by spoonitnow | Feb 14, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
The alpha value is one of the most important numbers in a discussion of poker because it gives you a lot of information with a simple calculation. However, it’s often applied incorrectly because of a lack of understanding of what it can and should be used for....
by Jack Sawyer | Feb 13, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Out of all the strategic aspects at play in any given poker game, there is none more important than table position. Players who can manipulate the hand-to-hand shift in the betting patterns will have a greater chance to be successful, regardless of the cards in their...
by spoonitnow | Feb 11, 2019 | Cash Games, Featured Cash Games, Featured No Limit Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
A few people have been posting stats threads lately and I’ve seen a trend that really needs to be addressed. Most of the people I’ve seen stats on are not stealing blinds nearly enough, and aren’t defending their blinds nearly enough. I’ve...
by spoonitnow | Feb 10, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction More than seven years ago, I wrote a post titled Blind Stealing 101. A lot has changed in terms of what’s fashionable and what’s well-known in the online poker world. For a fun piece of evidence of this, note that the standard size of an open...
by givememyleg | Feb 10, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
If poker was all about exercising knowledge, then it would be basically all too easy to earn money at the game, but life is never that easy is it? For instance many authors have written excellent poker books without the effects of having written that book having any...
by carlcarlsoniv | Feb 9, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
I’m going to pick back up on the NL 2-7 Single Draw series later, but because of popualr interest, we’re going to look at a different topic today. This week’s topic is that of multiway pots, why they are different and how you should adjust to them....
by IowaSkinsFan | Feb 7, 2019 | Featured No Limit Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Something I like to do, and what I always advocate people who seek poker help from me, is to break down the elements of poker so we can understand concepts behind them and further apply them. I feel like most of the problems with people stuck at low and midstakes is...
by spoonitnow | Feb 6, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Some people have described the feeling of being overwhelmed by all of the things that go into deciding whether or not they should make a continuation bet. We’re going to make our thinking less stressful and more efficient by looking at the question from a...
by Fnord | Feb 6, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Group 1: any two cards Group 2: any two cards you found in your wallet (Blockbuster, Visa, library card) Har har! Not really. But yes, the starting requirements are a lot looser and a lot more vague than in a full ring game. I don’t consult a chart – a lot...
by edwarda | Feb 5, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
The semi-bluff: know it, use it, love it. To be a poker rock star (i.e. you turn a profit!), it is necessary to have in your arsenal of moves. David Slansky defines the semi-bluff as “a bet with a hand which, if called, does not figure to be the best hand at the...
by carlcarlsoniv | Feb 4, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction A lot of the time in poker, we get caught up on the idea of wanting to know if something is profitable or not. We often make mistakes in our game because we’re taking an aggressive action that we have deemed to be profitable since we have made a...
by Carl Sampson | Feb 4, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Actually, I almost didn’t write this article simply because I thought that writing it might be a waste of time. The reason being is that the vast majority of players who read this will probably, through a combination of conceit and egotism, think that I am not...
by spoonitnow | Feb 3, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This is the first of a series of poker articles that I’ll be writing each week here at FlopTurnRiver. The objective of this article is to present what I think is an excellent approach to studying poker that will be central to my future articles. The Problems...
by spoonitnow | Feb 3, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction This is the fifth part of the NLHE Foundations Series. This series is designed to give a clear set of topics to study and methods for studying that will bring players up to the intermediate levels in no-limit hold’em. People who are signed up in the...
by Fnord | Feb 3, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
General Approach: Buy-in for 50bb. Re-load when you drop below 40bb. At 75bb re-evaluate table conditions. If you don’t like your seat or table, nit it up until your blinds hit, then leave. Tend to leave if you drop 100bb at a table. Advantages to a less than...
by carlcarlsoniv | Feb 3, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction In last week’s column on dealing with ranges, I talked about how to incorporate both your range and your opponent’s range into a single, cohesive thought process that allows you to exploit players and deal with balance issues at the same time....
by Fnord | Feb 2, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
The key to table selection is having a good seat at a great table. Beware, there is such a thing as a bad seat at a great table. I primarily look at games with 6-8 players and a large pot size. I do this so I’m less likely to join a game that’s already...
by Carl Sampson | Feb 2, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Lets face it, if making money playing poker was that easy then there wouldn’t be so many people who are still scratching their heads trying to figure it all out. There are many facets to playing successful poker but one of the least understood is in selecting suitable...
by bigspenda73 | Feb 2, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
One of the recent trends in online poker is the introduction of No Limit Hold’em cash games with an Ante. Major sites such as FullTilt, UB (formerly UltimateBet), and Absolute Poker have added these games to their lobby looking to attract more players. Ante games tend...
