Betfair Official Blog

Marcus Bateman

If you look at the stats of where a good multi table, or 'MTT' player finishes in a tournament, you will quickly see that they hardly ever bust in the very early stages. Although there will be the odd cooler... Read more

Tags: ealry stage mtt, mtt, surviving in mtts

A world class sit and go player can probably hold down a long term roi, or 'return on investment', of between five and ten percent. This obviously adds up to a huge amount of money over many games, but it... Read more

Tags: mtt, multi table tournaments, roi, single table tournaments, stt

With Pud mentioning about how dealing with bad players is often very different to how you deal with good players, I thought it was worth looking at why these players play in a specific way, and why it is important... Read more

Tags: bad players, gambling poker players, motivation behind bad players

You only have to look at how steeply the prize money goes up when at the final of a multi table tournament to realise how important it is to try and get to those all important top three places. This... Read more

Tags: final table strategy, laddering, mtt, multi table tournament

The term 'the nuts' simply refers to a hand that is the best possible one. In flop games the nuts is quite a regular occurrence, where as compared to a game like five card draw (where the nuts has to... Read more

Tags: deepstack, hold'em, nut hand, Omaha

Following on from the look at big flips, it is worth looking at the other common form of gambling at the poker table (apart from just the poker of course) - props. Props are small bets that take place during... Read more

Tags: Cash games, Deuce Seven lowball, Prop bets

The term 'floating' simply refers to calling an opponents bet, either in or out of position, with a weak hand with the intention of bluffing them on a later street.... Read more

Tags: bluffing, calling out of position, floating bets

In one the most recent episodes of the cash game variant of Poker After Dark, a few of the world's best poker players (including Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu) start the game off by flipping for over $100,000 each -... Read more

Tags: Cash games, Coin flips, Metagame, Poker After Dark, Tilt

Although most of the emphasis on player types seems to go on whether a player is tight or loose, aggressive or passive, there are actually numerous other player types that can be identified, adapted to and profited from. One of... Read more

Tags: Ego, Grinders, Home game, Identifying players, Sit and Go

One of the first things that strikes any newcomer to a poker room is the sound of chips moving. Then endless and unique clicking and clattering sound that chips make when shuffled and played with really becomes part of the... Read more

Tags: Chip tricks, Experience, Live poker

Sometimes in poker you just have to fold a strong hand - it is as simple as that. Despite the fact that you may be looking down at a full house, flush or straight, sometimes the action simply dictates that... Read more

Tags: Folding, Full House, Laying down hands

This is a question in poker that seems to create a huge amount of debate. Who really is the best? Is it Phil Hellmuth, with his record number of bracelets? Is it Doyle Brunson, with his years and years at... Read more

Tags: Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Stu Ungar, Success in poker

Although weak games can occasionally be found at nearly every limit, mostly they are exclusive to the low stakes. Beating these particular games requires a very different strategy to beating games with thinking players - and requires anyone sitting in... Read more

Tags: cash games, low-stakes, observation, Weak games

These two concepts are very closely linked in poker. As in any area with probability, the larger your sample size, the closer you get to the actual odds, and the smaller the variance from the correct line there is (as... Read more

Tags: multi-tabling, Tournament poker, Variance, Volume

If you start playing poker for a serious part of your income, you will often start to feel different about the game than you did when you first started. Although the exact things that change are very subjective and person... Read more

Tags: Bankroll management, poker percentages, The Grind

Throughout poker literature, great emphasis is placed on being 'first in' - that is, the first player to make a bet (usually an all in) in order to win the blinds late in a tournament - enabling a player's survival.... Read more

Tags: all-in, bluffing, last in, tournament poker

This is the polar opposite to the small ball strategy in poker. Instead of constantly trying to pick up lots of small pots, a player is attempting to stick to solid hand values, and play large pots with these few... Read more

Tags: big pots, Long ball, low-limits, strong hands

The concept of 'small ball' poker seems to have first been mentioned regularly by Dan Harrington in his excellent series of no limit hold'em tournament strategy books - entitled Harrington on hold'em.... Read more

