3-bet ranges by position: what to re-raise from every seat

A 3-bet is a re-raise before the flop: one player opens with a raise, and another raises again. 3-bet ranges by position depend on two seats at once: yours, and the opener’s. Against an under-the-gun open, a good 3-bet range is about 3% of hands and almost all of them are premiums. Against a button open, it can grow past 13% and include hands like A4s and 76s.

This guide gives a 3-bet range for all 15 seat matchups at a 6-max table, with value hands and lighter 3-bets listed separately. Every percentage is counted from card combinations, so the numbers match the hands. Further down you’ll find why the ranges change from seat to seat, how to pick 3-bet bluffs, the maths behind them, and how to adjust for full ring tables, short stacks and different opponents.

What a 3-bet is and why it works

The name comes from counting bets before the flop. The big blind is the first bet, the open-raise is the second, and the re-raise is the third, so it’s called a 3-bet. A re-raise of that is a 4-bet, and so on. The rules for how much you’re allowed to re-raise are in our guide to poker raise rules.

Players 3-bet for two different reasons:

• Value. With aces, kings or ace-king, you want more money in the pot while you’re ahead of most of the opener’s range.
• Folds. The pot already holds the open and the blinds, and many openers can’t continue against a re-raise. Each fold wins that money with no showdown.

A 3-bet also gives you the initiative, so you’re the one expected to bet the flop, and it usually makes the pot heads-up, which is easier to play than a three-way pot after a flat call.

Why the opener’s seat changes everything

An opening range is wide or narrow depending on how many players are left behind. In our 6-max starting hands chart, under the gun opens 16.4% of hands, the cutoff 27.3% and the button 41.8%. That changes how strong a typical open is, and with it, which hands you can re-raise.

One way to see it is to count how much of each range is premium. QQ+ and AK make up 15.6% of an under-the-gun open, 9.4% of a cutoff open and only 6.1% of a button open. The same hand fares very differently against each:

The percentages are equity against the whole opening range with all five cards to come. Against an under-the-gun player, AJs is barely ahead and plays poorly in a big pot; against a button it’s a clear favourite. This is why every chart below is built for a specific pair of seats.

Linear and polarized 3-bet ranges

Before the charts, two terms you’ll see on every 3-bet page:

• Linear range: the strongest hands from the top down, with nothing weaker added. QQ+ and AK is a linear range.
• Polarized range: strong hands plus a group of weaker ones used as bluffs, with the medium hands left out (they call or fold instead). QQ+, AK plus A5s and A4s is polarized.

Against tight, early opens you stay close to linear: the opener holds many premiums, so bluffs get called or 4-bet too often. Against wide, late opens you polarize: the opener folds a big part of his range, which makes bluffs profitable, and your medium hands play fine as calls. Against players who almost never fold to a 3-bet, some players use a merged range, which is a linear range extended a little lower, because bluffs stop working and medium-strong hands gain value.

3-bet ranges by position: the 6-max chart

The table assumes a 6-max cash game, 100 big blind stacks, a 2.5 big blind open from the seats in our starting hands chart, and nobody else in the pot yet. “Value” hands are happy to get more money in; “lighter 3-bets” are the bluffs and semi-bluffs that win mostly by folds and play well when called.

These are simplified starting ranges. Solver strategies mix many hands between 3-betting, calling and folding at different frequencies, which nobody can memorise; a chart like this keeps the same shape with whole hands. The pattern is the useful part: the range widens as the opener moves later, and it widens most when only the blinds are left to fight over the pot.

Hands that aren’t in the 3-bet column aren’t automatically folds. In position, many of them are calls: against a cutoff open, the button calls with pairs from 22 to JJ, suited broadways and suited connectors.

In position: hijack, cutoff and button

When you 3-bet from a later seat than the opener, you’ll play the rest of the hand in position. That lets you call more of your medium hands instead of re-raising them, so the 3-bet range can stay narrow and well defined.

Against early opens

Against under-the-gun and hijack opens, keep it nearly linear. Here’s the cutoff facing an under-the-gun open:

An early opener holds enough premiums to 4-bet or call a 3-bet with a strong range, so wide bluffing loses money. JJ, TT and AQ are strong, but against this range they’re more comfortable as calls than as 3-bets, which would mostly fold out worse hands and get action only from better ones. The two suited wheel aces are there so the range isn’t purely aces, kings and queens; they block the opener’s aces and can still make a straight or a nut flush when called.

