3 Preflop Exploits That Work in Live Championship Events

The biggest live tournament of the year is underway.

Whether you’re in the mix or just railing the action, there’s still plenty of poker to be played — from side events to satellites and everything in between.

It’s not too late to plug a few leaks, take your shot, and chase that life-changing score.

With such a short amount of time left, I’m going to give you the three most important preflop exploits for MTTs.

The best thing about them is that they work live and online. So even if you don’t get to use them this summer at the big Las Vegas main events, you’ll have plenty of opportunities throughout the year.

Alright. Let’s go.

3 Simple Preflop Exploits That Work Extremely Well

But first, the two mistakes that allow them.

There are two very easy mistakes to make preflop when playing from the Big Blind — and they’re surprisingly common, even among experienced grinders and well-studied players.

1. Defending Too Tightly from the Big Blind

Here’s how you should defend the Big Blind against a Button open at 50bb.

Lucid Poker chipEV chart for Big Blind playing 50bb effective facing Button open.

Red: 3-bet, Orange: All-In, Yellow: Call, Blue: Fold.

Pay close attention to the fringe of the pure calling range: offsuit Qx2x, Jx3x, Tx5x, 8x5x, 6x4x, 5x3x, and 4x3x. Players might know they should defend wide from the Big Blind, but often aren’t clear on exactly where the line is.

These fringe combos might not seem like much, but they’re worth more than zero, and when your opponent folds them, you gain expected value (EV).

The second mistake, 3-betting too tightly, is closely related to the first.

2. Players don’t 3-bet enough from the Big Blind.

Look at the earlier chart. At 50bb effective versus Button, Big Blind is supposed to mix 3-bets with suited 5x 4x, 6x 5x, 7x 6x, 9x 6x, 9x 7x, Tx 6x, Tx 7x, and 9x 8x, along with the weak-middle offsuit Ax and Kx.

Even well-studied players who know these charts often default to the passive line too frequently — or even always. They’ll argue that the EVs are close between calling and 3-betting, that they’re more comfortable navigating postflop without bloating the pot, or that they’d rather wait for a cleaner spot. “I mean, the Main Event has two-hour levels — do we really want to be defending 43o in the softest 10k of the year?”

And while each of those points might be reasonable on its own, there’s one simple exploit you can use to break their whole plan.

Preflop Exploit #1 Open More in Late Position.

If this seems obvious, it is. However, proper execution can set you up for a lifetime of shearing the sheep undetected.

First, let’s take a look at the preflop charts for Button and Cutoff at 50bb effective. See below.

Lucid Poker chipEV chart for Button playing 50bb effective. Button raises (red) 54% and folds 46% (blue).	Lucid Poker chipEV chart for Cutoff playing 50bb effective. Cutoff raises (red) 37% and folds 63% (blue).

Again, pay attention to the fringe of these ranges. BTN opens offsuit K5, Q7, T7, 97, and 87. On the suited side, 53, 64, 74, 85, 95, T3, and J2. CO pulls back, opening offsuit K8, Q9, suited Q4, J5, T6, 96, 86, 75, 64 and 54.

For many readers, these combos might already feel quite wide. However, when they appear at full frequency (i.e., fully colored in), it means they generate EV > 0. If your opponents are calling too tightly and 3-betting too infrequently, these hands go up in value — profiting from folds and over-realizing their equity.

But I didn’t bring you here to preach proper GTO ranges. This is about exploits.

How to Open More

The way to capitalize on tight BB defense is to open all your mixes to full-frequency plus some. For example, BTN mixes Qx 7x offsuit to fold. Not anymore.

What you are trying to do is sneak in any extra opens you can without being egregious. Tx 3x suited is a mix? Well then, I’m opening Tx 2x. Cutoff folds Ax 4x offsuit? Not on my watch.

This combination of population mistakes in these soft live events – calling tight and 3-betting tight – allows you to open more profitably.

As long as you aren’t showing down combos that way out of line, you’ll probably keep getting away with it.

Preflop Exploit #2: Overfold To Preflop Aggression

A major factor in the previous exploit is the passivity of your opponents. That’s not to say they’re scaredy-cats — but the subtle VPIPs and missed aggression often fly under the radar.

If these gaps exist in a studied player’s game, you can be sure they’re even more pronounced in recreational players. As a result, when you do face aggression, it’s more likely to come from a narrow range — often an obvious value hand (like big pairs) or a high-equity bluff (like broadways or strong Ax).

