2013: Make or break

[griffey24]

Not surprisingly, after approximately a year of playing like a total nit (3b of around 6% or so), I've started the year at the complete opposite end of the spectrum (3b of 13%).

My "nit experiment" went well.

The advantages to having a low 3b:
1. 3b have more fold equity, so you can add some bluffs that will often get folds
2. You rarely get 4b, so even your bluffs get to see flops
3. Your cold calling range is much stronger, so you can defend barrels more easily and raise more flops
4. Your cold calling range is much stronger, so you can back-raise more credibly over squeezes
5. You keep in hands you will dominate post-flop

Disadvantages of having a low 3b:
1. Difficult defending enough from the SB by cold calling (getting squeezed by BB often)
2. Difficult cold calling in general, getting sq often
3. Difficult getting action on big hands. (I would almost never get it all-in with someone if I was the 3bettor, and would only be likely to stack someone if they 3b me and I 4b)
4. Having strong premium'ish hands (JJ/QQ/AQ/AK) that make good one pair hands often go multi-way (I flat raise and get callers behind). Which could be an ok thing, but sometimes not ideal.
5. Can be capped on certain board textures in 3b pots. ie: you 3b and flop comes KQ9 or 789. Villain can put a lot of pressure on you knowing you don't have JT.
6. While you keep in hands you dominate, you also allow these hand to realize their equity.

After a small-ish sample of 8k hands or so playing much laggier, my observations are.
Advantages of 3b wider:
1. Obviously you get much more action on your big hands. Big pairs getting all-in pre with lower pairs much more often.
2. Can widen blind defense ranges. Can defend wider in SB by 3b, and can also widen BB defense range by 3b some hands that you would otherwise fold.
3. People start 4b you wider (some wider for value, but many 4b bluff more as well). This means that your 5b range either gains equity vs the calling range, or gains fold equity and some more dead money.
4. Not capped on certain board textures.
5. People will start 4b much wider (air - lots of Ax etc). So flatting 4b becomes more viable, as often ppl will have pretty well defined ranges.

Disadvantages of 3b wider:
1. Cold call ranges are weaker, so might be more difficult to call down appropriately. That being said, when you 3b more often then the frequency of cold calling also goes down significantly. So although calling down becomes harder, you also have to do it much less often.
2. You fold out hands you would have otherwise dominated.
3. Facing many more 4bets, esp btn 4b when you're in the blinds. Need to be willing to either 5b shove much lighter or start calling 4b (even OOP), to not be exploited by 4b.
4. Sometimes end up bloating pots OOP when deep.
5. 3b IP lowers SPR and minimizes our positional advantage. "Drawing" hands like SC's etc go down slightly in value, while hands that make decent top pairs go up in value.
6. Having a wide 3b, it's safe to assume that you would use your image and almost always 3b your strong hands. This leaves you even more vulnerable to squeezes the times you do flat.

I'm sure many of these points are quite obvious, but just running through them anyhow. I'm sure there are others. Personally, already after a week or two I can tell that the more laggy style is my preference.

In the past I would lagg it up and have pretty messed up frequencies, but this time I'm focusing much more on GTO and ensuring that despite my wider 3b ranges, that I'm defending appropriately to 4b etc.