I've been playing a lot of hands at 2/4 and 3/6 on Full Tilt as I try to rebuild there. During this challenge, I've been experimenting a lot with 4-betting preflop, both as a bluff and not.
For example, with a hand like 76s, I could raise from the cutoff to $14, get reraised from the button by an aggressive player to $52, and then I could 4-bet them to $152 in an attempt to take it down preflop. This play needs to work two-thirds of the time to show a profit, so it seems like it makes sense.
But I haven't been seeing good results from it. I would have been much better off sticking to my usual style of either pushing as a 4-bet or folding when out of position. I find myself in so many sticky situations where I hold a hand like QQ against a player who has seen me 4-bet before, and then he pushes on me. Or perhaps he'll be the one making the 4-bet, and I'll make the push. Either way, too often I'm finding myself completely dominated by AA or KK.
QQ should be good more often than not against LAGgy players' 3-betting range, but I keep finding that their 5-bet all-ins almost always have me beaten. I fall into the trap of telling myself that there's too much money in the pot to fold to a potential hand like AK, since there are so many players who like to get it all in preflop with AK these days.
So I have no one to blame but myself, and yet I'm still making the same mistake over and over again. I've got to change it up.
I plan to follow some classic advice that I've linked to before and stop making so many 3X 4-bets. They just aren't working for me often enough for them to be my default restealing strategy.
Instead, I want to go back to (occasionally) making 4-bet all-ins with AA, KK and Ax and see what happens. I'll also mix in some more flat calling out of position and floating in position with premium hands for deception purposes.
I hate to think of the money I've wasted in the last couple of weeks with these 4-bet bluffs that keep getting caught, but I'll tell myself it's all part of the learning curve.
Recommended reading (especially the links within):
let's talk about flat calling 3bets preflop
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3 comments:
Yeah but when you are running good and people are scared of you, this strategy is pure gold - pure gold Jerry ...
Way too much 3 betting going on now-a-days.
"This play needs to work two-thirds of the time to show a profit, so it seems like it makes sense."
Agreed. I think that it is OK to fold to their 5 bet shoves when you just know that you are beat. From that point on I will usually tighten up my 4 betting because you are move likely to get shoved on with 1010+, AQs+, which can definitely be a good thing. So, don't stop - just stop for a little while when they catch you.
Just my 2 cents, but take it with a grain of salt b/c I am on a downswing over the last week.
I think the 4-betting strategies you're posting about here are much more applicable in limit holdem, where you can easily 4-bet with a hand like 76s for deception purposes and to maybe bust someone if you flop to it just right. But in nlh, I am not surprised to hear that your 4-bets -- i.e., hands where your opponent has already bet and re-reraised your raise -- have you constantly running into monsters. I think 4-betting 76s is bad no-limit poker in most cases as a result.
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