WPT GTO Trainer Hands of the Week: Facing a Tough 3-Bettor
This week we’re focused on a tournament spot where you are out of position against a tough Button after they 3-bet your 2.5BB open raise to 7.5BBs with a big blind ante in play.
The Button has a significant range advantage in this scenario. While you do slowplay aces here in the MP2 seat, most other big hands such as KK and AK are exclusively in the Button’s range. This range advantage creates a scenario where postflop it is almost always correct for MP2 to check to the Button and it is very often correct for the Button to continuation bet on the smaller side on the flop.
Stack depth is a significant factor in this scenario as well. The pot on the flop is 17.5BBs with 42.5BB effective stacks remaining. That leaves a stack to pot ratio (SPR) of 3 which means any action quickly starts to commit players to the pot postflop. Due to the low SPR situation it becomes quite a bit more common than usual for MP2 to check/call the flop and then actually lead out on the turn, both as a value play and as a bluff on cards that favor MP2’s range significantly.
If the Button checks back this can be quite problematic especially given this low SPR. When they do check back you miss value with big hands and sometimes allow your opponent fully realize their equity when the pot size is already quite significant in relation to stacks.
Even with some of your biggest hands you will want to be check-calling on the flop to protect your overall checking range. Otherwise, at this stack depth your opponent can punish your weaker, capped ranges with a robust two barreling range. Maintaining balanced ranges is very important against tough opponents.
To see more examples and test your skills, you can play through five free solved hands from this scenario.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
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The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we’re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week
