Part: Part Five - Betting Before the Flop

A-K against a three-bet

Pre-flop
Blinds 100 / 200Pot 2,600 (13 BB)COA♠K♦● 25,000 (125 BB)YOUyou opened to 500BTN● 25,000 (125 BB)Aggressive 3-bettor3-bets 1,800 (9 BB)SB● 25,000 (125 BB)posts 100 (0.5 BB)BB● 25,000 (125 BB)posts 200 (1 BB)D

You open to 500 from the cutoff with A♠K♦. An aggressive button three-bets to 1,800.

An aggressive button three-bets to 1,800 (9 BB); you hold A♠K♦. Best?

WhyAn aggressive button is three-betting light - suited connectors, weaker aces, pure air - and A-K is ahead of that whole range. Four-betting gets value from the worse hands, folds his bluffs out, and spares you the guessing game of a bloated pot played out of position. Flatting is too passive, and folding A-K to a wide three-bettor gives up far too much.
What happensHe lets the bluffs go and you take it before the flop. Against a lighter range the four-bet mostly wins uncontested - and you're never in bad shape the times it doesn't.
Facing an aggressive three-bet, A-K four-bets for value: ahead of his range, it collects the dead money and sidesteps a post-flop guessing game. Read the opponent - it's his aggression that makes four-betting clearly best.

Against an aggressive three-bettor, A-K four-bets - it's ahead of a wide re-raising range and would rather build the pot with the lead than call and navigate blind out of position.