The button against a cutoff open

The button facing a cutoff open is one of the most frequent 3-bet spots in 6-max. The cutoff opens 27% of hands, and the button has position for the rest of the hand.

AJs moves into the value range here, because it’s ahead of most of a cutoff’s range (about 58%). A9o isn’t in the chart at all, neither as a 3-bet nor as a call. It looks similar to AJs, but it’s dominated by AJ, AQ and AK, it can’t make flushes, and when it hits an ace it can lose a big pot to a better kicker. This is the same chart our starting hands guide uses for this spot.

From the small blind: 3-bet or fold

The small blind is the hardest seat in the game. You’ve posted half a blind, you’ll be out of position after the flop, and the big blind still acts behind you. If you flat-call an open, the big blind can call too and make it three-handed, or squeeze with a re-raise and force you to fold the money you just added. That’s why most players play the small blind with almost no flat calls: they 3-bet or fold.

Because there’s no calling range, the 3-bet range has to carry the hands you’d otherwise call with. Suited aces, suited broadways and suited connectors come in here, alongside 99+ and strong offsuit broadways. Against earlier opens the range shrinks quickly: 7.1% against the cutoff, 4.5% against the hijack and 3.9% against under the gun.

From the big blind: fewer 3-bets, more calls

The big blind is different. You already have a full blind in the pot and you close the action, so calling is cheap and nobody can squeeze behind you. Against a 2.5 big blind button open, a call costs 1.5 big blinds to win a pot of 5.5, which needs only 27% equity. That price is why the big blind defends with a call far more often than with a 3-bet.

The lighter 3-bets here are suited hands that would also be fine calls, such as A5s, K9s, 86s and 75s. Re-raising some of them makes the 3-bet range harder to read; the rest of the defence, around 41% of hands, is calling. The full calling range is in our guide to defending the big blind.

Blind against blind is the widest spot of all. When the small blind opens 40% of hands and you’re in the big blind with position for the rest of the hand, you can re-raise wide:

Even here, 3-bets make up only part of the defence. Most hands that aren’t in the chart are calls, because you have position and the price is good.

Choosing 3-bet bluffs: blockers and playability

A good 3-bet bluff does two jobs. It makes the opener’s strongest hands less likely, and it plays well when the opener calls. Suited wheel aces such as A5s and A4s do both, which is why they appear in almost every row of the chart. To see the blocker effect in numbers, look at the button 3-betting A♠ 5♠ against a cutoff open:

An opener’s strongest continuing hands, QQ+ and AK, add up to 34 combinations. Holding A♠ takes away every combination that needs that card: three of the six aces combinations and four of the sixteen ace-king combinations. That leaves 27, about a fifth fewer, so the opener 4-bets less and folds more. A hand like K♠ 9♠ removes the same number by blocking kings and ace-king, while 7♠ 6♠ removes none. Our guide to blockers covers the idea in detail.

Playability decides the rest. When A5s gets called, it can make the nut flush, a wheel straight or top pair, so it rarely loses a huge pot by accident. Offsuit hands like KJo and QTo are poor bluffs for the opposite reason: when called, they tend to make second-best pairs against AK, AQ and KQ, and they block little that matters. The exception is the late-position spots, where a hand like KTo works as a bluff simply because the opener’s range is so wide.

Pick 3-bet bluffs from hands just too weak to call. In the button-versus-cutoff chart, ATs is a call and A9s down to A6s fold; A5s and A4s get the 3-bet because they block the same aces and can also make a wheel straight.

The maths of a 3-bet bluff

A 3-bet bluff with no equity is profitable when the opener folds more often than the price requires. The price is your risk divided by your risk plus the pot you win: break-even fold rate = risk ÷ (risk + pot). Blinds you’ve already posted don’t count as risk, because they’re already in the pot.

• In position, 3-bet to 7.5 big blinds: you risk 7.5 to win the open and both blinds, 4 big blinds. Break-even: 7.5 ÷ 11.5 = 65.2%.
• Big blind, 3-bet to 10: you risk 9 more to win 4. Break-even: 69.2%.
• Small blind, 3-bet to 11: you risk 10.5 more to win 4. Break-even: 72.4%.
• Squeeze to 10 after an open and a call: the caller’s 2.5 big blinds are extra money in the pot. Break-even: 10 ÷ 16.5 = 60.6%.

