A3s 3bet bluff FD on flop IP, bet or check?

In general, I would not 3bet A3s vs an unknown UTg raise. It is really not mandatory to do that in order to be a winning nl 5 player. You may include it in your bluff 3betting range against later positions like CO, BU, SB or against known regs who fold a lot to 3bets but in general not having a bluff 3bet range at NL5 is perfectly fine.

Cbet this. You have fold equity against QQ and badly played low pocket pairs. You also block some of his continuation range of AK, AQ and AJ. If he calls i am shoving turn.

I pretty much expect raises only from KJ, JJ and KK, AA type of hands. If raised, i would calculate pot odds and mb call in position, shoving would not achieve much as i dont see any fold equity if you shove and the only hand you would dominate is QTs (if he has it in his range).

I would 3bet some low AXs too. I think pre was ok.
OTF you could cbet around 1/2, it is totally fine. But I think you should not go broke.
Since this was a bluff pre flop, I think it is totally fine to check behind too and x/c turn only if you have the odds to do so. Only problem with xb flop is that you might not get any value when you hit.

I wouldn't take every video I watch as 100% true. I don't know for which limits KTU made this video and I didn't watch it, but I think it's completely unnecessary to follow this "rule" on 5NL. You pay a lot of rake and you don't know if the UTG Player is folding enough to 3bets. Just play tight and straightforward and you will be crushing this limit.

As played I simply cbet the flop and probably fold to a raise (unless it's a minraise). The worst hand he can have would be AK (which steals our outs and puts our equity OTF to 30% --> you lose a lot of money in the longterm by going broke here)

KTU's video is kind of beginner level. It provides good guidelines. He told to 3bet bluff A2s-A5s and it is ok. Personally vs UTG I would 3bet just A5s and A4s. It is true that having a bluff 3bet range at the micros vs unknown is not necessary but I have a population read that tells me those guys will fold too much and bluff 3betting is very profitable.

It is true that we shouldn't think that all of the things in those videos are 100% true, especially when they are beginner level. But also if a coach says something in a brand new video, maybe we should also consider that our way of thinking is outdated?

Maybe we shouldn't praise any coach too high and also think for ourself a little bit more. On 5NL, on average, I am not seeing players fold enough preflop that I wanna 3bet these Axs a lot. This is a personal observation and this is what I am going with. Maybe some players saw it differently. But I am always a little bit careful with 3bet-bluffing and carefully look for opponents first who seem like ABC-Regs, or have clear stats that they fold a lot to 3bets. Not everyone is a ABC-Reg, there are a LOT of recreational players out there who call any PP, and more. I don't wanna say I am completely right with my assumptions, but I really doubt that we should always 3bet A2s-A5s in this spot. When my opponent is not folding enough to 3bets I simply don't bluff him at all and only 3bet for value

I filtered out my A5s-A2s that I have 3bet pre flop. Found 72 handsm 110bb/100hands winrate... But I have one tip that I just figured out. Do not see the showdown with your bluffs... I have played some of my hands stupidly and that's why the winrate was so small x)

If I filter out my usual bluff 3bet range, I can see that I have 190bb/100hands winrate in 230 hands only with those 3bet bluffs.

Originally posted by la55i
I would 3bet some low AXs too. I think pre was ok.
OTF you could cbet around 1/2, it is totally fine. But I think you should not go broke.
Since this was a bluff pre flop, I think it is totally fine to check behind too and x/c turn only if you have the odds to do so. Only problem with xb flop is that you might not get any value when you hit.

If you bluff some low Axs in these positions you will end up 3betting too much.
I prefer higher Axs where thesecond card is a blocker too.

As played, I would cbet this flop. If I see a raise, I would fold.I can call if the raise is not big.

This is a very interesting topic.

The new video has really divided the viewers in two groups but neither side seems to have crunched the numbers yet.

Do we really make a profitable 3-bet with A2-5s as a standard move?

Yes, we do. But when we use better Ax we block some more of villain's top hands and we can flop good.

I believe we do. So far it has been profitable for me. Opponents at the micros will usually fold too much vs 3bets. Still I think it is better to have 3bet bluffs that are easier to fold postflop like A5s instead of having AJs dominated even if those have more blockers.

Interesting, La55i

But did you always 3bet A2s-A5s, or did you carefully chose your spots? Do you also 3bet it vs. players who are not-fullstacked and one-table?

I usually bet only A4,A5 from these positions but I think it is not bad to do it a bit wider. I usually have less than 100 hands on the guys I play against so I don't have very reliable stats. I 3bet recreational players too. They usually want to see a cheap flop but fold when there is a 3bet. But if I know someone is aggromaniac and/or calls too much 3bets, I don't do it. So it it clearly looks like 3betting might not be a good idea, I don't do it, otherwise I go ahead and 3bet

Vs unknowns, or not so well known players, we should not 3b low Axs as default strategy from these positions.
We should carefully pick spots to do so.

I disagree. If population reads tell that bluff 3betting will be profitable because ppl will fold too much to 3bets, it is ok to do it vs unknown. That whether you 3bet low Ax or high Ax and get dominated is your own choice.

I would like to have a persnonal info on every player to start blubbing preflop.
As you get to collect data on your oponents, you can widen your 3b ranges.

Originally posted by la55i
I disagree. If population reads tell that bluff 3betting will be profitable because ppl will fold too much to 3bets, it is ok to do it vs unknown. That whether you 3bet low Ax or high Ax and get dominated is your own choice.

Do we have those population reads? It was a bit unclear to me

It is not a solid population read, imo...

Surprise surprise
A hand with a lot of discussion
most of the time it probably pretty much doesn't matter what you do
And in MP with this hand, that's exactly the case - 3bet or fold, take your pick.

I like KTU's general advice for all spots and this is a spot where it's closest of them all.