[kross]

[ QUOTE ]
Scenario I: I 3-bet preflop and he calls. I autobet the flop.

Scenario II: I call preflop and checkraise his autobet.

Count the bets in each scenario. There is no lost value.

[/ QUOTE ]

But there IS lost value. Not on this hand, but future hands. 3-betting preflop will slow down liberal blind stealers. HPFAP says if you never play another hand again in your life, you should 3-bet less, for deception. It then goes on to say you should 3-bet more liberally, because you don't want your opponent to think, "I'm betting 2 SB to win 1.5 SB", but rather he needs to know that sometimes it will cost him more.

With your strategy, he knows you'll never reraise. He knows he has to succeed in folding the blinds about 60% of the time to show an automatic profit. By never 3-betting, you are encouraging him to continue to take shots at your blinds. Unless you're calling preflop with tons of trash, he will succeed.

So if you call preflop, he can then choose to be done with it. His steal didn't succeed, he can move on to the next hand if he didn't get a favorable flop. He always gets to see a flop on his terms, knowing he will never have to pay 3 bets to see a flop. Plus he has position on you.

You can't counter that by always check-raising the flop, because you can't. Sometimes he'll check behind. Some flops you don't want to check-raise. He now knows that you're tricky, and will check-raise many flops, so he can decide if he wants to bet or not. He gets to choose how many bets go in.

He's getting 4.5-1 on the flop, so he will continue to bet many flops, since he only has to win 25% of the time. The times that you check-fold to him (including you folding the best hand), plus the times when he flops something good, and he's getting the best of it.

He has position, and you're letting him take shots for cheap. It seems to me he's getting the best of it.