Apply a 4-BET in Poker with premium hands like AA or AK is practically mandatory when playing No-Limit Texas Hold'em, right? So, we can say that it is crucial to get the maximum value possible from these hands when dealt them.
It's obvious that the initial step to playing strong hands is to raise preflop, but things get more interesting – and exciting – when another player 3-bets.
Now the action comes back to you, and in many cases you will want to raise again with a 4-BET. While a 4-BET in poker is a simple move in theory, many players make mistakes at this stage by selecting poor starting hands or using poor value for the bet.
4-BET or call on 3-BET?
When considering a 4-BET in value poker, the first thing to think about is your hand. There are basically two groups of hands in this case. The first group includes AA, KK, QQ and AK – the best hands in poker. In almost all situations, attacking your opponent again will be the best option with these hands. Your intention is to get all your chips in play pre-flop, as these hands are usually well ahead of your opponent’s range of hands.
The second group are the hands that we can call “good but not great”, such as JJ, TT, 99 and AQ. Your strategy with these hands should depend on the situation and your opponents. If you are playing aggressively with a lot of re-raises and bluffs, then these hands will be strong enough to 4-bet for value.
However, if the game has been very tight, it makes more sense to just call the 3-BET, see the flop and proceed cautiously from there. Always be able to adjust your 4-BET strategy and don’t play too robotically – this can get you into trouble!
I made a 4-BET in Poker – what now?
Now that we have decided to re-raise, the next question is – how much? In a tournament, sometimes we will have stacks of 20 or 30 BBs, where the only option is to go all-in. But, the most interesting situations really happen at times in the tournament when the stacks are deeper (or in cash games), something at least above 40BBs.
In this case, it is not advisable to go all-in. For example, with a stack of 100BB, you opened a 3BB raise with AA and received a 3-BET of 10BB. Going all-in here would be a big mistake because you would probably only get called by a hand like KK or a rare but possible AA. You would be losing a lot of value. Instead, you could make a 4-BET of something like 23BB. By doing this, you allow your opponent to make a mistake, which would benefit you. Your opponent will have good odds to call with dominated hands, or he could go all-in trying to scare you out of the pot, or even thinking he has value, with a hand like QQ.
By keeping our 4-BET small, we give our opponents a way to hang themselves, either by bluffing or calling with a weaker hand. If we just go all-in instead, we're basically relying on a cooler (KK vs AA), which doesn't happen very often.
Conclusion
A lot of the money you win or lose will depend on how you play your strong hands. Make sure you adjust your preflop game by working on your 3-BET and 4-BET moves before you start worrying about the more difficult parts of the game, like postflop.
Article translated and adapted from the original: Four-betting Pre-flop with Strong Hands in No Limit Hold'em Poker
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