A 3bet is a chain bet. When we talk about a 3bet, we refer to the moment when a player bets, another player wants to raise and you want to re-raise. That is to say, a bet magnified by three because you have experienced two raises to the original bet.

The 3bet is a second raise preflop, i.e., a re-raise. It is an important play in Hold’em poker because it has several advantages: it is a type of bet that often allows you to win the pot with little resistance and without seeing the flop. It can be a good springboard to win in the final showdown, and it allows you to form a much bigger pot with premium hands.

Can you call a 3bet and when can you do it? We tell you what you should take into account.

Advantages of 3betting

There is a disadvantage if your preflop play is constantly based on seeing the first raises. By avoiding 3bets you only get that other players can see the bets and also do it cheaper, leaving also to pressure the first one who raises to see the flop. And this does not suit you.

On the other hand, 3betting and not seeing only the bet has some interesting pros:

• You can win the pot without seeing the flop and with almost no opposition.
• You reduce the field, making you more likely to beat the player who reaches the showdown.
• You can win a sizable pot on the flop with a hidden hand.

Call 3bet preflop in Texas Hold’em: when to do it

There are two factors that will influence the moment we should choose to make a 3bet. Everything will depend on the position and our stack. Not paying attention can expose us to risks, such as paying out. If this happens, it will be convenient to pay when it is cheaper, but only when we have a premium hand. Otherwise, nothing.

Should we always 3betear? No. Sometimes it is better to re-raise than to call a 3bet preflop. Keep in mind that taking the initiative always puts us in an advantageous situation because we have the possibility that the opponent will end up leaving the hand. If it is the opponent who takes the initiative, we will be the ones who are exposed to have to get out of the hand. This is known as fold equity, a concept that is important to master.

Therefore, it is essential that we always look at the odds that the opponent has to make a re-raise, and how likely it is that he will end up folding. Because a player who tends to fold allows us to 3bet more aggressively.

But making a 3bet preflop call, although advantageous in some situations, may not be a good idea. First of all, when we have the option to call a preflop re-raise we will have to measure well the pros and cons, because even professional players with high re-raise ranges have shown on several occasions that calling a 3bet preflop may not be optimal.

This is because when a player tends to maintain these 3bets over time, the play loses steam. We have to think of propitious occasions to do so, because hands like 77 have a much higher equity against options like AK, KQ or AQ, hands with which most players tend to call in the hope of reaching the flop and end up hitting their project. 

Tips to call and 3bet in Hold’em

Assuming that making a re-raise in itself is not something that hurts us, since it can be done even with small or medium pairs, we have to think about other possibilities. Is it optimal to call with speculative hands to a re-raise? Not at all.

In fact, it is a way to burn chips very quickly. Be careful with this, because a player who reads us can push us to make constant re-raises thinking about the range of hands we manage, when in fact he is only encouraging us to enlarge the pot and leave our stack shivering.

What the most experienced players tend to do is to protect their 3bets of semifarol. This is achieved by making many re-raises with premium hands (AA, KK, QQ or AK). Because a call made to a re-raise with KQ, for example, makes us think we can take the lead, but it is something that usually goes wrong. Instead, they re-raise, keeping their 3bet safe.

Keep in mind that it is the player who makes the 3bet who, as a rule, has the fold equity on his side. From there comes the idea that many players defend that, if one thinks that the hand has enough value, it is feasible to make a 4bet and not a 3bet call. But some players reject this idea because what this achieves is to reduce the range of play when playing against a re-raise.

There are players who move between two waters and take into account the profile of the player to make the decision. Even today it is easy to see that from time to time there are open topics in poker forums and chats where the question of whether it is better to make a 3bet call in poker or a 4bet is discussed.