SPOT PRINCIPLE
Deep defense is a volume business: many cheap flops, very few bloated pots without the goods.
The 3-bet range condenses toward hands that welcome a giant pot; almost everything else that plays well flats. Bloated pots with dominated hands are how 500bb stacks vanish.
Closing the action against a middle open. Wider than the EP defense, same discipline: suited and connected in, dominated offsuit out.
Assumes a ~4bb open; 3-bet to ~3x the open in position, ~4x from the blinds – larger as stacks deepen.
Baseline assumptions: 9-handed · no ante · no straddle · 4bb opens · low-rake live structure · cold-calling allowed. Charts reduce low-frequency mixes to a single default action; adjust live for opponents and rake. Baseline v1 · updated 2026-08.