Betfair Online Poker Blog

Marcus Bateman

One of the strangest phenomenons in poker is that the very highest stake games often play much more like the very lowest stake games than they do the mid stake ones. This is a pretty odd point, as in nearly... Read more

The term 'dangler' simply refers to a card in your hand that does not combine well with the others. The six of clubs in a hand like KhJhAs simply does not work with any of the other cards in terms... Read more

Spotting collusion and cheating if at a table is one of the key things you should be looking for when playing, be it live or online. Poker will probably always have some people who attempt to cheat to win at... Read more

The truly greatest poker players have no one single gear. All are capable of switching their game up depending on a whole range of factors, switching to the one that they feel is the most optimal for the table situation,... Read more

The term 'blocker bet' simply refers to a situation in poker where a player has a hand they want to call a bet with, but do not want to be faced with a big bet to call. By leading out... Read more

Although I would not usually advocate flat calling raises with big pairs very often, there are certain situations where you can be fairly confident you may well get re-raised if you do, and in these spots it is often wise... Read more

All truly great champions in any competitive arena of skill have one key thing in common - they are all great finishers. There are many players in all genres of sports and games who are great players, regularly get deep... Read more

Dealing with players who habitually show you their hands can be an extremely taxing and annoying experience. People play poker for a variety of reasons, be it to make money, relax from their usual routine of life, or in the... Read more

River check raising is one of the most useful plays in no limit hold'em and pot limit Omaha, yet one that is under used on the whole, probably due to players being worried about hands being checked behind them when... Read more

Being able to fold small full houses is one of the hall marks of great Omaha players. When you play hold'em, you should basically never even be considering folding full houses unless the board is very tricky (say you have... Read more

Big bet bluffs are one of the most important areas to understand in no limit and pot limit games. For the most part, big bets indicate big hands amongst capable players. However, as you are looking to get lots of... Read more

Most poker players tend to play shorter sessions when they win, and longer ones when they lose. This is simply because the desire to get even is very powerful when losing, and the satisfaction of winning tends to lead players... Read more

Sometimes in poker, you just simply feel compelled to call in a situation that makes very little logical sense. Be it a twitch in the way someone throws their chips into the pot, or simply that you are fed up... Read more

Creating a good atmosphere at the table is one of the most important things you can do when playing with weak players. Many people, and quite legitimately, do not play poker to make money. Instead, they like gambling, enjoy the... Read more

Throwing in the occasional check raise bluff is essential to a well balanced poker game. As check raising is a tool that is very useful for extracting extra value from a hand when out of position, it is crucial that... Read more

With the WSOP just around the corner, it is worth thinking about one of the key differences between live and online poker - that of endurance.... Read more

One of the key things you need to understand about the psychology of poker is what people's drives and motivations are when in groups. All human beings seem to have an innate desire to conform to how those around them... Read more

One of the first signs of a new player's ability when you first start playing with them is if they have the tendency to raise and then fold to a re-raise.... Read more

If you think of the two extreme possibilities of the ante structure in poker, with the first being no ante, and the second being an ante the size of your stack every hand, you can easily see how important the... Read more

This is a useful tell, as it nearly always indicates strength from your opponent. Due to human physiology, when we look down at a monster hand, the excitement of knowing that we are about to win a big pot releases... Read more

There is an old poker saying (I believe coined by Doyle Brunson but don't quote me on it) that a player should: 'Never go broke in an unraised pot'. This simply refers to the notion that you should not be... Read more

The single most important area to look at when playing live poker is your opponent's hands. Most players go to great lengths to keep a straight poker face and limit the movement of their body when playing, but hardly anyone... Read more

This is the single most useful tell in low stakes poker games in my opinion. It can easily give you a complete idea of the strength of a weak player's hand, and it is very rare in poker to get... Read more

With the ever expanding popularity of heads up games, many of the best spots to play in are now one on one games. Weak players seem to be attracted to these games because the variance is extremely high, which means... Read more

Most of heads up play comes down to trying to quickly adapt to your opponents playing style(s) if and when they change. This is because heads up poker is primarily a game of bluff and marginal hands, where any predictable... Read more

Often in poker you come across situations where although you think you may have the best hand, you want to try and check and make your opponent bluff. These situations often occur when you have a medium strength hand that... Read more

One of the things you will quickly notice about good players in any variation of poker is how they change their game depending on how many people are in the hand. That great aggressive no limit hold'em player who seems... Read more

When I first started playing poker it was predominantly in a medium sized club run by a local bookmaker.... Read more

One of the classic mistakes I regularly see players make live is to change their bet sizes dependent not on what they feel is the correct bet amount, but on the chips available in front of them.... Read more

