsMany weak players dislike folding pre-flop, even after facing a 3-bet. They open with a broad range, call your 3-bet, and continue post-flop. Moreover, they rarely 4-bet, which enhances the strength of your 3-bet. The main drawback of 3-betting is that it opens the action again, allowing the initial raiser to 4-bet you if they so desire, but if your opponent rarely 4-bets as a bluff and only does so with premium hands like AA-QQ or AK, that's fantastic, as most hands you'll 3-bet with will be dominated by these premium hands, allowing you to safely fold them.
3-betting also enables you to build a large pot with strong-but-not-premium hands like KJs or QTs. This can be beneficial because these hands are typically ahead of your opponent's calling range. If they 4-bet, your KJs are useless, but if they just call, it's a strong hand. You can safely fold these hands to a 4-bet, as your opponent doesn't 4-bet bluff often enough.
Weak players usually have two crucial post-flop lines that can be exploited. Most of the time, they venture with a very transparent strategy, allowing you to effortlessly decipher when they like their hand and when they don't:
- When they like their hand, they bet or raise.
- When they don't, they check-call or check-fold.
They seldom bluff against you, allowing you to play aggressively overall. When you bet and get raised, you'll know they have a very strong hand likely ahead of your range.
Moreover, these players tend to over-fold to your aggression. If you've studied GTO strategy, you know that you should often call small bets with hands with some equity. However, many weak players will fold hands like overcards with backdoor flush draws or weak gutshots to a small bet, allowing you to amass many small pots you wouldn't have won otherwise. Thus, 3-betting pre-flop not only allows you to play bigger pots against weak players, but also lets you steal many pots post-flop with a bluff.
Many players struggle when they aggressively 3-bet and face a situation where they have a marginal hand on the flop, and the weak opponent shows aggression (e.g., check-raises or checks the flop, then bets the turn and shoves the river). With this line, the opponent is claiming a strong hand, so you should fold if they're the type of player who doesn't bluff enough and only aggressively bets with a strong hand. In other words, you should over-fold against such players because they rarely bluff, and their betting or raising range is very strong.
3-betting empowers you to seize the initiative. When facing a 3-bet, weak players will be constantly on edge about playing against powerhouse hands, assuming you play just like they do. They don't consider that you might 3-bet with hands like K8s, K7s, T9s, etc. So, if you 3-bet more frequently than "normal", and they opt for an exceptionally strong pre-flop range (like 99+, AK, and AQ), a simple c-bet on the flop could win you the pot in a sufficient number of cases.
Since such an opponent will perceive your range much stronger than it actually is, when you've got pocket 88 or suited T9s and hit a solid hand on the flop, they won't suspect it, not even considering that you might have such cards. This enables you to extract value from them in many cases.
When taking on opponents, position matters, but you can still benefit from 3-bets even when out of position. However, you should 3-bet more frequently on the button, as this gives you the last position post-flop, allowing you to better exploit weak players.
Base GTO 3-bet StrategyLet's discuss a GTO strategy on the button against a cat-off raise to 3 BB (100 BB effective):
This strategy is relatively tight, designed for cash games where no ante is present, but there's a straddle. Under these conditions, overly aggressive play wouldn't be optimal. In the table, red shows 3-bets to 10 BB (8.57% of hands), green shows calls (9.70%), and blue shows folds (81.72%). Most players will only 3-bet with TT+ and AK, but even this tight solver 3-bets with many additional hands and a polarized range, including some suited aces, K8s-K7s, Q9s, T9s, 76s, 65s, etc. As a result, most players' 3-bet ranges are too strong, and when they are very strong, their opponent should over-fold.
Furthermore, many people often collide with hands like KQo, AJo, KJ, and ATo, which, from a solver's perspective, should be 3-bet around half the time. However, if you believe that the pot opens very wide and folds too often to 3-bets, then with hands like T9s, 76s, 65s, and K8s that we alternate between 3-betting and calling, we can 3-bet as a bluff even more profitably. Therefore, we should 3-bet more frequently than 8.57% of the time, which can be increased to 12% or even 15% if the opponent folds exceedingly often, especially if you know they struggle post-flop.
On the flip side, if you're playing against a calling station who calls all your 3-bets after opening pre-flop, you should aim to 3-bet with value hands (e.g., 77+, ATs+, KJo+, and fold one-gappers and suited aces). Against someone who never folds to a 3-bet, it's unprofitable to 3-bet with hands like K7s or 65s, so always adjust your strategy based on what your opponent does incorrectly. But generally, you should 3-bet wide against most players who open wide and respond cautiously to a 3-bet.
If your opponent plays optimally, you should also play GTO, as shown in the table above. But if they deviate from GTO in any way, you can exploit their leaks to gain an edge, so figure out what they're doing wrong and exploit it to the fullest.
- Aggressively 3-betting in poker, a strategy outlined by poker guru Jonathan Little, allows players to isolate weak opponents, creating more favorable heads-up scenarios.
- By 3-betting, players can capitalize on feeble opponents' common mistake of not competing well against 3-bets or 4-bets, resulting in the disadvantaged player folding more often.
- In casino games, such as poker and sports betting, it is essential to isolate weak opponents and exploit their tendencies to enhance one's edge in both tournaments and cash games.
- When a weak player raises, they possess a somewhat normal range but are unlikely to call 3-bets or 4-bets much – a situation that offers an opportunity for players to 3-bet and isolate them, ensuring a profitable edge.
- In the casino-and-gambling environment, 3-betting can be employed to capitalize on weak players' flaws, such as their reluctance to fold pre-flop, thereby creating opportunities for the experienced player to seize the initiative and extract value from their opponent's post-flop play.