Real bluffs don’t need those numbers, because they win some pots when called. Still, the table explains two things at a glance: why bluffs are cheapest in position and in squeezes, and why the blinds need better hands to 3-bet light.

3-bet sizing at a glance

Sizing follows a few simple rules. Bet bigger out of position, where you want to win the pot before the flop and keep the pot small relative to the stacks if you’re called. Add more for every player who has already called.

Live games, where opens are often bigger, need sizes adjusted to the open. How to change the size against different opponents is covered in our guide to 3-bet sizing.

Adjusting to the opener

The chart assumes an opener who plays roughly like our starting hands chart. Most opponents don’t. The bluff maths tells you which way to adjust: compare how often a player folds to 3-bets with the break-even numbers above.

Against tight openers

A player who opens fewer hands than the chart has more premiums in his range. Tighten your 3-bets, especially the lighter ones, and call more in position with pairs and suited hands that can win big pots.

Against loose openers who fold too much

This is where 3-bet bluffs make the most money. If a player opens wide and folds most of his range to a re-raise, add more lighter 3-bets: more suited aces, suited kings and suited connectors. Many pots end right there, and when the opener calls, you play a hand with good equity.

Against players who call too much

If a player calls almost every 3-bet, bluffs stop working, but value hands get paid more. Drop most of the lighter 3-bets and widen the value side instead: JJ, TT, AQo and KQs become 3-bets for value. That’s the merged range mentioned above. Our guide to reading opponents shows how to spot these tendencies.

Watch for players who 4-bet often. Against them, a 3-bet bluff loses its whole stake every time they re-raise; keep the bluffs that can call a 4-bet profitably or fold cheaply, and cut the rest.

Squeezes, full ring and short stacks

Three common situations change the chart.

Squeezes. When one player opens and another calls, a 3-bet from behind is called a squeeze. The caller’s chips are extra money in the pot, and the caller rarely holds a premium (he would usually have 3-bet it), so squeezes can be wider than a normal 3-bet. Size them bigger, about one extra open per caller, because you’ll face two players.

Full ring. At a nine-handed table, early seats open only about 11% of hands. Against those opens, 3-bet ranges shrink to QQ+, AK and very few bluffs; from the cutoff onwards, the 6-max charts apply almost unchanged.

Short stacks. With 20–40 big blinds, a 3-bet to 7–10 big blinds commits a big share of your stack. Many players switch to a 3-bet all-in instead, with a range built on hands that do well when called: pairs, big aces and suited broadways. Near the money in tournaments, prize-pool pressure pushes these ranges tighter still; our guides to tournament strategy and to the bubble explain why.

After the 3-bet

A called 3-bet changes the rest of the hand. In position, a 7.5 big blind 3-bet called by the opener makes a pot of 16.5 big blinds with 92.5 left in each stack, so the stack-to-pot ratio is about 5.6. From the big blind, a 10 big blind 3-bet called by the button makes 20.5 with 90 behind, a ratio near 4.4. At those ratios, one pair can easily end up all-in by the river.

As the 3-bettor, your range holds more aces, kings and big pairs than the caller’s, so you can bet many flops, especially high ones like A-8-3 or K-7-2. On low, connected flops such as 7-6-5, the caller’s pairs and suited connectors hit harder, and checking more makes sense. Post-flop plans in raised pots are covered in our guide to post-flop play.

Common 3-bet mistakes

Most 3-bet leaks fall into a handful of patterns:

Using one 3-bet range against every seat. AJs is a value 3-bet against a button and a marginal hand against under the gun.

Bluffing with offsuit broadways out of position. KJo and QTo get called by better hands and make second-best pairs; suited wheel aces do the same job with less risk.

Flat-calling too much from the small blind. Calls invite the big blind to join or squeeze, and you play the hand out of position.

3-betting bluffs into players who never fold. The lighter part of the range only works when the opener folds often enough; against stations it’s money thrown away.

The last one connects to everything above: every 3-bet bluff is a bet on how often the opener folds. Our guide to EV in poker shows how to check whether those bets pay off.

3-bet FAQ