Often in poker you have to make decisions based not only on the hand in question, but also on future hands that you will play with the same people. When playing large, low buy in online tournaments or freerolls many... Read more

Jack ten is one of the nicest hands you can ever look down at when playing deep stacked no limit hold'em, particularly if it is suited. This is because jack ten is a very versatile hand that often flops monsters,... Read more

'You gotta have two things to succeed kid - you gotta have brains and you gotta have balls. Now you got too much of one and not enough of the other' - Paul Newman to Tom Cruise in The Color... Read more

This is quite a complex principle to understand to most players, as it seems to go against the intuitive logic of how poker works. I have the best hand, surely getting my money in the pot in any way is... Read more

Nearly everybody in poker is a relatively bad player. The only ones who can truly claim to be good are those very few players who have managed to stay at the top of the game, making money at all games... Read more

Poker is a constantly evolving game, and in order to be able to stay consistently profitable a player has to think about how the game will change in the future. Certain games shift dramatically in popularity, and understanding how and... Read more

Due to the fact that you have to use exactly two of the cards from your hand in Omaha, holding just the ace (or king for that matter) of a suit will never enable you to have the nut flush.... Read more

Weak aces tend to be the hand that you see bad players get in the most trouble with at the table. This is because weak aces are usually very far behind most good hands in hold'em, and weak players seem... Read more

Positive reinforcement is one of the single greatest things about the game of poker. Often in poker, a player makes the wrong move at the wrong time and wins. Instead of making the player feel bad about their particular bad... Read more

Most of the discussion in poker about luck comes down to individual hands. 'My aces got cracked by kings' or 'he hit his back door flush draw after making a ludicrous flop bluff' are typical stories from players who claim... Read more

So you're sitting down with a massive fish and playing heads up cash. The player is very loose and bad, and you quickly realise that you all you have to do is sit back, play tight and just let good... Read more

A brief analysis of the catalogue of mistakes made in Nick Cantwell's excellent sarcastic piece about how to play a sit and go...... Read more

Pot limit Omaha is one of the only games where you can ever consider folding the ace flush on a non paired board.... Read more

Tags: folding, plo, pot limit omaha

Frequently in tournament poker you will encounter players who are re-raising your opens at an inappropriate frequency.... Read more

One of the great things about playing mixed games is that they give a player who may well be considerably weaker than another player at a specific game (say limit hold'em) an edge if they are a just a slightly... Read more

In my opinion, dropping down the stakes at points is the hallmark of all truly great players.... Read more

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that deals with problems where the number of variables become so high that mathematics ceases to be able to provide accurate explanations about the future.... Read more

Some of the most profitable poker games out there in the current era are pot limit Omaha games.... Read more

After positional mistakes, talked about by Sorel Mizzi , the most common mistakes players make in this format is either calling or folding too much.... Read more

Heads up sit and goes provide a great opportunity for spinning up a bankroll to the beginner or play money player. The variance is very low in these games, as they combine many features which allow skill to shine through... Read more

We can see from how wildly random walks differ from the actual odds of an event quite clearly from any of the numerous graphs available.... Read more

A 'random walk' is a mathematical term to describe looking at sequences of consecutive random events and observing the patterns.... Read more

The term 'rope a dope' was first made widely known by Dan Harrington in his excellent series of books entitled Harrington on hold'em.... Read more

Bluffing in limit poker is much harder than in pot limit or no limit games. This is simply because the odds a player faces in limit hold'em are nearly always very good - and as a result folding too much... Read more

Tags: limit poker

Most poker players do not have very long plans to improve their ability. They may reach a stake where they can make a comfortable living and decide to pay less attention, or simply lose interest in learning and improvement when... Read more

On the 30th of November 1943 Adolf Hitler made what is now regarded as one of the greatest mistakes in military history.... Read more

One of the most problematic hands to play in hold'em for beginner players are inside, or 'gutshot' straight draws.... Read more

Tags: calling with bad odds, difficult chioces, playing straights

For every winning poker player, there are two key things that describe their ability and win rate. The first is the highest stakes that they are able to consistently beat. The second is the games that they can make the... Read more

So it's finally all come together, you have had a long winning streak at cash, final tabled a few big multi table tournaments or have just been destroying hundreds of sit and go's, your account is firmly in the black... Read more

Tags: becoming a winning player, having success, managing poker finances

The high hand is usually seen as the weaker of the possible hands in hi/lo split games - simply because it cannot win the low as well, where as low hands can frequently develop into high hands which can win... Read more

Tags: hi-lo split, high cards, low cards, poker variants

Small ball and long ball poker fundamentally rely on the analysis and knowledge of different types of odds in poker. Long ball simply relies on the odds of the hands of poker.... Read more

The term 'free card' simply refers to any situation in poker where you either 'take' a free card by checking behind after an opponent checks, or by checking yourself, with the intention of 'giving' your opponent the chance to let... Read more