Take a look at this spot where the Cutoff 3-bets a Hijack open — and the corresponding response range.

Lucid Poker chart for CO 3-bet v HJ at 50bb effective. Yellow: Call, Red: 3-bet.	Lucid Poker chart for HJ facing CO 3-bet after open-raising at 50bb effective. Yellow: Call, Red: 4-bet non all-in, Orange: All-In, Blue: Fold.

See how the Cutoff is supposed to mix some suited connectors and gappers and weak suited Kx, even Qx 8x and Jx 8x suited?

It’s this balanced 3-bet range that allows Hijack to continue with their own optimistic combos like Jx 9x suited, 9x 7x suited, Qx 8x suited, and Ax 2x suited. For reference, versus Cutoff’s range, Hijack’s Ax 2x suited makes .14bb as a call, and Qx 8x suited is worth zero.

When your opponent 3-bets too tight, an easy mistake to make, continues with hands like Ax 2x lose their value, and hands like Qx 8x become losers as well.

Folding this way might seem cowardly, but it’s just sound math.

If your opponent raises, 3-bets, and 4-bets too tight, continuing with combos that will fold on the flop too much or are easily dominated is a recipe for their success and your disaster.

When facing a range that is too strong, you respond by playing a strong range yourself.

Preflop Exploit #3: 3-bet More

Again, with the belief that most players are too tight, the response is to increase aggression. If the tendency of your opponents is to wave the white flag too often, you can get away with bullying them.

Look again at this table.

Lucid Poker chart for CO 3-bet v HJ at 50bb effective. Yellow: Call, Red: 3-bet.	Lucid Poker chart for HJ facing CO 3-bet after open-raising at 50bb effective. Yellow: Call, Red: 4-bet non all-in, Orange: All-In, Blue: Fold.

In the last section, the exploit is to fold more to aggressive actions because you anticipate your opponents are too passive, meaning their aggression is weighted towards value.

What’s interesting here is that your opponents will incidentally fold the fringe of their range when you 3-bet. You will rarely see your opponent 4-betting Ax Tx and Kx Qx offsuit, 9x 9x, Kx 8x, and Kx 7x. They will often not peel with 8x 6x or Qx 8x suited facing your 3-bet.

Some players will even fold Ax 2x suited and Ax 3x suited. “No need to play back now, I’ll get them later.” The folds I advocated earlier are not accidental but intentional. That’s what makes them exploits. We fold because they 3-bet too tight.

But we’re not gonna 3-bet tight.

Since your opponents are overfolding, increase to full-frequency with the weakest combos in the chart. Again, plus some.

However, anticipate another mistake.

Since your opponent is raise-folding hands like Kx 8x suited, Qx 8x suited, Jx 8x suited, Ax 2x suited, and Ax Tx offsuit, you don’t want to increase the frequencies of your bluffs that card-share, i.e, Kx Qx, Kx Qx, etc. Rather, 3-bet more of your suited connectors and gappers.

Here in GTO land, suited 5x 4x, 6x 5x, and 7x 6x 3-bet infrequently. Tx 9x suited 3-bets half the time. But now, attack with these since they get more folds than they should. Very often, you will rake in 4.5bb of other players’ money. The times you get to the flop, you’ll often win with a cbet and drag in an additional 4-5bb from their preflop peel.

The great thing about constructing your 3-bets this way is that you will seldom lose too much. When your opponent calls preflop and on the flop, you don’t need to keep blasting.

The key is to attack the parts of your opponents’ range that will cave to aggression. If they demonstrate stickiness, pump the brakes.

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

As you move further up in stakes and play against tougher competition, these exploits become less profitable. There, your opponents will generally have their preflop ranges locked in and be more experienced, able to detect your expanded ranges, allowing them to respond effectively. However, in big live field MTTs, there’s a lot you can get away with. These will help you build stacks and lose less than you could if you saw their hands.

• Open more in late position: This takes advantage of your opponents’ tendency to fold their preflop mixes and their failure to 3-bet you often enough.
• Overfold to aggression: The average player, even the studied one, is generally riddled with range-too-strong syndrome. When they 3-bet or 4-bet preflop, continue stronger than the computer would.
• 3-bet More: This capitalizes on your opponents’ raise-folding too much and thus, letting you print by 3-betting more than you’re supposed to. Rules were made to be broken.

Good luck and win all the chips.

To learn more about how to navigate live poker tournament fields, read: From Screen to Felt: 6 Adjustments for Live MTT Success.