This will be a longer post.
Welcome to another edition of FF_Barret Poker Articles..We started in our first article dealing with cash tables and we will continue with that theme for this one and the two following. If its SnGs/MTTs you want to read about, you'll have to be a little patient so I get the cash table ones out first.

In my first thread, I dealt with some basic terminology of cash table play, along with some information dealing with table selection, stack sizes, what tables you want to be playing at, and most importantly some differences between tournament play and cash table play and how to make initial adjustments if you're just starting to play cash tables or are curious how you could better your adjustments anyways.

If you did not read my first article, it isn't that you won't understand this one, its just that it's crutial that if you want to improve at poker you understand and learn all of the concepts dealing with it. The technical sides of poker are just as important as our situational plays. Please, before you continue with this or if another time you want to go back and read it, I strongly advise you to take a look at it.

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So now that we have an understanding on our terminology of cash tables and we understand what kind of tables we're at and what adjustments we need to look at, we're ready to begin looking at some situational plays of cash tables, some general poker theory, and some moderate to advanced concepts. These are concepts you've probably already implimented in your poker game cash tables or not, but this is a way to help further your game and perhaps make them a little bit more advanced and tweak them just a little bit. You may have thought that c-betting or 3betting was a very simple part of poker, but it's actually two of the more important and necessary situations or concepts in cash tables..so lets take a look!

1.3-betting
2.Continuation Betting or C-betting
3.Player notes and how to use them for your advantage

Lets start with 3betting.

1.3-betting

Like I talked about in my first article, 3betting consists of a raiser preflop raising over the 1-bet (the big blind), and someone else raising OVER that initial raiser.

3-bets are very important for several reasons..They are very common in poker, but lets examine a little bit WHY we 3-bet:

A.It gives you a chance to take down the pot preflop.

When you make a raise like this, three things can happen. One, he calls and you play out the hand. Two, he raises and you're put to another decision and play out the hand. Or three, you take the pot down there. It's not to say you're automatically winning the hand every 1/3 time you 3-bet, but that chance is there every time you do.

B.You give yourself more options to win the hand.

Think of it this way. Lets say a guy in the cutoff (one person before the button) raises and you have a hand like AJos. If you just flat call, you're basically assuming that you HAVE to hit in order to win this pot. Now you're giving yourself another way to win this pot other than just flat-out hitting that flop.

C.Information

You get a lot of information by 3-betting..consider this:

You will get information on the kind of hands he's opening (raising preflop). If he's folding a lot to your 3-bets preflop, that mean's he's opening very wide, or in other words, he's very loose with the kind of hand's he's opening with.

You will get information on the kind of hand's he'll CALL a 3-bet with.

You will get information about his hand strength in general. If he's 4-betting you you can pretty much figure out that he has a very strong hand. Rarely in cash tables like this will someone make a 4-bet over your 3-bet without a hand like QQ-AA or AK. A lot of times they may just call even that and not even raise you. By giving them an opportunity to come over the top, you're saving yourself. For instance, if you have TT and you just call a raise preflop and flop comes 953 you're setting yourself up to lose a large pot to his JJ-AA. Now lets say you 3-bet and he comes over the top of you with his KK. You can pretty much figure out he has a large pair here and can fold this a lot/all of the time.

You will get opportunities to figure out how he's playing postflop after being aggressive preflop.

We will go over this in more detail later on in the article when we talk about more 3-betting and especially c-betting (or postflop play)

D. The hand is much easier to play

This is kind of synonymous with the above reasons..It gives you information giving you a better idea of where you are in the hand and how to play your hand and your opponents.

E. Even if you're called, you pick up the pot a lot of the time postflop with a c-bet.

Again, more information on this to come later in the article. In short though, by showing your aggression preflop and therefore putting out a continuation bet, people are more likely to respect your postflop aggressiveness as well because of how strong you've already played out your hand.

Now that we know why we're 3-betting, lets go into some hand ranges.

What do I 3-bet with, and when?

Your range of hands to 3-bet with will vary along with each different player you play with. This is because people's aggression levels are obviously different. Therefore, it's smart to include player notes on who you are 3-betting (read the section on player notes later in this article!)

For people who you know to be looser players, or that you know are opening with wide ranges, you want to be 3-betting them much more often. If their range is really as wide as you believe it to be, they will be folding a lot. And if not, they will call you with a worse hand and perhaps continue to pay off.

For a tigher player, consider 3-betting them with a smaller range. 3-betting is all about adjusting to the table, and adjusting to each individual player at every table. You'll be having different ranges on different players, so it's important to keep in mind what your OWN range is for 3-betting a tight player, an average player, and a loose, aggressive, crazy player.

A. Tight/Nit

When I'm playing against a nit, someone who's opening very rarely or just not staying too active, I'm very apprehensive to 3-bet against them. A lot of times they are so nitty they'll be 4-betting me back a lot. However, being a tight player can also mean they are a weak player. If you are 3-betting someone and they are folding a lot, this can have to do with being tight as well. That's why keeping player notes are so handy, not only how many times you're 3-betting them but what their action is.

So if someone is playing tight, here's the kind of range I'm 3-betting them IN POSITION with:

JJ+
AK

If I'm in position, I may be flat calling them with hands like 77-TT and AJ-AQ and folding a lot of other hands. If he's as tight as we think he is, calling with anything else is usually a losing play. This is all read-based however, and these variables may change depending on the player.

If I'm OUT of position, my range doesn't change very much. This kind of range changes out of position in the following two kinds of players for myself, though it may be different for other people:

B. Average player

For an average guy whose numbers are fairly standard and he isn't tight nor crazy, I'm pretty standard on what hands I'm 3-betting him with:

99+
AJ+

I will likely flatcall in position with almost any pair, and A9-T sometimes as well, though I don't like playing aces that low too often. This all depends on how aggressive he is postflop, too though.

If I'm out of position, my range changes just slightly. My out of position 3-bet (or one that I'm 3-betting from the blinds):

JJ+
AK, MAYBE AQ depending on how he's playing postflop.

C. Aggressive crazy player

For a very loose opener my 3-betting range varies a lot depending on where he is at the table.

In a normal sense, I'm 3-betting the following:

77+
AT+
QJsuited+

Out of position my range doesn't change that much either.

D. How these ranges change based on position:

People's button ranges, assuming they aren't a complete nit, are usually very very wide even for a normal player. Therefore, if I have reason to believe he's stealing a lot, especially for an aggressive player, I may be 3-betting fairly light from the blinds. This may include a lot of suited connectors.

If the aggressive player is on the cutoff and I'm on the button, I will 3-bet with an exTREMEly wide range. This includes all pairs, almost any ace, suited connectors, etc. This will again vary depending on if he starts playing back at us a lot of if he's just opening wide and folding to a 3-bet a lot. Chances are they're folding a lot.

There will be a little bit more 3-betting information in later articles so if you want more information on that, just post here in the thread or wait for some more info on that. This is just general information on who you should be 3-betting with what kind of hands in certain situations. No hand ranges or anything like that is "by the book" though. It is your job to continue to be attentative to who's raising a lot, who's folding to 3-bets a lot, who's calling them, how they're playing post-flop, etc. All these factors may be even more important than your hand strength when deciding what and when to 3-bet with.

Now on to a different subject: Continuation betting. This is very in depth so this will go on for awhile in this article and continue with more other information and concepts in another.