What is considered a solid 3 betting percentage?

typical tags seem to be around 5% per Atta22 and observation

i think more important is what hands are people 3 betting with

AA 1/220 hands so roughly 0.5%
KK QQ JJ same
so JJ+ is about 2%

AK about 1/110 so about 1%
AQ same
so AQ+ about 2%

so JJ+ and AQ+ makes about 4% of hands
normally not all these hands will get 3 bet every time (but should give you a feel for 5% range)

for instance vs a super nit 3 betting JJ or even QQ will get you in trouble or
vs a laggy type you might just smooth call w AA and let them bet your hand

Also a large percentage of 3 bet situations arise in late position vs a known thief where it is correct to 3 bet with much weaker hands like ATs or 99. The same thing applies to defending vs a high percentage thief over 40% has a huge range of hands many/most of which cant or shouldnt be playing in 3 bet pots so you can 3 bet much lighter than top 5% of hands

I havent run across too many players w a 3 bet% over 8% and a positive winrate over the between 10nl and 200NL level
most players at 50nl and below 3 bet way too little and give 3 bettors way too much respect since they only 3 bet QQ+ and AK, they asssume others do the same.

perhaps others can shed more light on the 200nl and up levels

hope this helps HG

to kind of summarize, some players 3 bet based on their hand, easy to read and play against
other players 3 bet more based on the situation in combination with their cards and their opponents.
their 3 bet % may not tell you which is which without other info/observations/notes.

obviously you want to be the later and be able to recognize the difference in your opponents

hg

thanks for the reply..very interesting and makes sense. I just learnt the power of the 3 - bet at the lower level but started to use it too much..ive now started to use it more sparingly and look for the correct opponents and situations to make this a successful tactic..also started to look for 4 bet spots against the people who use the 3 bet too much.

JimmyChances wrote:thanks for the reply..very interesting and makes sense. I just learnt the power of the 3 - bet at the lower level but started to use it too much..ive now started to use it more sparingly and look for the correct opponents and situations to make this a successful tactic..also started to look for 4 bet spots against the people who use the 3 bet too much.

as a practical matter you probably wont find too many players at lower levels that overuse the 3 bet, but if you do you still need a big hand to put in a 4 bet aa kk AK. These situations will mostly be vs a lp raise or when you raise in lp vs an aggressive blind defender.

more importantly there are more common areas to focus on that are bigger leaks, a small frequent leak costs more than a big leak that rarely happens.

hg