Poker Strategy
Welcome to our Poker Strategy Articles section. Poker is a game of strategy. Anyone that tells you differently is ignorant or a losing poker player. If you study the game and the strategies, you will understand the tactics to becoming a winning player, improve your game, and ultimately win money. We at ITH have accumulated the most comprehensive collection of texas holdem articles to help you learn, gain confidence and most importantly WIN.
We incorporate strategiy discussions on everything from playing hands to winning the mental game. Peruse the sub-categories here or browse all our strategy articles below.
For more poker strategy content, visit our Poker Forum Strategy sections and join in the discussions!
6 Reasons to Start Playing Omaha Hi Lo
When I first started to play internet poker, I headed for the texas holdem tables. One day, while distracted, I accidentally joined a single table Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo tournament.
Starting Hand Chart
Learn how professional poker player and best selling poker author Matthew Hilger plays his starting hands using our starting hand poker calculator!
Floating in Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better
Slightly different parameters, but the same principle I spent a few days playing in Downtown Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker this year.
Why Pot-Limit Omaha Games Must Get Smaller
It’s crucial to the game’s growth “You can shear a sheep many times, but you can skin him only once.
Final Table Training for the WSOP Main Event
Preparing Darus Suharto - I had the pleasure of hosting an event to help Darus Suharto prepare for the World Series of Poker main event.
PLO Practice-Hand Quiz No. 2
Raising preflop, the combo float, and value-betting the river It's a $1-$2 blinds game, $5 to bring in.
Playing (Being) Smart
Keys to success in today’s poker world - Today’s poker environment is much tougher than it used to be.
Is Poker Gambling or Skill?
For some reason, poker players love to debate the question of whether or not playing winning poker counts as gambling. Intuitively the answer is yes, but winning poker players often don’t see it that way.
Heads-up Limit Hold’em : A Complete Guide
I play a lot of heads-up limit hold’em. In fact, it probably accounts for about 30% of the hands that I play on a day-to-day basis.
Poker Tracker Tips : Tracking Your Progress as a Beginner
Terry Wynn, aka Darvon from the Forum, takes a look at how Poker Tracker can improve your play
Omaha Hi-Lo Tips : Beyond Basic Omaha
So you’ve mastered the basics. You understand the nature of the game, starting hand qualities, the importance of position, how high and low possibilities affect your pot odds, why a dry A2 is not the second coming…etc.
Positional Advantage in Pot-Limit Omaha
The ambiguity of the bet - This is an edited excerpt from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
Winning the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Event
Restealing is important I recently won the Full Tilt Poker $750,000-guaranteed event under the moniker "IonlyplayAA.
Playing Pocket Pairs in Tournaments
The situation dictates how they are played - Volume II of the Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time series by Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, and Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet was recently released.
Poker Bankroll Mistakes that Cost the Most
The only way to make money at poker is through your opponents’ mistakes. Consequently if you make fewer mistakes than your opponents then you will make money in the long term.
Staying in School, and Poker as a Career
Don’t quit school to play poker! - Editor’s note: This column is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
Poker Pitfalls Resulting From a Faulty Mindset
Players need more than the technical skill set to achieve success There are dozens of poker books on the market that are designed to teach the technical aspects of the game.
Poker Emotions : Is Poker Controlling You?
Anyway, something that really stood out to me was a subject that had nothing to do with actual trading: most of these rare extremely successful traders (including the ones who had families) were completely immersed in the world of the markets. A lot of them were into currencies or foreign markets and would often be in and out of bed during the middle of the night as they glued themselves to their monitors.
Pot-Limit Omaha Hand Quiz 3
Big-blind-versus-small-blind play, small ball, floating, and the bluff-raise - What follows is a special preview from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play.
Bluffing in the WSOP Main Event Part 2
My last column looked at a couple of bluffs that I made during the World Series of Poker main event. One of them was successful and one of them cost me some chips.
River Bluffs in Limit Hold’em
'The River Rule' I have a rule on the river that I follow religiously, which I appropriately call "The River Rule": Never try to make a good laydown on the river in limit hold'em.