Tags: being too crafty, giving free cards away, taking free cards

One of the main traits of the best no limit poker players is their ability to size up the best spots to really put people to the test - to force them to play a pot for all their chips... Read more

Tags: bet sizing, bluffing, continuation bets

Mostly when playing tournament poker you want to try and avoid situations where you are playing large pots with a small edge.... Read more

Tags: early stage mtt, playing skilled player, tournament life, weak tables

If enough poker players played for long enough, eventually there would be one player who lost every single hand they ever played - be it aces or deuce seven off suit - and a player that won every hand they... Read more

Tags: bell curve, poker luck, standard deviation, variance in poker

Although the basics of being a good poker player are simply tying to work out your opponents possible range of hands, comparing it to your own, and acting accordingly; sometimes your opponents possible holding is not the only consideration you... Read more

Tags: dealing with tilted players, when to call

Buying in deep has one substantial advantage over buying in short. If you are sitting in a game with another player who is weak and also has a big stack, you give yourself the opportunity to win all of their... Read more

Tags: beating weak layers, deep stack, playing deep in cash games

When you sit down at a cash table you immediately have a choice between how much to buy in for. Most online sites allow you to buy in for between twenty and one hundred big blinds, most casinos allow you... Read more

Tags: cash games, not buying in for full amount, short stacking, small buy-in

One of the hardest stack sizes to play in no limit tournament poker is one of between fifteen and twenty five big blinds. This is because it occupies a sort of awkward limbo, being too much to just shove, while... Read more

Tags: aggressive play, deep stacked tournaments, mtt

One of the great contradictions of poker is how players have to approach money. Although nearly everyone plays with the intention of winning money, in order to stay emotionally stable and successfully build a bank roll, you have to care... Read more

Tags: bankroll as tokens, coping with losses, poker as a game

This is one of the most important concepts to be able to understand as you start moving your game up the limits. 'Balancing your ranges' simply refers to making sure that when you make a specific play, you do it... Read more

Tags: mixing up your play, not being predictable, wide range of hands

With so many Betfair qualifiers in the Aussie Millions, I thought it appropriate to look at one of the key mistakes I see online players make when they start playing live - that of not counting the chips around them.... Read more

Tags: paying attention, relative stack sizes, tracking opponetns stacks

I have recently been coaching a friend of mine who wanted to improve his multi table tournament game. He had been playing lots of small buy in, large field events, but was complaining that he never seemed to be able... Read more

Tags: huge runner fields, mtt minefield, surviving in big tournaments

This a common term used by poker players when discussing how they played a specific hand. The term 'texture' in this context refers to what combination of cards have come down on the board, as it will nearly always have... Read more

Tags: post flop decisions, post flop play, raggedy board

The Martingale system is a theory of gambling which outlines a way that theoretically you can always win at any game with chance involved. The idea is that you keep doubling your bets - plus a little extra - until... Read more

Tags: double your money, dubious betting systems, gambling, general poker advice

One of the earliest observations from the 'mad genius' of poker, Mike Caro, about bad players was that they usually act weak when strong or strong when weak.... Read more

Tags: bluffing, Mike Caro, showing strength, showing weakness, tells

The term 'overbet' refers to a bet that is substantially over the size of the pot in no limit games. Unlike in pot limit games, where a player cannot raise more than the size of the pot at any point,... Read more

Tags: betting too much into a pot, playing weak players, underbetting

We've all been there, you are sitting with friends or family, someone pulls out the chips and you start up a low stakes poker game. Sooner or later talks of adding extra game comes along, and before you know it... Read more

Tags: alternative poker games, home games, poker variations, wild card games

Nearly every bizarre variant of poker requires major changes to a player's game. This is simply because the addition of wild cards - or extra regular cards to players hands, such as six card Omaha or three card hold'em -... Read more

Tags: alternative poker games, home games, poker variations, wild card games

Any business or game that attracts lots of people with large sums of money is going to attract criminals. Be it in the live arena, when hooded men come and hold up private games, or even on shady Internet sites,... Read more

Tags: absolute poker, ltimatebet poker, online security, stay safe at live games

Why and how people choose to play poker is a very personal matter. Some people just enjoy the buzz of gambling, not hugely bothered about their bottom line at the end of the year, and are more there to just... Read more

Tags: chip reese, gambling, motivation for poker, poker as a career, stu ungar

Many people seem to think that poker is purely based around degenerate gamblers, who sit down and lose millions of dollars and go broke while a few sharks hoover up all of it as quickly as possible.... Read more

Tags: fish, omaha hi lo, up and coming poker games, weak players

This seems one of the most obvious concepts in poker, yet is one that you see ignored time and time again by weak players.... Read more

