This time, I would like to think about calling on the river against a triple barrel.
◆Calling the river against a triple barrel◆
The ranges for triple barreling are often quite polarized.
And the larger the bet size, the stronger this tendency becomes.
Depending on the board and situation, you’ll probably need at least top pair and a strong kicker to triple barrel.
If your opponent triple barrels, you need to consider the following points comprehensively:
Opponent’s Range and Odds
When facing a triple barrel on the river, it’s important to consider your opponent’s range and odds.
How many value hands and how many bluff hands are in their range?
Also consider what percentage of equity you need to call and what your actual bet size should be.
Consider your opponent
‘s position and how they have played pre-flop.
This is very important for narrowing down their range on the river.
Knowing your opponent’s tendencies
will allow you to make more accurate decisions. Additionally, metagame factors like tilt can also provide valuable hints for your play.
Bet size
is also an important factor to consider. The larger
the bet size, the more polarized the range will be.
Let’s look at an example
◇9-person table UTG 
open-raises, CO 3-bet, UTG calls, HU
The flop 
was check, half bet, call.
On the turn 
, check, bet 70%, call.
The river 
is checked, pot bet all in, ???
Now let’s consider whether the UTG can call this pot bet on the river.
First, the call odds are 2:1, since it’s a pot bet, you need at least 33% equity.
Next, let’s consider the cutoff’s range.
We know from history that the cutoff is a tight-aggressive player.
Since he 3-bet against UTG, his range is generally considered strong, and since he played a second club on the turn, he is likely double-barreling even with a club flush draw hand.
Taking these things into consideration, the value range of the cutoff player on the river is AA, KK, QQ, making 18 combos, while the bluffing range is AKc, AQc, A5c, A4c, and even if you add two more combos of 98s, it’s only 6 combos in total.
This means that the underhand player only has 25% equity against the cutoff player’s range, and it would be correct for the underhand player to fold against a pot bet that requires more than 33% equity.
However, if the CO recently lost a big pot and is on tilt, it wouldn’t be surprising if he triple barreled all of his AKs,
which would increase his bluff combo count to 21, giving the UTG roughly 40% equity and making the call correct.
By organizing your opponent’s information in this way and thinking about each piece step by step, you can get closer to their correct range, thereby improving the accuracy of your judgment.
