LearnModule R3 · The river in 3-bet pots
R3-L1
3-bet pots on the river
How the river plays in a 3-bet pot: polarised all-ins, picking real bluffs, and calling down against ranges with too few.
In this lesson
- Bet the river all-in with a polarised range of value hands and real bluffs.
- Pick bluffs by the cards you hold when the stack is the only size left.
- Catch bluffs against ranges that can no longer hold the strongest hands.
- Fold to river all-ins that hold too few bluffs.
The stack is the only size
Follow the 3-bet pot of lesson T3 to the river: 85.3 bb in the pot and 57.6 bb behind. The all-in is about 0.68 of the pot. There is no room left for small value bets and big bluffs as separate sizes; most of the betting is the shove.
As a pure bluff, the shove needs folds 57.6 / (85.3 + 57.6), about 40.3% of the time. Calling it needs 57.6 / (142.9 + 57.6), about 28.7%, and minimum defence is 85.3 / 142.9, about 60%.
- Alpha: folds needed
- 40.3%
- EV if it never wins when called
- -0.44 bbLosing
Polarised all-ins
In Rail's solves of the 3-bettor in position after a check, the all-in is the most common bet. Sets, two pairs, straights and flushes shove more often than they do anything else; middle pairs check most of the time; and hands with no pair shove part of the time as the bluffs.
Pick the bluffs the way R1 does: hands with no showdown value first, and among them those that hold cards of the hands that would call.
Catching bluffs against capped ranges
As the caller, the price is good: under 30% against the shove. Rail's solves call with most top pairs and fold more middle pairs than they call. The line decides the rest: a 3-bettor who checked the turn has fewer of the hands that shove for value, and your bluff-catchers gain.
Rules of thumb
- In a 3-bet pot the river bet is usually the stack: shove the strong hands and the bluffs, check the middle.
- The shove of about two thirds of the pot needs about 40% folds as a bluff and about 29% equity to call.
- Call with top pairs; fold more middle pairs than you call.
- A 3-bettor who checked the turn shoves less for value: catch more.
When they break
- Deeper 3-bet pots leave room for a smaller river bet again.
- Against a caller who never folds top pair, shove fewer bluffs.
Example hands
Examples come from two places only: your own analysed hands in this lesson's spots, and a hand Rail deals and grades itself. Never a hand from outside Rail.
Sign in, with analysed hands, to see examples from your own play here.
Rail scripts this hand from the lesson's own practice, always the same one, and grades it with the analysis. Decide first, then read Rail's verdict.
Practice
The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.
Exercise 1
Pass: 2 of 2 rightTwo rivers in a 3-bet pot, in position after a check: put each hand class into check, small, big or overbet, graded class by class.
Exercise 2
Pass: 3 of 5 rightFive river decisions in 3-bet pots, either role, graded by Rail's river solve.
Exercise 3
OptionalYour own river decisions in 3-bet pots, the costliest first.
Sign in to practise on your own hands.
Module R3 review · The river in 3-bet pots
6 items mixed across this module's lessons: a spot from one lesson, a sum from another. Telling which idea a spot asks for is half of it. Missed items join your review cards; the score is not kept.