Tags: Baseball, Dan Harrington, Daniel Negreanu, Small ball

The single most important feature of poker are the forced bets. Without these, all the action would stagnate, players would only play aces and the game would have died a long time ago. By forcing players to put in a... Read more

Tags: blind stealing, cash games, tournament poker

This particular mistake is one that many starting players seem to make - and is one that will cost you a fortune if you don't recognise it and adjust to it. I used to habitually make this mistake until I... Read more

Tags: barry greenstein, cash games, pot odds

'All it takes is confidence' - Bryn Kenney, professional poker player and winner of over one million dollars in online cash games and tournaments.... Read more

Tags: Bryn Kenney, feel like a fish, no limit hold’em, pot limit omaha, self confidence

There is quite a common situation that arises on the bubble of sit and go tournaments that can hugely improve your win rate if you can spot and take advantage of it. It usually comes about when playing three or... Read more

Tags: big stacks, bubble play, short stacks, sit and go strategy

So it's all finally come together for you, you've bought into a big multi table tournament, you've played your heart out and finally taken down that big score. Time to go pro and buy a new car? Actually probably not... Read more

Tags: annette obrestad, mtt, poker roi

The prisoner's dilemma is a problem that is frequently discussed as an example of game theory. It is a simple problem that has some key consequences on poker. Game theory is extremely useful for analysing certain aspects of poker, and... Read more

Tags: game theory, online poker, prisoners dilemma

Following on from the previous article about the importance of moving seats in cash games, I want to look at the broader consequences of seats and position in poker. The first key point is that most of any players profit... Read more

Tags: cash games, changing seats, gaining position, maniacs, rocks

Situations often arise in cash games where changing seat will give you a larger edge than where you currently are. These situations come up frequently when there are one or two players who seem to be either tilting hard or... Read more

Tags: cash games, changing seats, gaining position

It is immediately apparent to anyone that walks into a major poker tournament that there is a huge amount of ego amongst many players. This can range from simple confidence, all the way to constant claims of how good they... Read more

Tags: Barry Greenstein, Chip Reese, Phil Hellmuth, poker ego, poker etiquette, Scotty Nguyen

Poker is mostly a game about people. Although it has cards, a large luck element and different ways of betting, at it's core it is simply a game of psychology. Each player has their own views on the game, their... Read more

Tags: identifying players, poker psychology, poker strength, poker weakness

In my opinion, being able to play multiple tables at once is the single greatest feature of online play. The ability to play numerous tables, coupled with the much higher rate of turnover of hands that virtual shuffling allows, enables... Read more

Tags: multi-tabling, multiple tables, online play

The single hardest thing to cope with in poker is losing money. No matter how objective, or how detached from the money you become, you will always have to struggle to stay composed in the face of big losses.... Read more

Tags: Mike Caro, Phil Ivey, tilt control

This concept shows brilliantly how fluid the general consensus on the 'correct' poker strategy can change. When I first started playing seriously around six years ago, this was a very common strategy advocated by many.... Read more

Advertising is an extremely important part of any poker players game at the mid stakes or higher (at the low stakes it is useless as mostly the players are too weak to notice it, and/or respond to it).... Read more

This is probably the most contentious issue in poker today - which is better, the loose style favored by many successful players, or the super tight style employed by players like Phil Hellmuth? The answer to this is probably neither,... Read more

This is a new addition from last year, and one which appears to be much more like the regular $1.5k buy in events that they hold during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.... Read more

This is obviously the big one, and will be the tournament with the largest prize pool and the most prestige of the WSOPE. Last years winner was none other than Betfair's very own Annette Obrestad, who scooped the million pound... Read more

Many players who have started out just playing hold'em or Omaha often struggle with stud games when they first play them. This is probably because stud games require a much greater attention to detail than flop games, due to the... Read more

Pot Limit Omaha has exploded in popularity in the last few years, with it now being the game played the most regularly, for the most money, of any of the poker variations on offer.... Read more

There is an old poker saying (I think it is from Amarillo Slim, but don't quote me on it) that 'if you can't spot the idiot at the table than you're it'. This is a good piece of poker wisdom,... Read more

Last year this turned out ot be one of the most star studded tables of the WSOPE, with Hendon mob regular Joe Beevers, Chris 'Jesus Ferguson' and Jennifer Harman-Traniello all making the final table. In the end it was a... Read more

