3-bet strategy: how often to 3-bet from every seat, solved

Ask a room full of recreational players what they 3-bet with and you will hear the same answer: aces, kings, queens, ace-king. Maybe jacks if they are feeling brave.

That range is 34 combinations. It is 2.6% of all hands. We decoded every facing-an-open spot in a 6-max, 100-big-blind cash game from the solver, and the lowest 3-bet frequency anywhere on the table is 6.0% — the big blind against a lojack open. The highest is 16.9%, the big blind against the small blind. There is no seat, against any opener, where the solver 3-bets as rarely as the "premiums only" player does.

And the part people get wrong in the other direction: when the solver does 3-bet, the opener folds only 19% to 33% of the time. A 3-bet is not a steal. This article covers why, what actually goes into a 3-bet range, why the small blind plays almost nothing but 3-bet-or-fold while the big blind mostly calls, and the handful of hands — kings, queens, ace-king — that the solver does not always 3-bet at all.

What is a 3-bet?

A 3-bet is the first re-raise before the flop. The name counts the bets: the big blind is the first "bet", the open-raise is the second, and raising that open is the third. If the original raiser then re-raises again, that is a 4-bet, and so on.

After the flop the counting restarts differently — a re-raise of a flop bet is usually just called a raise or a check-raise — so in practice "3-bet" almost always means the preflop re-raise. That is the spot this article is about.

Every figure below comes from one solver tree: 6-max cash, 100bb effective, everyone opens to 2.5bb except the small blind, which opens to 3bb. The seats, in order, are lojack (LJ), hijack (HJ), cutoff (CO), button (BTN), small blind (SB) and big blind (BB). Full method is at the bottom.

How often should you 3-bet? Every seat, every opener

Here is the whole table: fifteen matchups, each one a player facing a single open with everyone else folded. Each row links to the full range chart for that spot.

Three patterns do nearly all the work, and they are worth more than memorising any single row.

1. The later the opener, the more you 3-bet. Read down any seat. The button 3-bets 6.8% against a lojack open, 8.2% against a hijack and 10.4% against a cutoff. The big blind goes 6.0% → 7.5% → 10.4% → 13.4% as the opener moves from lojack to button. A late-position opener has a wider, weaker range, so more of your hands are ahead of it and more of your bluffs get folds from the bottom of it.

2. Your seat decides whether you call or 3-bet. The last column is the one to stare at. The small blind puts 54–72% of the hands it plays into a 3-bet; the big blind only 22–30%. The in-position seats sit in between, at 49–61%. The next section is about why.

3. Size depends on position, not hand. In position the solver 3-bets to 6.25bb (2.5 times the open). Out of position, from either blind, it goes to 7.5bb (3 times). Against a small-blind open of 3bb, the big blind makes it 9bb — still three times. Within a spot every hand uses the same size, so the size never tells your opponent anything about your cards.

Why the small blind 3-bets and the big blind calls

Compare two seats facing the same button open. The small blind 3-bets 13.2% and calls just 5.2%. The big blind 3-bets 13.4% — almost the same — but calls 31.7%. The 3-bet frequencies match; what differs is everything else.

The small blind has two problems if it calls. It will be out of position for the whole hand, and the big blind still has to act behind it — so a call invites a squeeze, or a third player into the pot. Raising fixes the second problem and makes the first one cheaper: a 3-bet either wins the pot now or builds a heads-up pot where the small blind holds the stronger range. So the small blind's continuing range is mostly amber, including hands like A5s (88% 3-bet), JTs (91%) and even KQo (77%).

The big blind's situation is the opposite. It already has a big blind in the pot, it is getting the best price on the table to call, and nobody acts after it. Calling closes the action. So it can profitably continue with a huge range of hands that are far too weak to 3-bet but far too good to fold at that price — suited kings, small pairs, connected offsuit broadways. Those hands go into the blue, and the 3-bet range stays roughly the same size as everyone else's.

If you play from the small blind like it's the big blind — flatting button opens with suited connectors and small pairs — you are taking the big blind's strategy into a seat that doesn't have its advantages. Of all the leaks in this article, that one is the easiest to fix.