by IowaSkinsFan | Feb 2, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
We are on the river with 97s on a JJ922 board. Our opponent has bet 3/4ths the pot into us, and we are put in a tough spot. We know from the past streets that our hand look weak and our donk opponent, who seems to never fold (ever), could easily have a J, 2, overpair,...
by carlcarlsoniv | Feb 2, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction In last week’s edition of this series, we looked at some specific things that you can tell about the flop texture that will give you a good idea of which types of flops are good for continuation betting with all other factors being considered equal....
by carlcarlsoniv | Feb 1, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction A lot of players, especially newbies, get confused on what to do when their AK misses the flop. This is especially true in 3-bet pots where you aren’t really sure just what you’re supposed to be doing. A lot of players will blindly c-bet, but...
by IowaSkinsFan | Feb 1, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
The most repeated advice in poker. We’ve all heard it before. Position, Position, Position. The proof is in the pudding. Our statistics show that we win much more money on the button than we do UTG. But the advice to play in position is not very powerful when we have...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 31, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Wherever you go these days, be it on poker forums, poker websites or poker magazines, you will be confronted by a myriad of information concerning how to play certain hands in certain situations. Now before I go any further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with...
by Parasurama | Jan 31, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This is my winning essay, cross-posted in the win money, coaching from nutsinho thread. I agree with nutsinho that I should have discussed bluffing more. I also suspect that many will have a problem with my supposed ranges. I wrote the essay as a FR player guessing at...
by spoonitnow | Jan 31, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction Back in my very first edition of this strategy column, I outlined what I believe to be a very efficient method for approaching the process of learning in poker. Later on, I expanded on these ideas in late 2014 in my original article An Introduction to...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 31, 2019 | Featured No Limit Hold'em, Featured Strategy, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Amazingly, when I was high yesterday from some horrible weed, I came to a breakthrough thought in my poker game. I called sauce up and explained to him what I just realized and he had no idea why it was so amazing. It took me awhile, but then I realized that the...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 31, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction If you’re reading this, then chances are that you don’t check-raise enough and that you really have no idea when you should be doing it except when you decide to on a whim. We’re going to set out to change that today by giving you an...
by spoonitnow | Jan 31, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction I’ve seen so many players make this same mistake over the years that it’s almost comical at this point. Hero has some medium-strength hand, some loose/passive player raises against Hero, and Hero calls down anyway to be faced with the...
by spoonitnow | Jan 31, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
This is the third installment in the No-Limit Hold’em Foundations Course. Before you read this lesson, you should have completed lesson 1 and lesson 2, and this includes doing the exercises and posting them in the forum threads for each lesson. Also make sure to...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 30, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Written by Carl Sampson, aka The Dean, 2009. Years ago the continuation bet was a very little known poker concept. This was knowledge that only regular strong players tended to have. This is not the case anymore and continuation betting is so basic that it basically...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 30, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
I was watching a NL100 full-ring game on Pokerloco yesterday when the following hand came down which I thought was somewhat instructive. It was folded around to our hero who raised from the hijack to $3.50. The button called as he had done several times already. Both...
by chardrian | Jan 30, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Live Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
For many U.S. players, Black Friday has meant the end of playing poker online. For those players, the only way to currently play poker without the worry of legality or cashouts is to go to a brick and mortar cardroom and play honest to god live poker. I happen to be...
by givememyleg | Jan 30, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
After familiarizing yourself with key poker fundamentals such as bankroll management, positional awareness, and aggression, there are a few other aspects of your game you can improve to take the next step in your poker playing career. One of the best ways to improve...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 28, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
As you begin to peel away the surface of no-limit Hold’em and in particular, no-limit Hold’em cash games, it becomes apparent that the game itself has design problems. What in heavens name do I mean? Well to put it in plain English, what other field of...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 28, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
If your head starts to swim at the thought of hand ranges and default ranges and all the rest of the technical poker jargon, then don’t worry. If you are an experienced player then you will already be used to subconsciously placing your opponents on possible...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 28, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
There are many names of hands in poker. For example we often call pocket Ace’s pocket rockets, or Ace-King off suit big slick. There are also names for the type of hands we get. A pair is normally referred to as a “made hand,” and four cards to a flush or straight are...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 28, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
The terms attack and defense in poker are almost always used in an effort to describe the idea of initiative. We have this idea of aggression in poker as being represented by the actions that put more unmatched money into the pot like betting and raising, and then we...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 28, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Let’s face it, we all know how important aggression is in poker. But years ago I used to remark how easy it was to be aggressive and that anyone could do it. If I told a novice player to empty the clip every time he entered a pot then his violent aggression...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 28, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Gah, I got this idea in my head and thought I’d write it down. A month ago I essentially explained to my AIM buddies something I was thinking about in a lot of depth, as it was a concept that was integral in killing tight passive games. Pretty much everything I...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 27, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction In part 1 of this series, we introduced the common idea of not knowing what to do when you miss the flop. We covered a number of ideas to think about to show that there’s a lot to learn, and now we’re going to look at the specifics of some of...
