J♥J♦ Preflop vs a 3-Bet, what do you do here?
DECISION POINT: In a Tournament, you raise from Under the Gun with J♥J♦. A Middle Position player 3-Bets and everyone folds. Action is on you, what do you do here?
PRO ANSWER: Hands like JJ and TT play better as 4-bet shoves facing a 3-bet instead of calls in general, as they have lots of equity against reasonable hand ranges but have a hard time realizing their equity postflop. This is in large part due to their inability to get value from hands they beat (lower pairs) on overcard flops. However, the Villain's range here is a concern and is often tight enough to warrant a call instead of a shove.
Folding to the min-reraise would definitely be a mistake, as we only need to call 1100 more to play an 8800 chip pot. That means we need to realize 11/88 or 12.5% equity to continue by calling. That is certainly attainable as we have over 35% equity under reasonable assumptions about their range (no bluffs, linear value range consisting of premiums only) and just under 20% equity against the ultra-premium range KK+.
The real question is whether we can infer enough about the narrowness of their range due to the min-reraise and change our strategy from shoving to calling. The more narrow their range, the more we should call rather than shove. It's true that opponents often take this sizing only with monsters like AA and sometimes KK. Other times it's a misclick reraise with a much weaker calling hand.
Continued below...
However, the fact that we are raising UTG on 18 big blinds and they are min-reraising us from MP1 with only 20 big blinds screams strength.
As an exploitative adjustment against an ultra-premium range, we could call and only continue postflop when we improve (flopping a set, overpair plus straight draw, or flush draw on monotone board).
If we believe their range is slightly wider than ultra-premium hands but still very value heavy, we could call and continue on any flops that don't contain a Q, K, or A.
If we believe they are reraising with wider than a premium value range, then we should reraise all-in preflop.
Overall, calling is the best play against most opponents.
How would you play it?
Share your answer in the comments below!