Tags: abc poker, big hands, strong cards

Razz is a game that makes many players roll their eyes back in their heads and talk about how they wish that such a game had never been invented.... Read more

Tags: alternative poker games, how to play razz, play razz

There are two basic things that you have to be able to do if you want to consistently make money from playing poker. The first is that you have to able to control yourself in the games you are playing;... Read more

Tags: bankroll, game selection, making money at poker, profitable poker

If you watch any of the great online multi table tournament players on any day where they are playing a full schedule of tournaments, you will see that in the early stages of the game that most of them often... Read more

Tags: abc poker, early stages mtt, live poker, online poker

One of the key leaks in weak players games is that they bluff for very obvious reasons. The most obvious of these is desperation, usually in situations where their hand has missed and the only real option that they have... Read more

Tags: bluff, bluffing, desperate plays, intelligent poker, recognising weaknesss

This is one of the most important things that the very best players seem to be able to do over and over again. 'Pulling the trigger' simply refers to being prepared to fire numerous streets with nothing against any opponent... Read more

Nearly all the money you will ever make from playing poker comes from folding.... Read more

Tags: fold, fold monsters, folding big hands, laying down cards, missing the flop

Rebuy tournaments provide some of the most lucrative action for good tournament players. This is for a few key reasons. Firstly, the ability to rebuy gives a good player numerous shots at building a large stack - very important for... Read more

Tags: good tournament players, moorman1, mtt, pearljammer, re-buys, rebuy tournaments

Ego has bust more players than any other single factor - except perhaps bad tilt (which is very closely linked to ego anyway).... Read more

Tags: bankroll, ego, self control, taking a break, thinking about the game, tilt

The term 'slowroll' refers to when a player is last to act, has either the nuts or a hand so strong they would never consider folding, and is facing an all in, and then sits there deliberating for a while... Read more

Tags: cash games, mtts, slow roll, slow rolling, to be slowrolled

When online poker first started, the only thing you had to know how to do to beat no limit hold'em games was to three bet with hands other than monsters, and make continuation bets at a high frequency.... Read more

Tags: changing styles of poker, lag, mizzi, obrestad, tag

I was recently playing a bit of $.50/1 no limit hold'em when a true maniac sat down and started to play.... Read more

Tags: $.50/1, cash games, fish, live poker players, maniacs, weak players

This is an effect which is frequently forgotten by online players, although one which has, and always will be, a critical feature of poker.... Read more

Tags: dominating other players, poker strategy, stealing blinds, table captain

Although the fundamental reason that anyone successfully plays poker is to win the forced bets, lots of careful considerations have to be made about quite how you go about it.... Read more

Tags: antes, blind strategy, late stage mtt, tournament play

Although for the most part you hardly ever want to tell bad players how bad they really are, occasionally it is profitable and correct to try and get under the skin of bad players through berating them. A great example... Read more

Tags: fish, gaining advantage, stuey ungar, upsetting opponents

Tournament poker is one of the most savage ways to play poker, particularly when playing live. You can easily play for days on end, only to find that all your time was wasted, as some cruel beat, when a few... Read more

Tags: break from poker, dealing with defeat, reaction after bubbling

One of the most frequent mistakes you see bad players make is going broke with ace king early in tournaments.... Read more

Tags: AK, big slick, deep stack poker, early stage tournament play, mtt

One of the most important things you need to learn to become successful at deep stacked, big bet poker, is to be able to exercise pot control on a regular basis.... Read more

Tags: cash games, controlling the size of pot, deep stack MTTs, hand ranges

In nearly all variants of poker there are situations that arise where the correct play is to try and give your opponent a free card in the hope that they hit something, due to the massive strength of your own... Read more

Tags: giving away free cards, importance of raising, Omaha eight, pot limit omaha

Due to the lack of information available online, it is important to try and scrutinise every little detail of your opponents to try and ascertain as much information as possible about them.... Read more

Tags: gaining advantage, long term success, online poker, poker alias, screen names, tuffish

I was recently playing heads up $3/$6 no limit hold'em with a player online. He seemd to be tilting hard, having dropped two buy ins to me making badly timed (and badly executed) bluffs, both of which I called with... Read more

Tags: bluffing, heads up, tilt, tilt control

Every time you sit down at a poker table you will see people making different bet sizes. Working out what these bet sizes mean, and how much you should bet yourself, is crucial to poker success. Some players tend to... Read more

Tags: bet sizes, bet sizing, Dan Harrington, monster or junk, multi tabling, randomising bets

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

Tags: deep stack hold'em, maximise profits, pot control, thinking ahead

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

Tags: deceptive plays, slow playing, trapping opponents

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

Tags: pot odds, when to bet, working out odds in poker