Are You Making This Preflop Blunder?

Most poker players think they have a solid grasp on preflop strategy, but many of them consistently make the same mistake over and over again that they are not even aware of.

This blunder is difficult to notice, especially for those who play in the small- or middle-stakes games, because the vast majority of the player pool exhibits the same mistake. Once they become enlightened to this error though, they quickly right their way and become much better poker players.

The mistake is that most amateurs only three-bet (reraise) before the flop with their absolute best hands. 

In fact, most players do not apply enough pressure before the flop. Their strategy is to wait for the best hands and then three-bet with them, hoping their opponents automatically pay them off with all sorts of marginal holdings.

What instead happens is their opponents fold to the passive amateur’s aggression, making it close to impossible for the amateur to get value from their strong hands.

Instead of three-betting with only the best hands, you should three-bet with a wider range based on how you expect your opponent to react.

If you expect your opponent to call your three-bet with a wide range of marginal hands such as 3-3, A-9, and K-5 suited, then you should three-bet with what is referred to as a linear range.

This range consists of your best hands, such as A-A and A-K, as well as hands that should have your opponent dominated, such as 9-9, A-J, and K-Q.

You will find this strategy works best against loose players who are not capable of folding to a three-bet once they have any amount of money invested in the pot. Going to the flop against a dominated range will work amazingly well because you will have a significant range advantage.

LINEAR RANGE

You should widen or tighten your range based on how you expect your opponent to proceed.

If you expect your opponent to either fold or four-bet (re-reraise) when you three-bet, you should instead three-bet with what is referred to as a polarized range.

A polarized range contains your best hand that can withstand any amount of pressure, such as A-A and A-K, and hands that are not quite good enough to call your opponent’s initial raise, potentially including hands like A9, K10, K7, and 108.

When you use this strategy, you will be calling with your hands that flop decently well, such as A-J, K-Q, and 87.

This works because when you three-bet with a weak hand, you rarely expect to see a flop, and when you do, the bottom portion of your three-betting range will flop well enough. With hands like A-J and K-Q, you want to see a flop, and calling helps ensure that happens.

When your opponent four-bets and you have a premium hand, you can get your stack in, and when you are bluffing, you can fold.

POLARIZED RANGE

You should widen or tighten your range based on how you expect your opponent to proceed.

While three-betting with non-premium hands will make you more difficult to play against, against certain opponents, you should only three-bet with the absolute best hands.

If you expect your opponent to only raise with premium hands to begin with, there is no point in bluffing because your bluffs are likely to fail. This will usually be the case when the initial raiser is in early position or is known to be very tight. Against these players, do not overvalue hands like 10-10 and A-Q because if you three-bet and face significant aggression, you are in bad shape. 

I put together a course called The 25 Biggest Leaks and How to Fix Them. This course is completely free inside Card Player Poker School!

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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT winner and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.