What goes into a 3-bet range

This is where the "premiums only" picture falls apart. Break any solver 3-bet range into groups, weighted by how many combinations actually get 3-bet, and the premium hands are a minority:

QQ+ and AK are 15–29% of the 3-betting combinations in these spots. The rest splits across pairs, suited aces, suited broadways and connectors, and — as the opener gets wider — offsuit hands like KQo and AJo. In the extreme case, the big blind against a small-blind open, offsuit hands make up nearly half the 3-bet range.

The button against a cutoff open is the cleanest example to study, because it is the classic in-position 3-bet: a late opener, and a player behind with position on them.

Look at how few cells are solid amber. Only four hands — AA, KK, AKs and AQs — 3-bet every time. Almost everything else is mixed: QQ 84%, AKo 94%, JJ 45%, A5s 67%, A2s 55%, Q9s 88%, K8s 73%. The solver builds this range out of partial frequencies of many hands, not all-or-nothing choices on a few.

Why suited aces make the best 3-bet bluffs

The wheel aces — A5s, A4s, A3s — show up in 3-bet ranges everywhere. A5s is a pure 3-bet for the big blind against the button, 88% for the small blind, 67% for the button against the cutoff. Three things make them the right bluffs:

• The ace is a blocker. Holding one ace cuts the number of AA and AK combinations your opponent can have, which are exactly the hands that 4-bet you or refuse to fold. More on how that works in our piece on blockers.
• They play well when called. Suited, with straight potential and a nut-flush draw, they flop real equity. A 3-bet with 72o that gets called is a disaster; one with A5s that gets called is a playable hand.
• They are not good enough to call. A5s flatting an open is dominated by every bigger ace the opener holds. Its value comes from winning the pot preflop or from its equity, not from making top pair.

That third point matters. A good 3-bet bluff is a hand that is worse as a call than as a raise, not simply the worst hand you are willing to play.

The hands the solver doesn't always 3-bet

If the bottom of the range surprises people, the top surprises them more. Against an early-position open, in position, the solver regularly just calls with hands that feel like automatic raises:

• Pocket kings 3-bet only 80% for the hijack against a lojack open, and 85% for the cutoff. The rest are calls.
• Pocket queens 3-bet only 46% for the button against a lojack open. More than half the time, the solver flats. (QQ's full page has every seat.)
• Ace-king offsuit 3-bets 48% for the big blind against a lojack open and 59% for the button.
• Pocket aces are the one exception: 3-bet 100% in every one of the fifteen spots.

Why would a solver ever flat kings? Because a calling range with no strong hands in it is a range that can be attacked. If the button only ever flats a lojack open with 77 and suited connectors, the lojack can c-bet every flop and the big blind can squeeze with impunity. Putting some queens and kings into the flatting range protects every other hand in it — and against an early opener, whose range is strong, the extra value from 3-betting is smaller than usual.

This is the right place for a warning. The "sometimes flat kings" result is real, but it is a fine-tuning detail at the top of a balanced strategy. Against opponents who never squeeze and don't adjust to what you flat with, 3-bet your kings. The mistakes that cost the most are on the other end: not 3-betting enough hands at all.

What happens after you 3-bet

This is the other half of the picture, and it is the one that changes how you should think about the play. We decoded the opener's response in all fifteen spots:

Outside the small blind, the opener folds between 19% and 33% of the time. Now look at what a 3-bet needs to show an immediate profit. The button 3-betting a cutoff open to 6.25bb risks 6.25bb to win the 4bb already in the pot (2.5bb open plus both blinds). That only breaks even on its own if the cutoff folds 61% of the time. The cutoff actually folds 27%.

So a solver's 3-bet does not make its money from folds. It makes its money from what happens next: a bigger pot, a stronger range than the caller's, and often position. That is why the bluffs are hands like A5s and K8s rather than 72o — they need to be able to play a flop. It is also why the whole idea of fold equity is only part of the reason to 3-bet.

Two more patterns are worth noticing:

• Openers fold less to in-position 3-bets. The in-position 3-bet is smaller (6.25bb against 7.5bb), so the opener is getting a better price, and it folds 19–27% against the button, cutoff or hijack versus 24–33% against the blinds.
• They 4-bet more against in-position 3-bets. About 15–16% against a 3-bettor who will have position, versus 9–12% against the blinds. When calling means playing the whole hand out of position, ending it preflop becomes more attractive.

