Poker Concepts You’re Using Wrong (And How They’re Hurting Your Winrate)
Language and poker are two of my great passions in life, so I’ve always been interested in…
How To Improve Your Heads-Up Game
Knowing what and how to study in poker can be overwhelming. Learning heads-up (HU) poker, in particular,…
How Payout Structures Reshape Postflop Strategy
Is all ICM pressure the same, or should we tailor our postflop strategy to different payout structures?…
How ICM Quietly Shapes Postflop Strategy From the Start
How significant is ICM at the start—as in the very first hand—of a tournament? Have we been…
ICM vs. ChipEV: The Hidden Logic Behind BB 3-Bets
BB 3-betting is fundamentally different from 3-betting from any other seat, even the SB. Calling at a…
How ICM Reshapes 3-Bet Pots (And Why You Can’t Trust ChipEV)
Analyzing postflop ICM sims is tricky. Because ICM dramatically changes preflop strategies, starting ranges for postflop spots…
Betting Draws in Position: The Real Rules
A “calling station,” someone who is seemingly willing to consider calling down with any pair, can be…
When Checking the Nuts Beats Betting Them
Poker is a complex game that requires a diverse skillset from someone who wants to excel at…
How To Use Range Builder in GTO Wizard To Improve Your Game
In this article, we will look at another key feature: “Range Builder.” The Range Builder has you…
Why You’re Bluffing the River Wrong With Bricked Flush Draws in Cash Games
It’s exciting to flop a flush draw; when you do, you have a fairly high chance of…
How to Exploit Human Mistakes After a Flop Overbet
The most important thing to understand, when it comes to playing the later streets, is the range…
The Art of the Flop Overbet (And Why You’re Probably Doing It Wrong)
I’ll begin this article with a confession: I’m bad at overbetting flops. I’ve known for years now…
Crush Calling Stations With These 3 Solver-Approved Strategies
A “calling station,” someone who is seemingly willing to consider calling down with any pair, can be…
How Pros Use Solvers To Crush Pool Leaks
When studying with a solver, it’s easy to fall into the trap of getting tunnel vision and…
Understanding Domination: The Hidden Logic Behind Every Bet
In poker jargon, domination refers to one hand being heavily favored against another, not just because it…
Common Poker Sayings That Ruin Your Winrate
If you’ve been around poker for a decent amount of time, you’ve probably heard the following two…
Punish the Unstudied: Capped Ranges & Bluffing Imbalances
This is part two in our series on exploiting players who don’t study GTO. In the first…
Why Your Poker Range Is a Team
“Think ahead” and “Always have a plan” are phrases we hear all the time in poker, but…
Isolating Limpers in Short Stack HU
Heads-up (HU) poker at shallow stack depths is unforgiving. Did you know that small differences in stack…
Are You Leaving Value on the River?
In the early days of online poker, players were too loose. In the modern era, I think…
The 3 Biggest Leaks Killing Your Winrate
You are studying and working hard, but your results still aren’t where you want them to be.…
Round Out Your Defense: The Power of Raising
‘Defending’ in poker is a more complicated concept than it may seem at first. It raises the…
The Hidden Cost of Late Reg in PKOs
In poker, we often face a wide variety of opponents. One common type we encounter, especially at…
How to Crush Ante Cash Games
Cash games with an ante are becoming increasingly common, particularly online. Fortunately, GTO Wizard has recently released…
Register Late, Win More: The Math Behind Smarter Tournament Entry
Regular tournament players know that, no matter what their skill level, they will sometimes bust a tournament…
Punish the Unstudied: Preflop Mistakes & Sizing Tells
In poker, we often face a wide variety of opponents. One common type we encounter, especially at…
Building Better River Strategies (And When to Ignore Equity Advantage)
Understanding solver technology is very challenging. You not only have to grapple with the technology itself, which…
The Case for the Hero Check: Why Great Players Know When Not to Bet
In this era of game theory and solvers and poker games running at a huge variety of…
What’s Your Hand Worth? From Thin Value to Playing for Stacks
Poker theory offers many conceptual tools for answering the question, “What is your hand worth?” You may…
Tournament Poker’s Hidden Stakes
In this era of game theory and solvers and poker games running at a huge variety of…
Top GTO Wizard Features the Pros Prioritize (and What They Leave Out)
In this roundtable series, I have been asking GTO Wizard content creators about some of the software’s…
How To Prep Like a Pro for WSOP
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is one of the most recognized tournament series in the world,…
Cold-Calling in Straddle + Ante Games
In traditional no-limit Hold‘em cash games, calling an open-raise is rarely appealing unless you are in the…
Roundtable: Aha! Moments in GTO Wizard
Understanding solver technology is very challenging. You not only have to grapple with the technology itself, which…
Poker: The Battle for Information
Poker is sometimes described as a battle for information, and there is much truth in that. Deducing…
How To Construct a Squeezing Range
As is often the case with my articles for this blog, what I am writing today is…
Opening From the Blinds in Straddle + Ante Games
Opening From the Blinds in Straddle + Ante Games No-limit Hold‘em has not traditionally been played with…
When To Just Shove Post Flop in ICM Spots
When To Just Shove Post Flop in ICM Spots The general trend for bet sizing, when ICM…
The Theory of Bounty Tournaments – Part 3: Key Calculations
Parts 1 and 2 in this bounty theory series describe how total risk premiums are lower across…
The Learning System That Separates the Best From the Rest
As an avid strategy game enthusiast, I’ve spent a large portion of my life trying to analyze…
The Fish Were Right All Along
In a recent conversation with Andrew Brokos, he made the comment, “The fish were onto something,” when…
How to Use Practice Mode in GTO Wizard to Improve Your Game
GTO Wizard provides a wide variety of tools to help you become a better player, from perfecting…
Should You Ever Bluff with a Pair?
