A player opens, you look down at KQo on the button, and you have a decision to make. Against someone who calls 3-bets with KJo and QTo, raising can build a profitable pot. Against someone who frequently 4-bets, that same hand becomes much less appealing.
That’s the focus of Tim Jenkins’s “Key Adjustments” lesson in the Exploit section of Upswing Lab 2.0. He breaks an in-position 3-betting range into three parts and explains which opponent tendencies help or hurt each one.
Let’s work through those categories, then look at how to adjust them in your games.
The Three Parts of an In-Position 3-Betting Range
Tim uses three categories: thick value, merged value, and polar bluffs. The examples below illustrate their roles; they aren’t a fixed range to use against every opening position, stack depth, or opponent.
1. Thick Value
These are the strongest hands in your 3-betting range. Tim’s examples include 99+, AK, and AQ, although the exact cutoff depends on the situation. AQ against a wide small blind open is a different proposition from AQ against a tight early-position open.
With this part of your range, you want action from worse hands. Taking down the pot preflop is a fine result, but an opponent who calls too wide gives your strong hands more opportunities to earn money.
Being a value 3-bet doesn’t automatically make a hand strong enough to continue against a 4-bet, either. You still need to consider the size and the range behind it.
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2. Merged Value
Hands such as AJo, KQo, and suited broadways can be strong enough to 3-bet for value against a loose calling range without being premium holdings.
Suppose you 3-bet KQo and your opponent calls with KJo or QTo. When you both flop the relevant pair, you have the better kicker and position. That’s a good setup for winning a substantial pot.
Frequent 4-bets make life harder for this group. If your opponent keeps reraising and forcing you to fold, you lose the chance to play those profitable postflop situations.
3. Polar Bluffs
These hands rely more heavily on folds to make the 3-bet profitable. Suited wheel aces such as A5s and A4s are familiar examples: they block some strong ace combinations and can still make useful hands and draws when called.
Postflop playability matters, but it doesn’t give you a license to 3-bet every suited hand. If your opponent rarely folds, the weakest bluffs become much harder to justify.
How Your Opponent Changes the Value of Each Group
The useful part of Tim’s framework is that each group benefits from a different response:
- Thick value benefits when worse hands continue. Excessive folding limits how much action your strongest hands receive.
- Merged value benefits from loose calls, but can get crushed by overly aggressive 4-bettors.
- Polar bluffs benefit from folds. When those folds aren’t coming, you need to tone down the bluffs and crank up the value.
Tim Jenkins’s Lab example: the BB’s range versus an SB open, the SB’s response to a 3-bet, and the three hand categories.
When Opponents Rarely 4-Bet
A player who rarely 4-bets lets you raise more hands without much risk of being pushed out of the pot preflop. You can simply maximize your EV and realize your equity more often than you’re supposed to be able to.
The next question is what they do instead.
If they call too often, you can widen your merged value range. Hands such as AJo and KQo become more attractive when you expect calls from worse and rarely face a 4-bet. If they mostly fold, you have more room for bluffs.
When Opponents Call Too Much
The loose caller who rarely 4-bets is an excellent target for a wider linear range. That means working down from your strongest value hands and adding more holdings that perform well against their calls.
Depending on how wide they open and continue, that can include hands such as AJo, KQo, QJs, and KTs. You’re looking for hands that can make good pairs, solid draws, and extract value from weaker holdings.
At the same time, trim the weakest bluffs. You won’t get the folds you need, and you don’t need to bluff when they won’t fold anyway.
Position helps you collect that value after the flop. You get to see their action before deciding whether to bet, check back, or continue against a bet, which makes your life much easier as you navigate postflop.
Tim highlights two common profiles: the loose caller who rarely 4-bets and the regular who responds with a 4-bet or a fold.
When Opponents Play 4-Bet or Fold
Against someone who almost never calls your 3-bet, merged value loses much of its appeal. KQo can no longer make money by flopping top pair against the weaker hands you hoped would call.
A more polarized 3-betting range may therefore make sense: strong hands that can handle a 4-bet, plus selected bluffs. But the ratio of folds to 4-bets still matters.
If this opponent folds too much, expand your 3-bet bluffs. Blockers can help you choose which hands to add. If they 4-bet aggressively, you can’t simply keep adding hands that will have to fold to the reraise.
Putting It Into Practice
Learn your preflop ranges, both for yourself and what your opponents’ ranges should look like. Then, look at how your opponent departs from it. Are they giving you too many folds? Calling with hands you dominate? Making it unappealing to 3-bet wide by 4-betting frequently?
Use those answers to adjust the relevant part of your range. Add bluffs against excessive folds, widen merged value against loose calls, and be more selective with hands that struggle against frequent 4-bets.
The common mistake is making the same adjustment against everyone. A player who calls KJo and rarely 4-bets gives you a very different opportunity from a regular who never flats. Build your range around the response you expect, and you’ll get more out of playing these pots in position.
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