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Since 2003, FTR’s goal has been to build a friendly online community where people love to discuss poker. Our timeless poker strategy articles will help you take the next step in becoming a winning poker player.

Welcome to Flop Turn River!

It’s our mission to turn you into a winning poker player. Over the years, we’ve been adding timeless strategy articles to help you learn poker. We’ve also done the research across hundreds of online sites to recommend only the best places to play poker. And finally, we offer a free and friendly forum where you can discuss poker with thousands of other poker players.

Learn Poker

If you’re new to the game of poker, this is where you should start. Our poker strategy articles will give you enough knowledge to build a solid foundation. Poker is easy to learn, but difficult to master, and with our tools, your studies will make a significant positive change to your game, and of course, your bankroll.

Play Poker

There are hundreds of online poker websites. It can all seem very overwhelming. Where can you find the best bonuses? Which sites have the most players? Which rooms offer a mobile app? We’ve gone through them all and offer only the best of the best. Our 20+ years of experience will save you a lot of time.

Discuss Poker

The FTR poker forum opened for registration in 2003. Since then, we’ve had over 130,000 members sign up to discuss poker with over 1.2 million posts. Don’t worry if you’re completely new, we pride ourselves on being kind to all players as we know that everyone was once a noob. Join today and take your game to the next level.

Featured Poker Strategy Articles

Our curated collection of the best strategy articles from top FTR members!

Chardrian’s Guide to Live Small Stakes Limit Poker (Part 1)

first part of a guide to playing live small stakes limit poker, sharing the author’s personal journey from law school to becoming a full-time poker player

Poker Hands

Find out the Ranking of Texas Holdem Poker Hands & the Order of each, from Royal Flush down to High Card, then take our hand ranking quiz!

Pot-Limit Omaha Fundamentals

Pot Limit Omaha is an exciting, action-filled game that anyone can play. But you need to be mindful of the differences between PLO and Texas Hold’em. For starters, you must use exactly two cards from your hand and exactly three from the board.

Andy Holt’s Guide to Satellite Poker Tournaments

Satellite poker tournaments can be very profitable, but they require strategic adjustments from normal tournament play. You don’t want to risk your stack early on because survival is more important than chip accumulation. This changes later on in the tournament.

Bankroll Management 101

Our bankroll management calculator will tell you what buy-in level for cash games, SNGs, & MTTs you should play with your current bankroll!

How to Decide Which Hands to 3-Bet for Value Pre-Flop

If you want to learn about how to 3-bet for value before you see the flop, you’ve found the right article. This will teach you how to 3-bet and when it’s appropriate to do so. You’ll also learn about your 3-betting range, calling range, folding range and why they are critical to your success.

Latest Poker Strategy Articles

Learn from fellow FTR members!

[FTR Quick Tip 010] Flop Range Adjustments

[FTR Quick Tip 010] Flop Range Adjustments

the importance of adjusting and readjusting one's poker strategy based on opponents' gameplay, advocating for tailored approaches against different players to maximize earnings in No Limit Hold’em cash games
The Best Time to Bluff

The Best Time to Bluff

Ever wonder what differentiates good bluffs from bad ones? This article explains the conditions that are the most ideal for you to pull off a bluff and the situations in which you’re least likely to succeed at bluffing. Your playing image and other factors determine when bluffing is a wise move.
Personal Attacks and the Check Raise

Personal Attacks and the Check Raise

There's a weird school of thought that check-raising in live poker is unfriendly or ungentlemanly behavior. But it is merely just another tool in your strategic arsenal. It's usually not used to make a personal assault against an opponent. Use it to bet for value or bluff as usual.
HORSE Rules

HORSE Rules

In HORSE, players must play 5 different poker games: Hold'em, Omaha/8, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud/8. All games are in limit betting format, and each game is played for eight hands before the next game in the rotation begins.
Poker Goals

Poker Goals

the importance of setting proper goals in poker, cautioning against monetary objectives due to their unpredictability and potential to negatively influence gameplay; instead, it advocates for achievable, volume-based goals that don't compromise decision-making
Traits of Great Poker Players

