For many more recent no-limit hold'em players, "three-betting" or reraising before the flop is a rarely chosen action, almost exclusively performed (if in any respect) with the strongest starting hands. For a similar group, "four-betting" preflop — that may be raising after someone has reraised — is even less commonly done, perhaps only with pocket aces or pocket kings (if the chips haven't gotten within the middle already).
That means after we begin talking about three-betting or four-betting "light" — that is, with medium-strength and even weak starting hands — we've moved into more of a sophisticated topic to think about. A player probably first needs to be in a position to three- or four-bet preflop with strong hands before she or he can reasonably start considering mixing in "light" three- and four-bets.
Let's say you're a player who well understands starting hand values, the significance of position, may be able to identify opponents' playing styles and tendencies, and also you are comfortable three- or four-betting with strong starters when the circumstances warrant doing so. Why might you should consider occasionally three- or four-betting with lesser, non-premium holdings, then?
Light Three-Bets and Four-Bets: Defining "Light"
When we discuss a player's starting hand as being "light" or not strong, that during itself is an evaluation that is not necessarily cut-and-dry in the case of its parameters. For a super-tight player who only plays strong hands, even reraising with 
Having made that qualification, let's agree that a "light" three- or four-bet can also be understood as any hand outside the everyday reraising range of 
Light Three-Bets and Four-Bets: Exploiting Players Who Will Fold
For many, the speculation of three-betting with non-premium starting hands is believed of exclusively as a preflop bluff. That may be to say, it is a reraise you do not want to be called, therefore it's made only in situations marked by certain, specific factors, crucial being the way of the player making the outlet raise.
If the player is particularly loose and known to open-raise with an excessively wide selection of hands, the three-bet is designed to earn a fold while winning some more money besides the blinds and antes. If the player is tight enough to boost with better starting hands though still fold everything but premium hands to three-bets, that player, too, become a target for three-betting light.
Some approach the sunshine four-bet similarly — also as a bluff designed to win the hand right then and there. The targets again are loose-aggressive players able to three-betting with hands like 
Such scenarios are all fine for light three- and four-bets. In fact, it is usually okay occasionally to think about your light three- or four-bet primarily as a bluff. However, in case you only approach light three- and four-bets on this fashion, you are not really understanding the prospective value of those plays or the opposite explanation why good players make them.
You're also setting yourself as much as lose greater than you would like when these preflop bluffs are called (or met with subsequent reraises). It finally ends up being a high-risk play — much riskier, say, than an effortless blind steal — since any three- or four-bet is necessarily going to require committing significant chips.
If the blinds are 100/200 and the primary raise is to 500, a standard reraise could be to 1,500. If that three-bet is a bluff, it is a bluff during which a player is risking 1,500 to 700. Meanwhile a postflop bluff is additionally made by betting lower than the scale of the pot (e.g., risking 700 to win 1,500). You're risking more to win less (relatively speaking), which means that the three-bet bluff has to work a miles higher percentage of the time to be profitable.
All of that's to say, you should not recall to mind three-betting light or four-betting light as merely the way to bluff before the flop against players who will fold. That may happen, and often might be a good outcome. But there are other reasons for making these light preflop reraises.
Light Three-Bets and Four-Bets: Exploiting Players Who Will Call
We should add that against still another group of opponents, the loose-passive ones who call preflop reraises more often than they should, three- or four-betting light may also be powerful. Such players can also be pushed off hands readily after the flop, yielding to you the bigger pots built by the preflop action.
Against such players you expect the loose preflop call that ends up in them having to play postflop with a variety that incorporates many medium-to-weak hands with pots above average in size. The truth that you have got three- or four-bet light and still have less-than-premium holdings isn't as significant, as you may have the initiative and regularly can push these players out when they miss connecting with the board.
There's more to mention here, but we'll move on with the certainty that the sunshine three- or four-bet (often) isn't merely a stand-alone preflop play, but a part of a bigger multi-move strategy that continues after the flop.
Light Three-Bets and Four-Bets: Manipulating Your Perceived Range
You watch a player raise from middle position and also you three-bet from the button with 
Three-betting takes the iniative clear of the raiser preflop, supplying you with a greater chance to manage how the betting goes to move after the flop. That is advantageous with speculative hands like those suited connectors. Three-betting light with position as on this example further puts an opponent at the defensive, while three-betting from out of position could be a technique to lessen the positional advantage by removing the initiative.
By three-betting light, you notice flops with a wider range of hands, which in turn means you hit those ten-high flops or other boards that do not appear to be they'd be good for ace-king or ace-queen (i.e., hands which your opponent might expect a three-bettor to have). It may be an overly deceptive play, and particularly effective against players who never three-bet light themselves and thus have difficulty anticipating others doing it.
When four-bets gets called, you'll often see numerous checking after the flop — unless, of course, one or both players really does hold a premium starting hand or connects with the board especially hard. If you've four-bet preflop and your opponent shows weakness after the flop, you're in a first-rate spot to steal a decent-sized pot.
Light Three-Bets and Four-Bets: Manipulating Your Image
Consider that very same hand described above, the only during which you three-bet with ten-nine suited and ended up showing down a winner.
How will your opponents view your next three-bet?
Several good stuff may end up here, although you had lost that exact hand at showdown. Some players will readily call your next three-bet (or reraise back), increasing the chance of your getting action whilst you do finally pick up premium starting hands.
Some can even recognize the sunshine three-bet as indicative of your being an artistic player willing to make unorthodox moves. That may assist in quite a lot of situations, corresponding to getting your value bets called ("This guy will raise with anything!"), earning you folds whilst you bluff ("Who knows what this guy has? Maybe he really has the seven-high straight here."), and other good results that come when opponents cannot reliably narrow your range.
Final Thoughts
Numerous factors can influence how frequently a given player might light three-bet or light four-bet, including the stack sizes which in certain cases (e.g., shallow-stacked tournament situations) can essentially rule out reraising light as a preflop option.
For most players and in most situations, however, the sunshine three-bet may be only an occasionally employed move, and the sunshine four-bet even rarer.
That said, do not be the player who never three-bets light, as that opens you as much as being exploited yourself those times whilst you do three-bet along with your premium hands. Perhaps practice the move when playing online poker on the micros or lower stakes and get to grips with how your making the sunshine preflop reraise can affect a given hand and/or how other hands play.
Also on this series...
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