The small blind is the exception on this table. Its opening range against only the big blind is wide (33% of hands), and facing a 9bb 3-bet it folds 47%.

A 3-bet strategy you can use tonight

You cannot memorise fifteen mixed-frequency grids, and you don't need to. These five rules get most of the value:

1. 3-bet more than you think. The solver's floor is 6% in the tightest spot. If your HUD's overall 3-bet number is under 6%, you are almost certainly 3-betting less than the solver in every seat. Start by adding suited wheel aces and suited broadways to your range.
2. Widen against late openers. From the blinds, 3-bet roughly twice as often against a button open as against a lojack open; in position, about half as much again against a cutoff open.
3. From the small blind, 3-bet or fold. Keep a small calling range at most. The hands you would flat from the big blind mostly go into the 3-bet range or into the muck.
4. From the big blind, defend mainly by calling. Your price lets you defend wide; your 3-bet range stays about the same size as everyone else's.
5. Size by position, not by hand. About 2.5 times the open in position and 3 times out of position, the same size for every hand you 3-bet.

And one adjustment. The fold rates in the table above are the benchmark for an opponent who defends correctly. Plenty of players fold to 3-bets far more often than a quarter of the time. Against them, your bluff 3-bets win the pot outright much more often, so you can add more bluffs — while being more careful when a player who rarely 4-bets suddenly does. Why these deviations work, and where they go wrong, is covered in GTO vs exploitative play.

Questions

What is a 3-bet in poker? A 3-bet is the first re-raise before the flop. The big blind counts as the first bet and the open-raise as the second, so re-raising an open is the third bet. A re-raise of a 3-bet is a 4-bet.

How often should you 3-bet? In a 6-max cash game at 100bb, the solver 3-bets between 6% and 17% of hands depending on seat and opener: about 6–7% against a lojack open, around 10% against a cutoff open, and 13–17% against button and small-blind opens.

What is a good 3-bet percentage? There is no single target, but the solver never 3-bets less than 6% of hands in any spot. An overall 3-bet percentage below that means you are 3-betting less than the solver in every position. Against late-position opens, solver frequencies reach 10–17%.

How big should a 3-bet be? The solver 3-bets to about 2.5 times the open when in position (6.25bb against a 2.5bb open) and about 3 times the open out of position (7.5bb from the blinds). Every hand in the range uses the same size.

Should you 3-bet or call with pocket queens? Mostly 3-bet. The solver 3-bets QQ in most spots, but in position against an early open it mixes in calls: the button 3-bets queens only 46% of the time against a lojack open, because flatting some strong hands protects its calling range.

What are the best hands to 3-bet bluff? Suited wheel aces such as A5s and A4s are the classic choice. The ace blocks the opener's AA and AK, the hand has real equity when called, and it plays poorly as a flat. Suited broadways and suited kings like K8s fill out wider ranges.

How often does the opener fold to a 3-bet? Less than most players assume. In this solve the opener folds 19–33% depending on the seats, calls most of the rest and 4-bets 9–16%. A 3-bet makes its money from the bigger pot and a stronger range, not mainly from folds.

Go deeper

Every row in the first table links to a full chart on this site. The facing-an-open charts show the complete call, 3-bet and fold grid for all fifteen spots. The opening ranges show what you are 3-betting against, every starting hand has its own page (try A5s or KK), and if the seat-by-seat logic is new, what hands to play by position is the place to start. For the blinds specifically — sizing, squeezes and playing the pot when you get called — see the guide to 3-betting from the blinds. All free, no account.

Method: all figures come from one solver tree — 6-max cash, 100bb effective, NL500 rake structure, opens of 2.5bb (3bb from the small blind) — decoded from our solver database. Facing-an-open frequencies were decoded on 28 July 2026 and the opener's response to a 3-bet on 29 September 2026, from the same tree. Range-level percentages are weighted by combinations and by how often each hand reaches the node; per-hand percentages are the solver's mix for that hand. Hands the solver sends all-in over an open (never more than a fraction of a percent here) are counted as 3-bets. Percentages are rounded, so rows may not total exactly 100.