PLO Quiz 4
Playing from the Mississippi straddle, bottom set, value-betting the river - Preflop: It’s a $5-$5-$10 game with a Mississippi straddle.
Applying ‘Douts’
Hand examples of applying odds and 'douts' when making drawing decisions A column I wrote a couple of months ago, titled "Outs vs Douts," generated a lot of discussion, as I received more e-mail than usual about the topic.
Raising Draws for Value in Limit Holdem
I read a lot of hand examples and answer a lot of questions in the poker forum at my website, and there are some common errors that I consistently see. Beginning poker players, and even some players with a decent amount of experience, have misconceptions on when they should raise and when they should call.
Am I Delusional?
Am I delusional?
PLO Practice-Hand Quiz No. 1
An interesting, complex hand What follows is the first of what likely will be a series of pot-limit Omaha (PLO) practice-hand quizzes, similar to those found in my book, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy.
Tough Limit Holdem Strategy
We all have an idea of the archetypical bad limit hold’em player or ‘fish’ as they are often called. They are very loose, very passive, chase terrible draws, don’t value bet or protect their hand enough etc.
Mixed Hold’em
A new game form Over the years, there has been a lot of debate over which form of hold'em is the best test of players.
Profiling Errors
Be careful! - This is an edited excerpt from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
The Combo Float
Floating with part made hand, part draw, and part air - A lot of times, you will find yourself floating with part made hand, part draw, and part air.
Poker Tilt Tips : Your Guilty Conscience
Back in the late 90’s, before he became sidetracked with writing songs about Michael Jackson, George Bush and vomit, Eminem released a catchy song entitled ‘Guilty Conscience’. It was a song about the two voices that talk to you, one ‘bad voice’ (played by Eminem) representing temptation to commit crime or do what is wrong and one ‘good voice’ (played by Dr Dre) representing logic, reason and morality.
Draw Equity vs Float Equity – Part II
Float equity Editor's note: The following is a special preview from Jeff Hwang's upcoming book, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: Advanced Play Vol.
How Not to Tilt
Across different poker games, there is one thing that can be counted on: there will be players going on tilt. One often hears hold’em players complaining about losing large pots on the river (“oh man, another suckout, I can’t believe this”).
Using Ranges to Make Better Decisions
A limit hold’em example
The Journey : Stages of Poker Development
We begin the journey the first time we play poker.
Pot-Limit Omaha: The Bankroll Schedule
Flameproof your bankroll - You write a poker book and everybody gets the wrong impression.
Working in Your Underwear: The Pitfalls of Comfort
Troy Headrick, aka BernardDogs in the Forum, gives some tips in how to avoid online habits that are not conducive to live play When I ran Cross-Country in High School, our coach would video tape us as we ran so that we could then view the tape and critique our form.
Bluffing in the WSOP Main Event Part I
One of the great things I love about the World Series of Poker main event is the big stacks you get to play in relation to the blinds. When starting out with $10,000 in chips, you can find spots to make plays that would be difficult to make in other types of events in which you start out with a small amount of chips.
Limit Hold’em Quiz
Playing the Nuts Most players love to discuss hands when the value of a hand is not very clear.
New Zealand Blues
When the flops keep missing - I recently returned from a nice two-week vacation to New Zealand.
Automated Poker
Is the future here?
Long Term Perspective
Zoom in Zoom out....I recently tried out that Google earth thing.
Pot-Limit Omaha: The Pivot Card
Its impact on post-flop hand valuations - This is an edited excerpt from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
PLO Quiz 2
Wrap, bare nut straight heads up - It's a 50¢-$1 pot-limit Omaha (PLO) game on the electronic poker tables at Excalibur in Las Vegas, and you are playing heads up.
Limit Holdem Bluffing : A Version of the Delayed Bluff
The check and delayed bluff can be a powerful poker weapon
Seat Selection in PLO
Guidelines - Editor’s note: What follows is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
One Week as a Professional Poker Player
The possibility of becoming a professional poker player is an alluring one for most players. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to sit at home playing poker all day?
