Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs
MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations, compelling them…
The Art of Learning Poker
In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes a training…
Is Donk Betting for Donkeys?
“Donk betting”, or betting from out of position into the player who was the aggressor on the…
Delayed C-Betting
This is a companion piece to Probe Betting. It stands on its own, but understanding how to…
Probe Betting
As far as rules of thumb go in poker, “check to the raiser” is a pretty good…
ICM and Blind Battles: The Big Blind
This is a companion piece to this article on the SB’s strategy for blind vs blind play…
ICM and Blind Battles: The Small Blind
ICM incentivizes more conservative play, which means that at stages of the tournament where risk premiums are…
The Initial Bettor’s Advantage
The mathematics of poker holds a little-known secret: the first bettor enjoys better bluffing odds than someone…
Mastering the Chiplead: The Scalpel and the Sledgehammer
When you have a lot of chips at a final table or in another situation with extreme…
Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in Cash Games
Our never-ending quest for money and fame leads us to the flop. We open the button, the…
How ICM Impacts Restealing From The Blinds
When I first started working with preflop solves, one of the features I found most striking was…
The ICM Benefits of Late Registration in Poker Tournaments
Why do so many professional poker players register late for tournaments when they clearly would enjoy a…
Flop Heuristics: OOP C-Betting in MTTs
Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different–and dramatically more difficult–than playing against a caller from the…
Counterintuitive Calls
Solver outputs such as those provided by GTO Wizard are models of no-limit hold ‘em, not a…
How To Negotiate Final Table Deals
Most people’s first introduction to the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is not from studying bubble play or…
How does ICM impact PKO strategy?
If you have read The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments you already know why we can play…
Understanding Blockers in Poker
Often when looking through a solver’s meticulously crafted grid of deception, one of the following questions arises:…
Flop Heuristics: IP Cold-Caller in MTTs
A Cold-call refers to the act of calling a preflop raise when you don’t close the action…
Flop Heuristics: IP C-Betting in MTTs
In the world of poker, the flop is a crucial stage of the game that sets the…
Flop Heuristics for Defending the Blinds in MTTs
The field of Game Theoretically Optimal poker is extensive, and thus, to simplify our strategy, we frequently…
Multiway strategy in Progressive Knockout Tournaments
Progressive Knockout (PKO) tournaments are much more complex than traditional MTTs. The fact that players are incentivized…
How To Calculate Raises In Poker
One of the most frequently asked questions in poker is how to calculate the size of a…
Principles of River Play
The river offers the least complicated strategy of any betting street. With no further cards to come,…
Exploitative Dynamics
GTO solutions are designed to be unexploitable, performing reasonably well no matter how your opponents play. They…
How ICM Impacts Postflop Strategy
Most players understand how the Independent Chip Model (ICM) in poker impacts their strategy preflop, especially at…
10 Tips for Multiway Pots in Poker
While lots of work has been placed into research and explanation of heads-up pot strategy, multiway pots…
What is the Bubble Factor in poker tournaments?
The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows us the real money implications of tournament chip decisions. Most players…
The Theory of Progressive Knockout Tournaments
In poker, a PKO (Progressive Knockout) tournament is a type of tournament where a portion of the…
How To Analyze Turn Textures In Poker
Master the art of turn analysis in poker. Understand how the turn card changes the dynamics of…
Principles of Turn Strategy
Learn the principles of turn strategy in poker and discover what makes the turn unique. Understand how…
Poker Strategies: Tournaments vs Cash Games
Tournament poker is not as different from cash game poker as people sometimes assume. Most of what…
How Solvers Work
A Game Theory Optimal solver is an algorithm that calculates the best possible poker strategy. But how…
The Most Powerful Play in Poker
The central strategic implication of stack depth is the question of how much equity a player must…
When does ICM become significant in MTTs?
The Independent Chip Model (ICM) was invented in 1987 by M. Malmuth and is one of the…
How to Study GTO Solutions
Tools like GTO Wizard and other solvers should not be used to memorize specific strategies. There are…
Principles of GTO
Game theory, or GTO (for Game Theoretically Optimal), is best understood not as a rigid set of…
Interpreting Equity Distributions
GTO Wizard’s range vs range equity distribution graphs are an excellent tool for visualizing which player has…
What is Leverage in poker?
Leverage refers to the risk of future betting. When you call a bet on the flop or…
Reasons for value betting in poker
You’re probably accustomed to thinking of bets as either value or bluff. In this taxonomy, value bets…
The Science of Poker Performance
Poker is a game of small edges and big swings. Every hand is an investment into your…
What is Valor in poker?
Can a poker hand be courageous? How does your ability to value bet future streets impact your…
Pot Geometry
“Pot Geometry” refers to betting an equal fraction of the pot on each street, such that you’re…
A Beginner’s Guide to Poker Combinatorics
Combinatorics is a fancy term for evaluating the number of possible “combinations” (combos) of any given hand:…
Stack-to-pot ratio
Stack-to-pot ratio, or SPR, is a way of measuring how deep the effective stack is and thus…
Equity Realization
In poker jargon, equity expresses how much of the pot a hand will win, on average, at…
Variance and Bankroll Management
Variance and Bankroll Management. Vital Soft Skills for Every Poker Player.
How to become a GTO Wizard
Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as your roadmap…
The Three Laws of Indifference
Indifference in poker is one of the most misunderstood concepts. The word “indifference” means that two or…
Poker subsets and abstractions
An “abstraction” is a way to simplify the game of poker. This game is so complex that…
Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker
Pot Odds and MDF are foundational mathematical formulas in poker.
How to solve toy games
Poker is a complicated game. It’s impossible to calculate GTO strategies on the fly. By reducing it…
The value of fold equity – experiment
The term “fold equity” is ambiguous in the poker community. Firstly, it’s an EV equation, not an…
MDF & Alpha
MDF & Alpha. Minimum Defence Frequency and Alpha are metrics on poker that determine how wide someone…
What are Pot Odds in poker?
Pot odds are a fundamental calculation in poker. In the simplest terms, pot odds tell you that…
Does your range affect your strategy?
Advanced players will often tell you that your range affects your strategy.
Visualizing implied odds
Implied odds are the value you expect to gain over and above your raw equity. You can…
ICM Basics
As a tournament player, you may have heard about the concept of “ICM”, but what does this…
What is Equity in Poker?
The term “Equity” is ubiquitous throughout poker theory. Equity refers to your chances of winning a hand,…
Range Morphology
“Morphology” is the study of form or structure. You’ve probably heard terms thrown around such as “linear”,…
What is Expected Value in Poker?
Expected value (EV) is the most fundamental metric in poker. Every decision you make is underpinned by…
Why doesn’t my solution match GTO Wizard?
So, you’ve got your own solutions to some spot, compared it to GTO Wizard, and noticed that…
Understanding Nash Distance
Understanding Nash Distance. One of the most common questions when studying with solvers is “Why does the…
Combinatorics Poker Puzzle
Today we have a special puzzle for you that will test your intuition as a poker player,…
The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players
The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players. Fundamentals are one of the most important points…
What is GTO in Poker?
The meaning of GTO in poker is Game Theory Optimal. Game theory is a study of mathematical…
What does GTO aim to achieve?
So what exactly is a GTO strategy? What makes it “unexploitable”? What does it try to achieve?…
