4-Bet Percentage in Poker: What It Means and How to Use It

What 4-bet% measures

A 4-bet is the next raise after a 3-bet. The sequence goes: someone opens (the first raise), another player re-raises (the 3-bet), and you raise again (the 4-bet). 4-bet% is the share of the times you could have 4-bet where you actually did.

4-bet% = times you 4-bet / times you had the chance to 4-bet

The "chance" matters. It means a 3-bet was made before you and it was your turn to act, so the stat only counts the hands where facing a 3-bet was possible. Compare that with 3-bet%, which measures how often you re-raise an open.

A worked example

Suppose you open and get 3-bet 40 times over a long stretch. You 4-bet in 4 of them and fold or call in the other 36. Your 4-bet% is 4 / 40 = 10%.

Be careful with the meaning. This is a different number from how often you 4-bet across all your hands, which is much lower.

Reading the number

• Very low. If you almost never 4-bet, opponents who 3-bet a lot can take advantage by 3-betting you every time, knowing you'll fold or just call.
• Very high. If you 4-bet too often, you're bluffing too many hands and getting called by the strongest part of their range.
• The middle. There is no single correct number. Because the stat is measured per opportunity, it looks much bigger than your overall aggression, and the right figure depends on your position, the stakes and how often you face 3-bets. Compare it with your own history and with the players in your games rather than a fixed target.

4-bet% goes with fold to 3-bet

4-bet% only tells you half the story. When you face a 3-bet you can fold, call or 4-bet. Your fold to 3-bet stat is the other half. If you rarely 4-bet and rarely call, you're folding to nearly every 3-bet, and that is exploitable.

Watch the sample size

4-bet and 3-bet situations are rare, so these stats take a long time to stabilise. A few hands can swing them a lot. How many hands you need before your stats are reliable explains why a stat built on a small sample is more guess than fact.

Table size changes it

Ranges at a 6-max table are wider than at full ring, so 3-bet and 4-bet frequencies are higher at 6-max. 6-max vs full ring cash games covers how that changes your reads.