Building Bluffing Ranges Like the Pros: A Guide to Smarter 3-Bets

Today, solid preflop strategies are part of the tournament poker zeitgeist. (Don’t worry—set-mining doesn’t make you a fish.)

That said, the games are tougher.

Even the best make mistakes—yes, even you, God’s gift to poker.

If players are slipping up preflop in single-raised pots, you can bet (pun intended) they’re doing the same when a 3-bet is on the table (pun also intended).

Fortunately, a few core concepts in preflop 3-betting can help you approximate and execute optimal play more consistently.

In this article, with the help of the honourable Phemo, I’ll share some heuristics to guide your tournament decisions on the fly. Wait… who’s Phemo?

Glad you asked.

The Phenomenal Phemo

Phemo, is a high-stakes online tournament pro and champ who also coaches some of the biggest stables in poker.

He’s part of the team for Upswing’s upcoming Lab 2.0, which you can register for here.

Register for Lab 2.0 to Learn from the Best

Alright. Let’s go!

Constructing 3bet Ranges

Much like a balanced diet, building a solid 3-bet strategy requires a little bit of everything in your range. To save time, I’ll skip the premium combos—those are fairly obvious.

Just like food groups, different hand classes serve different functions.

Where a balanced diet protects your immune system, a well-constructed 3-bet range (or any range, really) protects you from exploitation. On every board, you want some level of interaction. There are caveats (which I’ll get into later), but for now, take a look at the preflop chart below.

Lucid Poker Preflop Chart — Button vs. Cutoff Open (50bb Effective)

• Green: Call
• Red: 3-bet to 6.6bb
• Blue: Fold

Doing a quick scan of this chart, you’ll notice the spread of red (3-bet) across multiple hand classes. This is important because it shows the solver is constructing both its 3-betting and flatting ranges to remain robust across all relevant board textures.

The reason for this balance is simple: you should expect a fair number of calls. For example, when the Button 3-bets a Cutoff open, the Cutoff folds only 33% of the time, calls 50%, and 4-bets the rest. Most of the time, you’ll see a flop. That reality drives the need for board coverage and playability.

Note: This dynamic shifts in ICM situations, where postflop play is disincentivized. There, ranges become more polar—leaning on hands with strong blocking effects, since the priority is to win preflop.

The Bluffing Hand Classes and What they Do

Suited High Card Mid/Weak Kicker

In this example, the solver uses the Button’s suited high card–weak kicker combos—hands like Q7/8/9, Q6, and K4/5/6—as bluffs. Including these serves three key purposes:

1. They can make top pair. Suited 9x, Tx, Jx, Qx, Kx, and Ax ensure that on nearly every board, the Button retains some top-pair holdings—even if the kickers are weak. These are still strong hands in many contexts.
2. They can make flushes and lower straights. Being suited with a low-to-mid card (6, 7, 8, or 9) allows the range to c-bet and pick up equity for additional barrels on a wide variety of turns.
3. They protect your unpaired high cards and vulnerable made hands. For instance, on a 9-8-5 rainbow flop, having suited Q9, J9, T9, K8, or Q7 in the range means that hands like AJ or KQ offsuit are better protected. With these holdings in play, opponents can’t just go wild “repping it,” because you retain natural, high-equity continues yourself.

Suited Mid-Card Gappers and Weak Connectors

These combos play differently than the suited high card–weak kicker hands. In that earlier class, the value came from the ability to make a decent top pair. Here, the best you’ll usually make is a pair of jacks with a poor kicker.

What makes up for that shortcoming is their ability to hit more relevant straights. Having two cards within a straight’s range creates extra gutshots and open-enders, which in turn add viability to turn barrels and improve overall equity realization.

Suited Ax

A key caveat with suited aces is that the kicker strength shifts depending on position (this applies to all bluffing combos in a range). For example, in early-position vs. early-position 3-bet spots, the 3-bettor favors stronger suited Ax like A9 or AT, since blocking TT and 99 matters more when ranges are already tight.

In today’s example, however, we’re in late-position vs. late-position. Here, the solver prefers weaker suited aces. This accomplishes the following:

1. Folding out better offsuit Ax. Against the Cutoff, weak suited aces push out hands like A7 or A8 offsuit.
2. Getting called by worse suited and offsuit combos. These weak or wheel suited aces 3-bet as a merge, since they can also get calls from hands like QTs or KQo.
3. Drawing out versus made hands. Against pocket pairs or unpaired better aces (e.g., AJo), A4 suited can still connect by making a wheel, a flush, or simply top pair.

The Middling Offsuit Ax

A8 through AJ offsuit make for great bluffs because they’re not pure bluffs—worse combos will call. Similar to the suited wheel Ax hands, these middling offsuit aces extract EV from worse calls like A3 through A7 suited, plus everything else ace-high beats.

A key point here is kicker relevance. For example, AJ offsuit is a value 3-bet in this configuration, while A8 offsuit is closer to a pure bluff—not strong enough to flat. The in-between combos (A9 and AT) are strong enough to call and therefore 3-bet less often. Overdoing it with those middling combos lowers their EV, since they simply aren’t strong enough to 3-bet at a high frequency.

The Offsuit Broadways

With this hand class, stack depth is paramount. The deeper you are, the worse static high-card hands perform; the shorter you are, the better they fare. In today’s example, you’re playing 50bb effective—right on the line. Shorter than this, offsuit Broadways get used more frequently; deeper, less so.

While they can’t make flushes and don’t come suited, they still have their own charm:

1. Ability to make good top pair (two ways). Hands like JT, QJ, and KQ can pair either card for a reasonably strong top pair. This becomes especially relevant at shallower stacks, where flopping top pair often commits you to the pot.
2. Ability to make Broadway. Just as wheel aces have the chance to make a wheel, these combos shine by making Broadway. On high-card flops where your hand remains unpaired, you often have three to a straight, which lets you play aggressively. And when the Cutoff’s ace-highs—or even their KQ—miss, your unpaired offsuit K/Q/J-high hands gain fold equity, forcing folds with little resistance.

Summary

Balancing your bluffs against your value 3-bets ensures you actually get paid. A range that suffers from “too strong” syndrome is easy to exploit—opponents can just fold and move on. By constructing a robust 3-bet bluff range, you accomplish the following:

1. Ensure your strong hands get action.
2. Protect your range on boards that usually favor the defender.
3. Win big pots on boards where your aces, kings, or ace-king might otherwise struggle.
4. Maintain balance so you always have credible value hands when betting, no matter the runout.

In short, aim for a range that can win in a multitude of ways.

See you on the poker streets.

To learn more about how to exploit your opponents’ weaknesses in poker tournaments, read: 3 Preflop Exploits That Work in Live Championship Events.

Continue learning

3-Bet