ConceptsPreflop
3-bets and 4-bets
The first re-raise before the flop, and the re-raise after it: building pots with value and taking them with fold equity.
What it is
Preflop the big blind counts as the first bet, so an open is the second bet and the first re-raise is a 3-bet. A re-raise of that is a 4-bet.
A 3-betting range mixes strong hands that want a bigger pot (value) with hands that are happy to win the pot now and still play well when called (bluffs) — often small suited aces, which also block the strongest hands, and suited connectors. Some players 3-bet more linearly, from the top down, especially in position against wide opens.
Common sizes: about three times the open in position, about four times out of position, and a 4-bet of about 2.2 to 2.5 times the 3-bet.
Why it matters
A 3-bet wins the pot immediately often enough to be worth making with some hands that would struggle as a call. It also takes away the opener's chance to see a cheap flop and realise their equity.
It lowers the SPR, which makes strong one-pair hands easier to play for stacks after the flop.
A range that only 3-bets premium hands is easy to play against: fold everything but the nuts. Bluffs make the value get paid.
The maths
The fold rate a 3-bet bluff needs equals the chips the 3-bet risks divided by those chips plus the pot already in the middle.
Worked example
A button 3-bet against a cutoff open
The cutoff opens to 2.5 bb and you 3-bet to 8 bb from the button. The pot before your 3-bet is 2.5 + 0.5 + 1 = 4 bb.
- As a pure bluff the 3-bet must take the pot 8 / (8 + 4) ≈ 66.7% of the time — the cutoff and both blinds must all fold.
- The illustrative button 3-bet range on these pages is TT+, AJs+, AKo, AQo, KQs, A5s, A4s, 76s and 65s: 86 combos, about 6.5% of all hands.
- 70 of those combos are strong hands; the other 16 (A5s, A4s, 76s, 65s) are the bluffs.
- The aces block AA and AK; the connectors make straights and two pairs when called.
Bluffs are chosen for what they do when called and what they remove from the hands that continue — not just because they are too weak to call.
Try it
Pick your hand and see how much it removes from the hands that would continue against your 3-bet or 4-bet.
Common mistakes
- 3-betting only premium hands, which makes every 3-bet face up.
- Calling 3-bets out of position with dominated hands like KJo or ATo.
- 4-bet bluffing with hands that block nothing.
- 3-betting small out of position, giving the opener a cheap call in position.
Related concepts
- SqueezingA 3-bet after an open and a call: more money in the middle, and a caller who is unlikely to be strong.
- Blockers and unblockersYour cards are not in anyone else's hand: holding one removes the combos that need it.
- SPR and commitmentStack-to-pot ratio: how many pots are left behind, and so how committed a hand is.