Ever wonder what they make tiny 5bb 3bets with? Thanks to hole cards exposed hands with Ignition Poker, we can analyze and see how they play every hand.

Listen to podcast episode #566 as you follow along below:

Two great reasons to love Ignition Poker:

1. Super fishy anonymous site
2. Hole cards exposed hands can be downloaded 24 hours after playing

The other day I was livestreaming a cash game with my Poker Forge members and a fishy player made 5bb 3bet over my open raise. I tagged the hand for review, but took it one step further.

PokerTracker 4 Reporting

These tiny 5bb and 6bb 3bets are often bluffy hands. They know that aggression wins, so they just want to take control of the hand so they can cbet you off. 

With my database of 91,000 hole cards exposed hands, I ran a report that detailed every 6bb or smaller 3bet.

It came back with 1,934 hands, losing a total of $271.18:

Lots of weak hands here: QTo, 65s, A3o, etc.

Analyzing the 5bb 3bet Report Results

1,934 hands: These players won 57% of the time (1,111/1,934) and lost 43% of the time (823/1934). 

However, this play has resulted in total losses of $271.18… not a winning 3bet size to make.

I broke the hand strengths into 3 categories:

1. Value 3bets: TT+ and AK
2. Bluff/Small Value 3bets: 99-88, AQ-AT, KQ and KJs
3. Total Bluffs: everything else

Here’s how often the small 3bets were in each category:

1. Value = 24% (457/1,934)
2. Bluff/Small Value = 29% (568/1,934)
3. Total Bluffs = 47% (909/1,934)

Versus a well-sized 4bet (hits their pain threshold), your opponents are folding upwards of 76% preflop!

Let’s Attack Small 3bets

With any AX hand, attack these small 3bets when they’re made by very loose and wild players. These are more likely bluff 3bettors at this size.

Use AX hands because with the Ace blocker, it’s much less likely they hold a strong category 1 or 2 hand.

Be sure to hit their pain threshold with your 4bet size. When these 3bettors called, it’s was very often versus tiny 4bets for just a few more bb’s.

Larger 4bets earn more folds, so I recommend 3.5x:

• If they 3bet to 5bb, go 16-17bb.
• They go 6bb, go 20-21bb.

I also prefer 4bet re-bluffing with position and when I have a tight image.

Be ready to cbet bluff, though, especially when targeting very wild players. They don’t want to fold and hope to hit. So, make sure stacks are big enough so they’re not committed on the flop and cbet with any kind of flop equity and strong draws.

Good luck and ganbatte!