by FTR Poker Admin | Aug 4, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Aug 4, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Aug 3, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
If you haven’t read part 1 and part 2, then you’ll need to go ahead and do that before you jump into this week’s article because I’m going to assume that you know and completely understand the contents of those two parts. This week, we’re...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 31, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Having spent around twenty years in the gambling industry in one capacity or another and numerous years in online poker, you cannot help but become aware of the seedier side of the industry. But this applies to all fields, it doesn’t matter what it is or how high...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 29, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 29, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
As a follow on to the article that I wrote a few weeks ago regarding the likelihood of cheating in online poker increasing through necessity, here I want to talk about the effects of coaching sites, training tools and other types of software that all enable people to...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 29, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Reversing the initiative in a hand (when is this appropriate and why is it valuable) First I think it’s important to define what initiative is, and how it varies. Player A open raises preflop, and Player B calls in position. Player A has the initiative. In order...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 28, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
In the Back to Basics series, we’re taking concepts that you probably learned early in your poker career and looking at them from a more detailed standpoint than you likely did when you first learned about them. This week, we’re going to look at...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 27, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
One of the most difficult and yet crucial decisions you will make when playing no limit Texas holdem will be whether to even play your hand. This decision should not be made haphazardly. Hitting your card on the flop only to end up with the second best hand can be...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 26, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In an article from a few months ago, I explained the real differences between draws and made hands. In summary, draws and made hands weren’t simply names for hands, but actually each of them have certain equity qualities versus different ranges. Made hands were then...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 26, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
In any poker game, we have a strategy, and our opponents have their own strategies. How these strategies match up determines who makes money and how much money is made. So far, this series has been looking at concepts and ideas that have the point of developing one...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 25, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction Open limping before the flop in no-limit hold’em cash games is almost always the sign of a loose/passive, weak player. However, this doesn’t have to be the case, and you can definitely add open limping to your game in the right circumstances...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 25, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 25, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 24, 2021 | 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 carlcarlsoniv | Jul 24, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction If you look over the past few weeks of my strategy column, you’ll see how this week’s topic came together. I had a set of Mental Tricks for Preperation in NLHE which was related to the Basics of Thinking Ahead in Poker. I also covered Double...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 23, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
Introduction Learning to deal with ranges is hard enough as it is, but there are a number of ideas about handling no-limit hold’em ranges that are a bit mislead. In this forum thread, I asked about the questions that people had about learning to work with...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 23, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 23, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 23, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In last week’s article, we looked at some of the reasons why equity isn’t the end-all, be-all of evaluating how two ranges will perform against each other. With that out of the way, we’re going to be able to get into the nitty gritty aspects of the...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 22, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Limit Hold’em, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Limit Texas Holdem vs. No Limit Texas Holdem – the debate goes on. Which game should you master? Well, everyone here at FTR has their own opinion. We have very skilled and profitable players profiting from both forms of the game. I have my opinion too, and No Limit...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 21, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
Last week, we started a series called Back to Basics which is going to look at “basic” concepts in more depth than players have probably used before. Our first part of this series was on Implied Odds, and we’re going to continue with this theme in Part 2 this...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 21, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
We’ve all run across players who refuse to put their money in the pot without the benefit of premium cards. Indeed, players who wait on suited connectors, pocket pairs, or high face cards are practicing sound poker strategy, and will almost always make deep runs...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
NLHE Foundations Course This is the first lesson in the free No-Limit Hold’em Foundations course that I’m running here on FlopTurnRiver. There’s a lot more to these lessons than what you see here. If you would like to take part in this, all you have...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
From now on every Friday I will be taking some of the strategy discussion from the forums, sum up some of the cool content in case you missed it, and make my own comments on the issues discussed. In the high stakes forum this week, there was a hand posted by...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In the context of poker, preparation could mean a number of different things, but we’re going to focus specifically on a few instances here. First, we’re going to look at how to and the advantages of preparing when you make a bet or raise. Second,...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Over the past twelve months, I have been observing the lower stakes no-limit games and playing in them quite extensively including around 100k hands at NL50. I have been observing the games on Pokerloco recently which is a site that is situated on Ongame. I have been...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 20, 2021 | 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 carlcarlsoniv | Jul 19, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 19, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Last week I said that we would look more at the turn. Instead, I’ve decided that we’re going to look at something else that will be more useful: hitting pairs with different ranges. It’s fairly easy to see how many draws ranges have and if those...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 19, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
If you are going to be successful at a form of poker, like NLHE ring, then being aware of how the pot can escalate with certain types of hands is critical to your success. I think that there are probably tournament players and six max players who struggle to adapt to...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 19, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 18, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
A great piece of advice Sauce123 gave me is put people on ranges on every street. I tell this to many people and post it in many threads, because it is some of the best advice around. But sometimes you can hear something, try it, and just not get it. So this week, I’m...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 17, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Featured No Limit Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
I feel like tons of the noobies in the BC have serious misconceptions about microstakes poker. Here are a few I’ve seen lately. 1. The micros are just too fishy to be beat for any decent win rate. 2. The micros are too hard to be beat since UIGEA. 3. The FTR...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 17, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This is the fourth part in a series dealing with the key ideas that can be used to accelerate the process of gaining a feel for equities in different spots. In this week’s edition, we’re going to discuss some major cases for when the turn comes and how you...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 17, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 16, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
(This is a post I wrote a while back which I hope will be useful for newcomers to micro-stakes NL. It should be useful up to 25NL, but it’s specifically aimed at the player of a few weeks’ experience, who understands the basics, but doesn’t know much...