Traits of Great Poker Players

By examining the playing styles of five of the world’s best online poker players, we’ve identified the four traits they have in common: trusting their instincts at the table, taking advantage of their table position, having a strong work ethic and not selecting games based on their opponents’ skill.
Salsa4evers PLO Hand of the Day

Salsa4evers PLO Hand of the Day

detailed analysis of a Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo hand played by Salsa4ever, discussing the strategic decisions made at each stage of the hand, from pre-flop to the river, with insights on betting patterns, hand strengths, and the implications of board texture
Card Looking Poker Tells

Card Looking Poker Tells

the importance of observing opponents' reactions when they look at their cards in poker games, suggesting that players can gain valuable insights into their opponents' hands by noting their behaviors, such as the speed of their reactions, shuffling habits, and responses to the flop
Badugi Rules

Badugi Rules

Badugi is a weird, yet addictive, type of poker. You get four cards, and you have to try to make the lowest possible hand without repeating ranks or suits. There are three draws, so you have ample opportunity to get rid of cards you don't like.
Razz Rules

Razz Rules

Razz is a form of poker very similar to 7 Card Stud. The difference is that you're playing for low instead of high. A "wheel" consists of A2345 and is the best possible hand. Straights and flushes don't count against your low hand here.
An Introduction to Game Theory in Poker

An Introduction to Game Theory in Poker

A reader-friendly, easy to understand explanation of game theory and its applications in poker. Explaining the differences between theoretical terms such as strategy, strategic options, domination and exploitation, the article teaches players how to use these principles to maximize their winnings.
soupie’s Win MTT Poker 08 – Bankroll Management

soupie’s Win MTT Poker 08 – Bankroll Management

As any poker player does, you will suffer your share of bad beats in tournaments. It's important to have a proper bankroll management strategy and sufficient emotional fortitude to survive to see the long-term rewards of your superior play. Always evaluate your draws carefully.
Babysitting Blunders: How Not to Treat New Players

Babysitting Blunders: How Not to Treat New Players

During my time at the tables, I've had a chance to observe an extensive amount of human behavior. Thanks to the growing popularity of the game, I'm seeing more and more diverse personalities sported by players operating on a variety of skill levels. But with the ever-expanding pool of competitors, I find many of my brothers and sisters who've been around for a while are forgetting some of the cardinal rules of the game. I'm talking, specifically, about the treatment of new players at the tables. It happens both at live events and when surfing through the online card rooms. There are veterans (and even more who think themselves to be veterans) who, by carrying themselves in a certain fashion, do themselves a disservice and consequently reduce their own level of play.

Poker Charts & Poker Odds Articles

Understand poker math.

Pyroxene’s Common Flop Odds

Pyroxene’s Common Flop Odds

detailed analysis of common flop odds in poker, specifically focusing on 8-out straight draws, and categorizes them into two types—TYPE-1 and TYPE-2—while offering mathematical probabilities for each scenario based on different types of connectors

Poker Editorials About Whatever

Just for fun!

What is FTR?

Online since 2003!

Hi, I’m Tyler and welcome to FTR! If you’re new to FTR, this is what we’re all about in a nutshell – to help the average Joe become a winning, profitable Texas Holdem poker player and to provide an active, friendly, and intelligent online poker community.

Flop Turn River.com has been around since 2003, when I started to seriously learn and play online Texas Holdem. My real education began in 2003 (even though I had played poker and holdem casually for many years), studying poker books, reading whatever online materials I could find, and eventually, joining and playing at an online poker room. My online poker adventure would begin on an impulse late one Saturday evening, after seeing a random Paradise Poker commercial on TV. I opened an account, deposited some money, and began to play Texas Holdem online for the first time. It was absolute thrilling! At Paradise Poker, I started playing the $.50-$1.00 Limit Texas Holdem poker game.

