it depends on their position, your position and how frequently they are 3 betting.
In general if there are tons of 3 bets going around you will need to combat that by calling a lot of 3 bets in position with strong hands relative to each opponents 3 betting range. You will make more money from 3 bet pots IP than if you just try to find some balanced 4bet range and fold a lot to 3bets.
To be honest you will probably see much more profit if you don't 4bet at all and flat all big hands in position unless you know exactly that they are 5betshove stuff like 1010, JJ, AQ, you might as well try to play postflop instead. I can't tell you dont go crazy but honestly you should just flat stuff that is suited (not that un suited is a huge factor but it helps cut down frequencies and gives on average 3% more equity). So stuff like KQs, J10s, any suited Aces, AK, AQ, most if not all PP, suited connectors or even gappers like 79s, 108s. If you balance that range out with JJ+ AK you will be much harder to play against than if you try to find some optimal 4bet range. You are more likely to spew more and also have your thinnest edge possible by going a 4bet game.
Once you have a figured out a decent range to call with in position against each of your opponents tendencies, then you should figure out how they play their nut hands, weak made hands, draws and Ahi hands. Also Note their best sizes for cbets, lots of people end up having bet size or what street they bet on tells
Example: A lot people will cbet the flop all nuts/air but checkcall weakmade hands on drawy boards. They are scared you will raise flop and their shitty 68 on 810J can't take the heat so they try to get to showdown as cheap as possible. If that is the case then anytime they check you should 3 barrel off betting 1/2 pot 1/2 pot leaving you around 3/4 pot to shove.
Try to figure out what they want to see a showdown with (which means they play the hand passively on at least 1 street or have a betting size tell) so some people 1 barrel with Ahi, or weak made hand. Do they get it allin barreling when they miss their draws or do they give up on river.
Basically you should just try you hardest to see how their betting patterns correlate to their hands, if they are going to call your bets down with weak hands and if you can valuetown them with TP or 2nd pair type hands. Are they shoving super lite and can you call them down with 2nd pair hands or any pair hands. Do they bluff or valuebet too thin so you can slow play flushes on rivers or sets or 2pair Or to they show weakness when flushes hit or when board pairs, so you can start donking rivers when those things happen.
This is a wall of text and I am not going to read over it to see how much of it makes sense but the truth of the matter is you will not be able to exploit your opponents if you are not trying your hardest to get to showdowns and checking hand histories to see what they are doing with their hands. So if that means making a neutral or minus ev- call with 2nd pair on a drawy board and he shoves on a brick then so be it. However all of this is based on just how light people are actually 3betting, 6% is not light, 10% is meh. in the end, if you take anything away calling 3 bets with qq, KK, AA , AK might be your salvation since I highly doubt these guys have balanced 4bet/5bet ranges and also play horrible post flop in 3bet pots oop so you should be able to get a lot of money out of hands like JJ or AJ when you hold KK while otherwise they would have folded to your 4bet |