by meeloche | Jan 27, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Meeloche presents an interesting approach to table selection. Perhaps there is an alternative to just looking at preflop percentages and pot sizes… My contribution to table selection, maybe even a new idea… When it comes to table selection, we still should...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 27, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
If you read my posts in the forums, you’ll notice I’ll throw around this word manipulation without too much explanation. In my earlier blog, I did write an article about manipulation where I talked about it in terms of bet sizing. Well, my old blog is gone now, and as...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 26, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
I wrote an article on FlopTurnRiver a couple of weeks ago about the merits of multi-tabling. I feel that there are deeper strategic consequences behind what was in that article. With poker there is an almost pendulum like motion with regards to what tactics and...
by spoonitnow | Jan 26, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Over the past three weeks, we have been building up to this week’s material. This week, we’re going to look at how to use what we’ve learned so far to perform EV calculations for extremely complicated scenarios. The math involved does not change at...
by FlopTurnRiver | Jan 26, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Ok, now here’s where the play gets a bit more tricky. These hands are pretty delicate, yet still playable. Group 5: 66 55 44 33 22 KJ QTs A9s A8s QJ Now, by this point, we’ve drastically departed from Sklansky and the Carnegie Mellon group’s hand...
by gametight | Jan 25, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
Leveling is an in-game battle of psychology. It stems from this: Level 0: What do I have? Level 1: What does my opponent have? Level 2: What does my opponent think I have? Level 3: What does my opponent think that I think they have? Level 4: What does my opponent...
by spoonitnow | Jan 25, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction I’ve been doing the free NLHE Foundations Course here on FlopTurnRiver to give players a straight-forward path to go from the beginner levels to the intermediate levels with a mind towards being able to systematically improve over time. If you want...
by Fnord | Jan 25, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This is a discussion taken out of our very popular poker forum. A beginner was asking about what we mean by position and why it’s important. Some of our more experienced players eloquently described the importance of position in the game of Texas Hold’em. FNORD:...
by spoonitnow | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
I’m sort of at a weird spot in the development of my game. I’m going to type out a bunch of random crap about common drawing spots with straight or flush draws in hopes that it’ll internalize some things I still probably screw up occasionally. Also,...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction Last week, we looked at a very specific question that gets asked a lot about 3-bet pots: How to Play AK When You Miss the Flop. We discussed a number of topics briefly, and there was a good response to the article, so we’re going to parlay that into...
by spoonitnow | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
Over the past few weeks, we have looked at exploiting our opponents in flop situations. Our focus has been on looking at our ranges on a conceptual level, but now we’re going to look more at the process of exploitation. The goal with this week’s article is...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Why You People Need Help I’ve seen quite a few posts recently in the Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em forum that center around a multi-player hand that was handled in a really poor way just because someone didn’t adhere to the basics concepts that drive...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 24, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
There is a tremendous sub-culture of players who see small pocket pairs and get carried away with their profit potential. Personally I play pocket pairs very sparingly in full-ring NLHE games. The modern online poker environment is getting tougher by the month and...
by FlopTurnRiver | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
A pair of Aces is the most powerful hand in Hold’em. Ace King or Big Slick is also a great hand. Aces become very important in head-up situations and some players will raise with any Ace in head-up action. The list below documents some of the math involved in hands...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 24, 2019 | Featured Strategy, No Limit Hold'em
The Problem With Questions on General Situations There’s an inherent problem with trying to answer poker questions about general situations, and that problem is that the answer is almost always “it depends” followed by a list of things that it could...
by spoonitnow | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Low stakes play is all about making adjustments that exploit your opponents. Unfortunately, most players at micro stakes and many at small stakes, even winning players, don’t really understand what it means to exploit someone. While it’s easy to say that...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 24, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
In last week’s column, we looked at the idea of betting to protect your hand. One of the main themes with last week’s column and what we’re going to talk about this week is that a lot of people get into habits of how they think about their range...
by BooG690 | Jan 23, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In no-limit hold’em, the most popular form of poker in the world, what poker hands you choose to play pre-flop is mostly dependent on how well the hands are going to play post-flop. How well hands play post-flop depend on a few main factors, like the ability to...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 23, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction In this week’s edition of [spoonitnow strategy], we’re going to look at some considerations for bluffing. We’re going to look at the role of position, the role of outs and when each is important for improving the EV of your bluffs. What...
