Suited Connectors

While you might have watched high profile poker players playing 67s or even a 2 gappers like 46h with no fear and take down pot after pot on TV, a word of warning mastering suited connectors requires awareness of the subtler side of poker. Fear not, this introduction to suited Read more…

Protection Bets

On the surface, the protection bets are very simple. You think you have the best hand so you bet or raise. Hmm, well I guess that’s it? Hardly. The beauty of games like NL Holdem lie in the control a player has over bet sizing. This little feature actually allows Read more…

Floating the Pot

There is a bluff move that works best in psychological variations of poker like NL Holdem. Essentially, floating the pot means calling a bet or raise with nothing, either to bluff a draw or to see if your opponent continues a suspected bluff. The move allows you to increase your Read more…

The Gap Concept

The tournament poker concept of the gap was coined first by David Skalansky but most good poker players have a feel for this intuitively even if they have not read it. The idea of the gap is that you need better cards to re-raise than to open a raise. That Read more…

Isolation bets

Isolation bets are raises designed to thin out the field. You want to understand isolation strategies both to employ them in your own poker arsenal but also to recognize when someone else is employing isolation bets. So a standard isolation play might look something like, UTG limps and then there are Read more…

The Check Raise

For the beginner player, this is one of the most fun new moves you will learn. There is something very satisfying about the check raise because it is like springing a surprise ambush on your opponent. Often your image goes from weakness to strength in a moment. Never-the-less, there are Read more…