We've all been in a spot where we have raised a hand such as pocket tens under the gun in a six-max no limit Hold'em cash game and were faced with a three-bet from the player on the button. Most of you sat in your favourite chair nodding to yourself and thinking that we should call and reassess on the flop. Sometimes this is the best play is to actually fold and move onto the next hand.
Once you have stopped shouting at your monitors let me explain why, in a heads-up three-bet pot, you should be folding more than you probably are doing right now. Firstly, you have to take into consideration that most players' three-bet ranges are much tighter than you think. Yes it is true that there are some loose three-bettors out there, but unless you have seen your opponent three-bet a lot then you cannot assume they are three-betting you wide. Even if they have been actively three-betting, their range is probably still tighter than you would like to believe.
It's all about equity
One of the major problems with calling is our equity with pocket tens in this spot is actually quite poor. Even if the three-betting villain is three-betting with a hand as weak as Qs-Js against out Th-Td, we only have 53% equity in the hand and are in a coinflip after the flop. We'd also likely surrender out hand if an ace or king made an appearance because those cards smash into our opponent's perceived three-betting range. If we call in this spot we are never going to be happy until we flop at least a set and even then on a Ts-9s-6c flop were are only a 60% favourite!
If we are not happy with calling with tens in this scenario, then we should be folding pocket nines through to deuces too. Obviously, if you open with a pair of tens, a player three-bets and the button calls you are almost always getting correct pot odds to call and try flop a set with your pocket pair. Throw into the mix a whole host of other hands that you may open the preflop betting with and you will slowly start to see that you should be folding almost all of your opening range when faced with a three-bet that has position on you. I would go as far as making the statement that you should not call a three-bet when out of position in a heads-up pot and the effective stacks are 100 big blinds deep. The hands that you are left with are essentially hands that you would be happy to four-bet for value.
There are times when calling a three-bet out of position is OK (to be discussed at a later date) but for those of you who ply your trade in small stakes games, you want to keep matters simple and straightforward. Therefore, you should play very tight when facing a three-bet in a heads-up pot when your opponent has position on you and you are only in the region of 100 big blinds deep.