Three-bet
also called 3-bet, re-raise
A three-bet is the second raise in a betting round, counted by treating the big blind as the first bet, the opening raise as the second and the re-raise on top of it as the third.
The counting is where most of the confusion sits. It is the number of bets in the round, not the number of raises, which is why the first re-raise before the flop is a three-bet and the raise on top of that is a four-bet.
After the flop the count restarts, and there are no blinds to count. A bet is the first, a raise is the second, and a re-raise on the flop is the three-bet of that round.
an example
your cards
The big blind is 2, which is the first bet. A player on the cutoff raises to 6, the second. You hold two aces on the button and re-raise to 18. That is the three-bet, and it is the raise that starts building a pot large enough to play for a stack.
This example is made up. The real one is in your own hand history: find three-bet in your own hands and see how often it came up and what it cost you.
related terms
Range
A range is the whole set of hands a player could hold in a given situation, rather than a guess at the one hand they act ...
Isolate
To isolate is to raise with the aim of making everyone else fold, so you end up heads up against one particular player w ...
Limp
To limp is to enter the pot before the flop by calling the big blind rather than raising.
next
Knowing the word is not the same as seeing it.
The full order of play, from the blinds to the showdown.