by bigspenda73 | Jan 23, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
#4 Adjusting to Certain Player Types Poker is not an easy game. There are so many variables that a lot of the time it could be classified as a glorified guessing game. We are presented with many different opponents, all who have different ideas on optimal plays. To...
by lolzzz_321 | Jan 23, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Most of us have played poker in one form or another. The game is universal, reaching across the world to unite players of all ages and nations. Let’s get to the basics. Players are each dealt a set number of cards in a predetermined timing system (deal, flop,...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 22, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction Earlier this week, I started a thread in the SSNL forum here on the FTR Forums that asked the following: You’re getting all-in pre-flop heads-up. Would you rather get in $23 with 55 percent equity, or would you rather get in $11 with 60 percent...
by spoonitnow | Jan 22, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
List of Topics: 1. Introduction to Hand Combinations 2. How to Calculate Possible Combinations of a Pocket Pair Hand 3. How to Calculate Possible Combinations of a Non-Pocket Pair Hand 4. Brief Discussion of Blockers 5. Effect of Blockers on a Villain’s Range...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 22, 2019 | Cash Games, Live Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Whether you are playing live poker or online poker it really makes no difference, your opponents will still be watching how you play. If you think that low-stakes online players be it at limit, no-limit or whatever do not fit into this category then think again. They...
by chardrian | Jan 22, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
The ability to bluff in poker is perhaps the biggest allure of the game. At its core, the game of poker can be reduced down to one huge game of bullshit (or if you grew up in a household where swearing was frowned upon, the game was likely called “I doubt...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 21, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
These thoughts about manipulation keep running through my mind and it’s keeping me awake, so I decided I’d write them down. A few months ago I got really into manipulation and made some pretty good blog posts about it. Eventually, I got more into exploring...
by Carl Sampson | Jan 21, 2019 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
A few months ago when I was participating in my NL50 poker challenge, it soon become apparent that there were an awful lot of bad regs at this level in both six max and full-ring, but especially six max. In any form of poker, the fewer players that there is on the...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 21, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In my first strategy post on forming ranges, I mostly touched on preflop. But postflop, as we all know, is where the big money is at. And it’s postflop where forming ranges is the most important, it’s just a whole lot harder! The basic premise of forming ranges is...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 21, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
This is part five of the Back to Basics series. Last week, I said that this week’s installment would be about using spreadsheets to simplify analysis. Well, I lied. I’m going to do a future series on that because I don’t think I can do the topic...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 21, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Late last year, I had a series of EV Calculation tutorials that offered players a way to do even complex EV calculations with simple addition and multiplication (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). Recently, someone posted in the Beginner’s Circle asking...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jan 21, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em
Last week, we took an initial look at the [0, 1] model for ranges and looked at a couple of examples of how it can be put to work for us. We tied this into our previous discussion of how to calculate the EV of different types of situations, and we looked at how to use...
by spoonitnow | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Every post in the spoonitnow strategy series has been leading up to this moment. While there is obviously going to be some math involved when it comes to basic things like pot odds, a lot of people are under the impression that things like balance and exploitation...
by givememyleg | Jan 20, 2019 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, Live Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In the past when live games became tough to beat players turned to online poker to hone their skills, get multi-table bonuses, and make money. With the games online getting harder by the day it is quite ironic the same players find themselves heading back to the live...
by Renton | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Introduction After reading through the latest gut wrenching 19 hands chart thread, I am going to try an experiment. We don’t have enough people writing interesting and informative articles around here anymore. The stickies are becoming stale and outdated. I...
by IowaSkinsFan | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
For the original ISF theorem post go here: ISF Theorem When I wrote ISF Theorem a half year ago, I was at a very frustrating point in my game. I was a very marginal winner at 200nl and was going on two straight losing months, which was absolutely devastating to my...
by Robb | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Progression through the micros naturally trends us toward unbalanced lines. We start playing basic TAGG, then learn to steal blinds more, to cbet more. Hey, it works. When we face better competition at 100nl or higher, the lack of balance is very exploitable. Trust me...
by sauce123 | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
So everyone who reads and posts in this forum knows how to evaluate a HH, knows about preflop, knows about continuation betting and knows something about hand values and hand ranges. Perhaps the most important thing about poker though, and why some "bad"...
by bigspenda73 | Jan 20, 2019 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
#5 Hand-Reading Being able to process information from your opponent, the texture of the board, and past experiences will help you become a better hand-reader. Improving your hand-reading skills will allow you to make more “correct” decisions in a session, thus...
by spoonitnow | Jan 19, 2019 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
People who know how I approach things will be able to tell you that I focus primarily on depth instead of breadth. However, this week’s column is going to be a bit different. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been laying out a way to think about the...
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