This mistake is difficult to notice, especially for players in the small or middle stakes, because the vast majority of the player pool exhibits this flaw.

Most of these players don’t even realize they are committing this egregious error. Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets.The WSOP is right around the corner, so in this blog post, I am going to share with you the most frequent mistake I saw amateur players commit on a regular basis during the last WSOP. Be observant, use your reads, and don’t be afraid to use your instincts, and you should find playing in hotly contested hands much easier to do. The main problem with calling three-bets with low cards such as small pocket pairs is that when doing so you are often going to be reliant on implied odds (such as hitting a set to beat an overpair) and implied odds are usually reduced in three-bet pots, especially when you are playing against solid, thinking opponents.Īs you can see, having position on your opponents gives us a little more freedom to call three-bets, something we shouldn’t really be doing out of position. High cards can be good for calling three-bets, while with low cards you should not be automatically be calling three-bets, even in position. This makes a hand like pocket eights an almost mandatory call if your opponent is continually three-betting with smaller pairs, but often a fold if the weakest hand with which he is three-betting is K x Q x-suited. All you need to do is compare your holding to the weakest part of your opponent’s three-betting range and, voila, you have your answer - or at least a solid estimate with which to help you with the decision. Once you have a decent sample size of three-bet hands, it will be much easier to figure out if you can call when reraised. If you have seen him three-bet and get to the river with a hand such as 4 x 4 x, for example, then you can start adding hands such as pocket fives (and better) to your calling range against his three-bet. If the player has three-bet before and then has gotten to showdown with the hand(s), consider what kinds of hands that player has had in those cases. The first thing you need to do when facing a three-bet with position is to work out what sort of hands might inspire your opponent to reraise you from out of position (say, from the blinds after you raised and the action folded around to him).

3-bet calling range