by givememyleg | Jul 16, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Poker should not be thought of as a game that starts when the cards are dealt and ends with the showdown. At its core, poker is a game of competing strategies. This is why when we classify players, we classify them by their strategy and skill level. Here, we will...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 16, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Psychology, Poker Strategy
Below you will see an interesting discussion on river check/raises which took place in the High Stakes forum. It started with ISF showing hands and posters such as Sauce123, Massimo, Toadstool, and gabe adding their replies. View the check raise theory...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Recently the world’s largest poker site, PokerStars, announced the way they were handling the minimum/maximum buy-in amounts at their cash game tables. This mainly affects NL/PL Hold’em as well as Pot-Limit Omaha games as shallow/deep stacks in limit games...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This seemingly simple topic might be one of the most misunderstood by beginners in poker. Learning about reverse implied odds was quite eye-opening for me and led to a large improvement in my ability. Most players, even those new to the game, understand what is meant...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Most players who are new to online poker will start at the lowest stakes possible, commonly known as “Microstakes”. In general, microstakes are considered to be any poker stakes up to $0.10/$0.25 blinds in NL and $0.50/$1.00 in Limit games. The concept of...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
In last week’s article, we looked at the basic components of EV calculations. We made two very important points that we’re going to use this week: The EV of an event is equal to the EVs of each possible outcome added together. The EV of an individual...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 15, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
I have to say that I absolutely love poker but I guess that I have written enough articles now for FlopTurnRiver for you to already now that. In this article I want to look at the concept of pot control. This is something that has been expanded over the past few years...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 14, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 14, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 14, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 14, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
This is about how to stop being the lowest of the low in the online poker world, a micro-stakes noob fish – yes right down the bottom at $2nl, $5nl and $10nl. Not some advanced game theory essay or difficult maths stuff, just my thoughts on how my own game...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 14, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Beginners generally have trouble knowing how much to bet when they hit a hand. For the most part they know to “take away the other guy’s pot odds,” but there’s more to betting than that. Because… tell me if this happens to you… You...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 14, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
A while back, I wrote the EV Calculations Tutorial series to help people to deal with the math side of poker. We followed a very simple process that kept our analysis organized and clean, and we did so only requiring basic addition and multiplication. While this is...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 14, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
In this week’s column, we’re going to investigate the idea of betting to protect your hand. A number of people bet with the excuse of protecting their hand almost every chance that they get. On the other hand, a lot of people dismiss this concept as being...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 13, 2021 | 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 carlcarlsoniv | Jul 13, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 13, 2021 | Featured Strategy, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Sauce123 destroys the competition. Trust me. He put together a really solid, concise guide to beating the 6-max no limit holdem tables – particularly on US friendly poker rooms Post-UIGEA (when many poker rooms closed their doors to US players, ultimately making...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 12, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
How hard can it be to continually make money in the nosebleed games on Full Tilt Poker? I reckon it must be pretty damn hard to do it year in and year out. If it was that easy then people like Brian Townsend wouldn’t have been found guilty of multi-accounting (sorry...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 12, 2021 | Beginner Poker, Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
One of the biggest problems new poker players have is that they play too many hands. A simple but effective first step for new players is to learn the 19 hand strategy. This simple strategy forces the new player to exercise discipline and learn a tight game. Aokrongly...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 12, 2021 | 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 carlcarlsoniv | Jul 11, 2021 | 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 carlcarlsoniv | Jul 11, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 11, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Specific hand strategy First of all, these aren’t all the situations that occur. I only chose to outline the situations that occur very frequently. The situations that don’t come so frequently are the ones you’ll have to confront head on and use your best judgment....
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 11, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 11, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 10, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Let’s face it, poker is played by humans for money and sometimes very substantial sums of money. This is the case be it live or online. Unfortunately, my understanding of human nature tells me that there are too many people out there who will stop at nothing to...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 10, 2021 | Cash Games, No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Surprisingly I couldn’t find any posts detailing this, so I’m going to do my thing. A Common Scenario With 100bb effective stacks, EP opens for 4x preflop, there are 2 callers, and we call on the button with 9 8 . Both of the blinds call. The flop pot is...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 9, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
There are many players in the online poker community who use some sort of tracking software. I have never been one to go with the masses and while others have been knocking themselves out using PokerTracker or Hold’em manager, I have and will always continue to use...
by givememyleg | Jul 9, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 9, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 9, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
#3 Value Betting and Bet-Sizing Being able to size bets correctly in No-Limit Hold’em is a critical factor in improving your win-rate. Bet-sizing as a concept is not the easiest to explain or master but I will do my best. There are many different types of bets one...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | Beginner Poker, No Limit Hold'em
Introduction A lot of my more recent editions of this strategy column have been centered around what could be considered somewhat advanced concepts. Ideas like exploiting opponents and handling ranges can seem out of reach when you’re just starting out in...
by carlcarlsoniv | Jul 8, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em
This is part 3 in the Back to Basics series. In this series, we take basic concepts and look at them in a little more depth than beginners typically do. The idea here is to fill in some knowledge gaps and play better poker on a fundamental level. In this week’s...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | 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 FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy
Often in HU matches, I’ll come across a player who doesn’t seem to have many leaks. He’ll raise a solid range from the BU, not play too loose OOP, and have a good mix of cbets and two barrels, as well as balanced ranges in other areas. Many when playing, whether it’s...
by FTR Poker Admin | Jul 8, 2021 | 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...
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