Imagine you’re in Malta playing the 2015 PokerListings Battle of Malta. Lucky you!

You are close to the bubble.
The blinds are 1,000/2,000/200.

Preflop

Everyone folds to the player in middle position. He’s an aggressive Swedish pro, with 136,250 chips, and he raises to 5,000. Two hands earlier, the villain lost 20% of his stack on a bluff on the river.

You’re on the button with K♥K♦ and a stack of 130,500.

What do you do?

I'd definitely be 3betting here. It's already a great spot to do so because we have a very very strong hand and position, but on top of that, 3bets from the button tend to get a lot less respect these days which is great for us when we have the top of what will be a very wide range. We know the guy is aggressive and has also just lost a chunk of his stack too so it's likely he won't want to give up on this pot too easily

I'd be inclined to make it around 13,500-14,000 total pre which is larger than I would normally 3bet these spots but think it's a fine adjustment given the factors above, and stacks are pretty deep so it's certainly not a size that looks committing so we still give him plenty of room to 4bet us light in which case I think we should just flat in position and give him the rope to hang himself postflop.

#HandMalta #BOMpreflop