Isolating a player is one of the most effective plays in no limit hold'em. The term 'isolate' is used to describe a situation where you make a raise that gives you a very good chance of playing the pot one... Read more

One of the most important concepts a player has to get to grips with late on in tournaments is the importance of being the first player to bet - or being 'first in'. This is particularly true when you are... Read more

The observation and use of hand ranges is critical to becoming a good poker player.... Read more

Due to how soft the pot limit Omaha games have become in recent years, there seems to have developed a specific player class at the tables which simply sits back, hits nut hands and takes advantage of any player going... Read more

The idea of 'fancy play syndrome' was first pointed out by the 'mad genius' of poker - Mike Caro. What he is referring to is when players start making overly complex plays that are simply not profitable over the long... Read more

This play has become increasingly popular in recent years, mainly due to the fact that some of the most popular professionals (in particular Gus Hansen), have started to use this move on a regular basis.... Read more

This is a video of Scotty Nguyen winning this years $50,000 buy in WSOP H.O.R.S.E event.... Read more

Pot limit Omaha is basically the only game in poker where there is a good case to fold the nuts in certain spots. The clearest example of this is the nut straight in specific situations.... Read more

Poker can easily become a major part of your life once you start to take it seriously.... Read more

Poker is a radically different game online than it is live. Although the basic mechanics of the game remain the same, there is much less information available live that there is online.... Read more

On of the most profitable poker games I played in when I first started playing seriously was a £5/£10 limit Omaha hi/lo game run by a bookmaker I knew.... Read more

Texas hold'em is usually played in three different formats - either in full ring games, which usually have between nine and ten players; shorthanded, which is usually six players; and heads up, where players battle it out one on one.... Read more

This is a concept which players seem to forget at nearly all limits, time and time again.... Read more

Pot limit Omaha is one of the only variations of poker where you can have draws that are stronger than a made hand. In PLO it is possible to have draws that are favourite over top set, and recognising what... Read more

This is a hand between arguably the worlds best poker player - Phil Ivey, and high stakes cash game player Brad Booth.... Read more

Poker has a huge amount to do with outside events.... Read more

In the later stages of no limit hold'em tournaments there is nearly always an ante introduced.... Read more

One of the reasons that the variance is so high in Omaha is that you regularly encounter situations where players flop such big hands that neither can fold.... Read more

At its heart, poker is a very simple game.... Read more

This video is a classic example of a player giving away too much information about their hand with predictable consequences... Read more

In the introduction to Doyle Brunson's masterpiece Super System 2 Steve Zolotow writes an excellent piece about which games aspiring players should learn.... Read more

These are some of the most interesting hands to play in no limit hold'em, and if played correctly, can be among the most profitable.... Read more

There is a class of poker player at the Omaha tables who simply play nut hands.... Read more

No poker player will ever be successful long-term if they only play one set style of poker.... Read more

One of the big problems facing technically sound players is getting their opponents to call or fold in situations that they would not normally. One of the ways to do this is with a well timed action or comment.... Read more

Tilt is the single hardest thing to deal with when playing poker.... Read more

I was recently watching a snooker tournament where a commentator asked the great player Ronnie O'Sullivan how many shots in advance he thought while break building.... Read more

With the most important aspect of pot limit Omaha covered...... Read more

How you play on the money 'bubble' of a tournament is critical to long term tournament success.... Read more

This is a truly great hand of poker, played between two of the most interesting and dynamic players of the modern game, Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen.... Read more

The higher you take your game in the world of poker, the more it starts to become as much a battle with yourself, as with the players at the table.... Read more

Slowplaying is one of the most over used plays amongst low stakes no limit players... Read more

Pot Limit Omaha has become one of the most popular cash games in recent years.... Read more

This is a film clip of one of the largest cash pots ever seen on television.... Read more

As mentioned in part one, the ability to play numerous tables at once is a great benefit to playing online.... Read more

As the dust settles after this year's WSOP, we can clearly see what a massive effect the internet has had on poker... Read more

Implied odds are one of the most important concepts in no limit hold'em games.... Read more