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4betting Preflop with Deep Stacks
4bet bluffing preflop with 100 big blind effective stacks is not often a profitable strategy as we will often be forced to call with a hand much weaker than our opponents range based on the direct odds we're receiving to call his 5bet allin.
Once we get to 120 big blinds and deeper we can 4bet and comfortably fold to a shove as we will not be getting the required odds to call an allin bet. This makes 4betting with these stacks sizes extremely effective as we are risking 25-30big blinds when our opponent will have to risk 120.
In deepstacked no limit texas holdem, 4betting in position gets increasingly effective as stacks get deeper. It is only when we reach huge stacks that it becomes less profitable. This is because when we get to 600 or 700 big blinds deep, our opponents can call a 4bet out of position profitably with a wider range of hands.
The size of our 4bet should directly correlate to effective stack sizes. As stacks get deeper, we should make it slightly larger and as stacks get shallower, we should make it slightly smaller. The ideal 4bet size in position is between 2.5 and 2.9 times the size of our opponents' 3bet. There are obviously exceptions to this such as when we have a monster versus a fish who calls 4bets with his entire range, but the size listed is a good rule of thumb to use.
For simplicities sake we can look at a standard 5-10 no limit game. We open to 30, our opponent makes it 100 and we should make it 250-290.
With 250 or 300BB stacks, we are only risking 10% of our effective stacks. For our opponent to continue, they are threatened with losing 100% of their stack. When they just flat call preflop, we have the lead and our perceived hand range is stronger than theirs. We are also in position and therefore we act last. It is extremely rare that a player will donk bet (lead out) in a 4-bet pot, so we will almost always have the option to see an extra card if we so choose.
Our 4betting range should be far more polarized than our 3betting range when playing deepstacked cash games. Against competent, aggressive regulars, our value range at 200 big blinds will usually be something like QQ/KK/AA/AK. At 300 big blinds this range might tighten to just KK/AA or maybe even just a pair of aces. Big slick (AK) becomes a more valuable hand for flatting 3bets preflop. If we elect to 4bet, it will usually be crushed by an opponent's 5betting range and we fold out all weaker and dominated hands. By electing to smooth call a 3bet with Ace King, we can dominate a part of their range postflop. Our hand strength is also hidden because most tight aggressive players will expect us to 4-bet preflop. We should of course still 4bet AK preflop some of the time and especially against somebody who we know has the ability to 5bet light with extremely deep stacks.
Most people are not adjusting their 3betting frequencies correctly to account for deepstacked play and continue to 3-bet the same range as with 100 big blings. We should take advantage of this. Our 4bet bluffing range can be any hand that is not strong enough to call and see a flop with. The best hands to use are Ace X (Ax) and King X (Kx) hands. These hands are too weak to call and see a flop with. However, they are excellent candidates to 4bet with. Because of card elimination, it is less likely that the 3bettor has AA/KK/AK. When we do flop top pair with these hands, it will often be the best hand as it enables us to hit the 2 highest possible top pair hands ie on ace high flops and king high flops. While we should not be putting our entire stack in the middle with weak top pair hands in 4bet pots, we can easily control the pot size in position and use our top pair hand as a bluff catcher or extract value on later streets after we check back the flop. We should do the same when we flop weaker hands such as 2nd or 3rd pair. Other examples of good hands to 4bet are offsuit connectors like 68o or Q8o.
Intuitively the stronger a hand is, the better it is to 4bet. For example, Q8o is a much better hand to 4bet than 24o because our equity against an opponents calling range will be much higher. Q8 will outflop a hand such as 99 or JJ far more often than 24o.
Conversely, suited connectors and suited aces are very bad hands to 4bet bluff with preflop. These are hands with the potential to flop very strong nut hands. By 4betting these hands we are taking away their postflop value in making strong hands where we can stack an opponent when deep.
When someone smooth calls a 4bet preflop we should put them on a very strong range. We can often expect to see AA/KK though QQ-99 usually show up with a greater frequency. In spite of this we should still be making continuation bets in 4bet pots on dry flops where the board hits our perceived 4betting range. Again, the two best examples of these boards are ace high and king high dry rainbow boards, though we can still profitably bet other dry boards as well. The drier the flop, the better it is to c-bet. On wetter, more coordinated boards, our continuation betting frequency should be much lower and we should be less inclined to fire.
When we are cbetting a dry flop, we can bet small. To maintain a balanced range we should do this with our bluffs and with hands that we are betting for value. By betting small we make our bluffs cheaper, but more importantly we can still endanger our opponent's stack with the threat of bigger bets on later streets. A half pot continuation bet or sometimes even smaller can threaten a full stack.
Also, in 4bet pots, people's calling range will remain the same regardless of bet size. They will call a half pot or ¾ pot bet with the same range of hands, so there is no reason for us to choose the larger sized c-bet unless stack sizes dictate a bigger bet in order to get allin by the river.
4betting preflop in deep stacked no limit texas holdem can be an extremely profitable strategy when used correctly. By 4betting a balanced range, we make it extremely hard for our opponents, as they will be forced to play a much narrower value range due to the amount of money left behind. They will also be forced to play guessing games postflop as they will have often no idea how of the relative strength of their hands.
Our final article in this series on deepstacked play will focus on bluffing when playing deep stacked no limit texas holdem and slowplaying when deepstacked.
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