As a brand new player to the online poker world, I was a pretty easy target. A “fish” you could say. A student of Sklansky’s books, my poker education started and developed in the low stakes Limit Texas Holdem ring game where I eventually developed into a break-even player …after dropping a bankroll of $700.

But then I began experimenting with other variations of Texas Hold’em. I moved from the low stakes Limit Texas Holdem ring game to Limit Texas Holdem tournaments at Paradise Poker. I played $10 Limit Sit-n-Go Tournaments (10 player tournaments), and started having a lot more fun playing Texas Holdem, but was still just a break-even poker player, even in this form of Texas Hold’em.

I then switched from Limit Sit-n-Go’s to the No Limit Sit-n-Go Tournaments, where I enjoyed greater success, graduating to a slightly winning poker player. I started to develop a No Limit Texas Holdem strategy that was working for me. I moved my game to UltimateBet (remember these assholes?!), to take advantage of the new user bonus, and here I finally migrated my poker game to the No-Limit Texas Holdem ring game variation. I practiced my no limit texas holdem strategies at UltimateBet’s low stakes $.10-$.25 tables, while earning some free bonus dollars.

While figuring out No Limit Texas Holdem was the game for me and developing that strategy, I also learned that earning free money through initial deposit bonuses offered by the poker rooms was an easy way to pad my beginner’s bankroll. I would take my game to Party Poker, followed by Empire Poker, then ACR Poker, and would eventually join every other major online poker room in existence, taking advantage of new player bonus dollars wherever possible.

I also put in a lot of hours earning the big bonus at Bovada, where I worked off the $600 welcome bonus grinding out low stakes no limit Texas Holdem. The poker bonuses helped me stay afloat during this early period of playing.

Anyway, I would find my greatest success, and profits, playing this form of Texas Hold’em – No Limit ring games. Needless to say, by the latter end of 2003, I was a consistently profitable online Texas Holdem poker player, more than recouping my initial losses, and I’ve been tacking on poker profits ever since. I’ve been a profitable online poker player since September of 2003, and had a stretch of 18 profitable months in a row. These days I’ll play any No Limit Holdem table with buy-in’s up to about $1,000, and when playing online I prefer to multi-table four tables at a time.

Becoming a winning poker player, in my opinion, was not that difficult. It took some time, it took the right variation of Holdem poker that I was most competent, and over a $700 bankroll in my case, but at the end of the learning experience, I developed a No Limit Texas Holdem strategy that would prove to give back so much more. Eric helped me publish the little poker knowledge I had to share with other players, and so begain our little online Texas Holdem strategy website. Solid and useful no limit holdem strategies and discussions were hard to come by back then, so we delivered our own, and if you’re a losing poker player, the strategies on this website will undoubtedly help you.

FTR has become so much more than my personal no limit Texas Holdem strategy site since then – FTR is now a strategy and discussion site for all forms of Texas Holdem. In fact, FTR is anything and everything about poker. Strategies, tips, advice, and tactics were the foundations of FTR, but you can find good reads on a wide range of other poker subjects – especially in the depths of our very active and exciting Poker Forum.

First off, if you are new to FlopTurnRiver.com, be sure to visit our Beginner Poker section to help get you acquainted with FTR, Texas Hold’em, and poker in general. Then browse around our articles, study are Poker Strategy essays, become a part of our friendly Poker Community. And then play some poker. Nothing beats experience when it comes to developing your poker game. Visit our Poker Room Reviews, utilize our great poker bonus codes. Drop by our Poker Forums and let us know your progress – we are always willing to talk shop and help players out. The members here range from beginner players brand new to poker all the way up to seasoned professionals, so no matter what level you’re at, you can feel right at home.

Online poker is a profitable pastime. And so much fun!

Our goal is to help expedite your holdem strategy development by offering our strategies and advice…for free. All it takes is the right learning materials, the right feedback, and accumulating experience by playing hands and hands of poker. Now go study, play some poker, and make some money. Thanks for visiting FTR, and we’ll see you at the tables!

– Tyler “Tatonka” D.