Multiway Pots
#1 Tighter Calling
The player who is betting has 2 players to face instead of just 1. So he will bet a
tighter range, so we have to factor that into our defense account
Ex: MPvsBTNvsBB Situation
MP's c-betting range - green part (only 12.4% c-betting!):
BTN defense vs a 75% bet (folding hands like JJ-99, pure fold with 77...):
IMG
BB defense after BTN fold (folding Top Pairs like KJ-K9!):
IMG
Another way to think about it is that if both other players defended the bet as if
they had HU, PFR would have no incentive to bet as a bluff, because he would simply
get called or raised a lot.
If the MP checks and the BTN bets, the BB has to fold most 2nd pairs. This is
because the MP will have a decent check/raise squeeze range, thus greatly
decreasing the EV of continuing with these marginal hands.
#2 Versus a bet, the GTO slowplays a lot when there is still one player to act,
however...*
In the same way that the EV of calling with bluffcatchers is lower when there is
one player to act, this increases the EV of our strong hands.
Ex (MP check, BTN bet 1/3 and we are in the BB):
IMG
We practically only call with 88 and 66, since the MP will squeeze around 20% (in
theory)
*However, in practice what will happen most often is that the MP will bet more than
he should (in this example the MP should be c-betting only 11%, so he will play a
lot of x/r. This will not happen in practice, so when we are in the BB, we can
fastplay much more - since:
1. The MP will c-bet more and with a stronger range (leaving his checking range
weaker)
2. And this will generate a lower frequency of x/r, since now he has fewer nuts in
his checking range
#2 So, in practice we will NOT want to slowplay, making our strategy very different
from GTO!
#3 Always bet your strong hands when you are the last to act
IMG
Here we can see that after the BB and MP check, the BTN bets a very strong range
(green part). This would not be good in HU because our checking behind range would
simply be too weak and it would be too easy for the villain to exploit this. And
basically the reason why we cannot be exploited by doing this in a multiway spot is
that the other 2 players still have to worry about each other.
#4 Pay more attention to the absolute value of the hand
The absolute value of the hand is more important in multiway pots because everyone
is "stacking off - going all in" with much tighter ranges, in addition to the
greater probability of someone having a very strong hand when there are more than 2
players in the hand.
To better illustrate this concept we can use this example: We can imagine that we
went to the 9-way flop, in a situation like this it is very clear that we have much
more preference to play aggressively the top set instead of the bottom set.
Comparison of the BTN in a HU vs 3-way spot:
IMG
IMG
(pay attention to pocket pairs, they are checking more in multiway - clearly
showing how the importance of the absolute value of the hand increases when we are
multiway)
#5 Size down
The reason for giving size down is to force the villain to call with more worse
hands, since he will naturally be able to fold a lot (point #1). If we start
betting too high, we will end up isolating ourselves against the nuts. It is the
same reason we give size down on monotone and paired boards (HU flops, for
example).
This is more important on the flop when the players are uncapped. From the turn
onwards, we can start giving a little more size up.
Also thinking about the positive and negative points of giving size down:
Positive - we lose less when we are against the nuts
Negative - we extract less when we are nuts vs the villain's bluffcatchers
Seeing these points, it becomes clear why we give size down in multiway pots.
First, the villain's range will be stronger, that is, he will have more nuts. And
regarding the negative point, we will receive fewer calls from bluffcatchers, since
the villains should fold more when they are multiway. In other words, we don't lose
that much value compared to a HU pot, for example, since the hands that the villain
would bluffcatch in a HU pot will simply be folds in multiway.
#6 Versus a bet and a call, we will defend more with a raise
Example - BB and MP check, BTN stab, BB call and we are in MP:
IMG
The reason for this is that we are against 2 very strong ranges. We can see that
even KJ, despite getting good odds, is almost always folded. Because most of the
time he will be drawing dead against the value hands of one of the ranges when
there is more aggression on future streets.
We can also see that we are not slowplaying. We only want to slowplay when there
will be a good frequency of aggression on future streets, which is not the case
here after 3 players go to the turn (remember point #4).
So when we are against a bet and a call we will want to defend more than a raise
since there is no incentive to:
1. Slowplay with our strong hands
2. Call a lot with a merged range against 2 strong ranges