Gambler or Gamer : What Attracts People to Poker
What is the appeal of poker?
Quiz: Wrap, Bare Nut Straight Heads Up
Wrap, bare nut straight heads up It's a 50¢-$1 pot-limit Omaha (PLO) game on the electronic poker tables at Excalibur in Las Vegas, and you are playing heads up.
What do you do when you know you are beat?
Most people know that all of the great Hold'em players play their opponents and not their own hands. Most players believe this is just a matter of sensing weakness in their opponent and then exploiting this weakness by stealing a pot.
Misapplying Expected Value Calculations Part II
Eric “Rizen” Lynch provides a hand analysis - A few months ago, I wrote an article about how some players are misapplying expected value calculations.
Omaha Hi-Lo Odds – Put Tilt in Perspective
Perhaps the biggest reason why people lose money at poker is tilting. And perhaps the biggest reason for tilting is having unrealistic expectations.
Dominating Draws in PLO
A game of draws - The truth about pot-limit Omaha (PLO) is that about 99 percent of the game is played on the draw.
The Realities of a Re-buy Tournament
One of the most important things to keep in mind while playing an R&A tournament is that the first hour offers a very different style of play than just about any other possible Hold ‘em table. Typically, you’ll have a fair share of opponents playing a loose/super-aggressive style (LAGs).
PLO Quiz
Playing with the initiative, making a combination-call, and value-betting the river - It's a five-handed 50¢-$1 pot-limit Omaha game online (six-max).
Winning Preflop in Omaha Hi-Lo
Let me be honest with you. I am very hesitant to write this article.
Some Pot-Limit Omaha Hands
A strategy analysis - Here are a few hands from the regular $1-$2 blinds, $5 bring-in, $500 max buy-in pot-limit Omaha game that a few locals and I started recently at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
Pot-Limit Omaha: Game Selection in Live Play
Finding a game that fits the stakes you want to play - Editor’s note: What follows is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
Why Every Poker Player is Unlucky
I have spent a lot of time in these columns talking about bad beats, downswings and tilt, which are all related to luck, but sometimes it pays to take a step back and look at the more fundamental question. What exactly constitutes luck in poker?
Limit Hold’em Tips : The Secrets of Success
Before talking about the merits of single tabling, I should give you a brief history of my playing career. I started playing internet poker three years ago after watching it on TV.
Don’t Forget About Passive Play
Sometimes consider it as part of your arsenal - My moniker at a couple of online sites is “IonlyPlayAA.
Fixing World Series of Poker Structures for PLO
Pot-limit Omaha players are getting shortchanged - A few issues ago in my column on the bankroll schedule for pot-limit Omaha, I mentioned that while a typical buy-in for no-limit hold'em might be 100 big blinds, in order to be reasonably deep in pot-limit Omaha, you should buy in for more like 150 times the big blind.
Beating Fish in Limit Holdem
Now, onto some thoughts about the best ways to profit from these subpar players. What are the best ways to accomplish this?
Who is the Most Confident?
Poker on the internet is in very many ways similar to live poker. It’s still poker after all and the rules, probabilities and everything else that really matters is the same.
Poker Psychology : Logical Fallacies
Everybody likes to think that they are ‘logical’, but in poker as well as every day life, many people show weakness in this area.
Heads Up Versus ‘TT’
The bluff-raise Here are two hands that I played in heads-up post-flop confrontations against my buddy "TT" in my weekly 50¢-$1 ($100 minimum/$200 maximum) pot-limit Omaha (PLO) game on the electronic tables in the poker room at Excalibur in Las Vegas.
The Nut-Flush Draw
A strong pot-limit Omaha hand - Editor’s note: What follows is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
When to Raise Draws for Value
When and when not to do so Editor's note: This column is an excerpt from the, expanded edition of Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies for Full-Ring and Short-Handed Games. It includes a new chapter on playing multiway pots, as well as two new chapters for shorthanded games.
Playing With the Initiative After the Flop in PLO
To continuation-bet or not to continuation-bet - Editor’s note: What follows is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.Let’s Play Poker!