Turning a made hand into a bluff might initially sound counterintuitive. In the pre-solver days, holding a…
ICM Strategy: Playing IP Against the Chip Leader on the Final Table
The good news is you’ve made the final table (FT). Better yet, you’ve made it with a…
ICM Survival Guide: How To Play OOP vs. a Covering Stack at the Final Table
Contesting a pot against a player who covers you at a final table (FT) is one of…
We’re At The River. Our Hand Can’t Win. Now What?
You’re in a heads-up pot and you’ve made it to the river. Your opponent has check/called two…
When Is Bluffing Profitable? The Key Factors You Need to Know
When is bluffing profitable? When you expect your opponent to fold! That’s not a joke, and I…
Blockers & Unblockers: The Secret to Picking Great Bluffs
Blocker/unblocker was a concept my coach, Dara O’Kearney, showed me in relation to bluffs. It is one…
The Art of Game Selection for MTTs: Finding Soft Fields & Extra Value
Game selection is not something immediately associated with tournaments because the seat draw is random. In a…
How To Get the Most out of Your Hand Reviews
I don’t spend much of my study time checking whether specific hands I played are “solver-approved.” After…
The Art of Turn Probing: Exploiting Checked Flops
After calling a 3-bet as the out of position (OOP) player, you should expect to see a…
How To Respond to Large Preflop Raises in Poker
Solver-derived preflop charts for both cash games and tournaments have historically assumed small raises on the part…
Mastering Postflop ICM: Avoid These Common Mistakes
The new postflop ICM feature from GTO Wizard is a game changer. Previous incarnations of postflop ICM…
What Happens When Playing Chip EV and ICM Is Significant
Just how costly is it to play a Chip EV style when ICM is significant? We always…
How To Become a Winning Poker Player in 2025 – Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of our series on how to become a winning poker player in…
How To Become a Winning Poker Player in 2025 – Part 1
I fell in love with the game of poker when I saw the best players outplay their…
IP 4-Betting in Deep-Stacked Cash Games
4-betting in position (IP) is a totally different phenomenon from 4-betting out of position (OOP). 4-betting reduces…
OOP 4-Betting in Deep-Stacked Cash Games
4-bet pots (4BP) can be scary because the stakes are high, but with 100bb stacks, they are…
Fixing a Poker Leak Part 2: The Mental Game
In the first part of my series on fixing leaks, I looked at the many technical ways…
Fixing a Poker Leak Part 1: Spotting and Correcting Errors
In this two-part series, I am going to look at how we can identify and fix leaks…
How Significant Is ICM During Late Registration?
One of the many valuable aspects of GTO Wizard’s new postflop ICM feature is that we can…
The Many Faces of Balance in Poker
When you think of balance in poker, what comes to mind? Most likely, you were introduced to…
Unwrapping GTO Wizard’s Hidden Gems for 2025
A new year is upon us, which is classically the time that most people start thinking about…
The Theory of Bounty Tournaments – Part 2: ICM and Equity Drops
In part 1 of “Introduction to Bounty Theory,” we analyzed how the structures of bounty tournament prize…
The Theory of Bounty Tournaments – Part 1: Prize Pool Fundamentals
Bounties are a significant new variable to take into account when studying tournament theory and ICM. This…
Responding to Donk Bets at Final Tables
It’s scary to contest a pot against a covering stack when you have a high risk premium,…
Donk Betting As the Covering Stack in MTTs
Tournament poker generally incentivizes stack preservation and more conservative play than cash game poker, and this is…
Dominate the River in 3-Bet Pots OOP
Playing the river may seem scary. Pots, on average, have been swelling up big time at this…
Exploiting BBs Who Never Donk Bet
In a single-raised pot (SRP), a BB caller should almost always check when out of position (OOP)…
Picking the Right Semi-Bluffs
As I often like to remind readers, I am not a professional poker player; I am just…
Playing Calls From the Button in Cash Games
When first beginning to study cash game poker strategy, there is a common refrain that you might…
Bringing It All Together: PKO Review
Throughout the past year, our writers have presented nine unique articles and videos outlining how and when…
What Factors Impact Ranges the Most in PKOs?
In our article “How Does ICM Impact PKO Strategy?“, we contrasted how PKO and Classic preflop strategies…
PKO vs Classic: Postflop Play
In our previous articles comparing PKO and Classic tournaments, we reviewed how to adapt our preflop strategy…
How Do Bounties Impact Our Flop Ranges When Covering?
The previous articles in our PKO series showed how preflop ranges that are adjusted for bounties vary…
Short Stack Stealing on the Bubble
Open-raising on the bubble into players who cover you is scary. Savvy opponents will recognize how dangerous…
Maximizing Monsters in Deep-Stacked Scenarios
Why did Dracula quit the game when Wolfman insisted on a mandatory straddle? — Why? — Unlike…
Confronting Monsters Under the Bed in Poker
Do you hide from things that go bump in the night? Does the sight of a monotone…
Bullying the Blinds With Continuation Bets
A big stack in No Limit Hold‘em does not always carry a license to steal. In a…
A Comprehensive Guide to Playing Satellites
One of the most important inventions in poker that contributed to the growth of the game was…
























