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!
Weaving Through 9,999 Opponents
A lucky day! - The $100K Holiday freeroll tournament at Full Tilt Poker ended up being a nice Christmas gift.
The Mississippi Straddle
To straddle or not to straddle on the button Editor's note: The following is from Jeff Hwang's book, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: Advanced Play Vol.
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!
Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes
Focus on your poker instincts Beginning players are afraid to make mistakes because they don't want to look like a beginner.
Button Play in Tournaments
Evaluating some close decisions
Limit Holdem Bluffing : A Version of the Delayed Bluff
The check and delayed bluff can be a powerful poker weapon
Poker Bankroll Strategy : Wipeout
It is not a comfortable thought, but every poker player might one day have to deal with the possibility of losing their entire bankroll. There are a number of ways that this might happen, but essentially it will boil down to one of the following:
Reflections on My Results at the 2008 World Series of Poker
A disappointing tournament The 2008 World Series of Poker was extremely disappointing for me.
Starting Out in Poker : Advice for Beginning Players
If only somebody would have told me this...
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.
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 Against the Blinds in Pot-Limit Omaha
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.
Floating – The Key to Advanced Play
Pot-Limit Omaha: FloatingThe key to advanced play Editor's note: The following is a special preview from Jeff Hwang's upcoming book, tentatively titled Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Volume II: Advanced 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Why Do Players Go on Tilt?
Why do poker players go on tilt? It's not an easy question to answer .
Poker Luck and Skill : Variance or Bad Play?
“Your upswing was obviously pure luck (variance) and the downswing was obviously mostly caused by terrible play... at least that's the opinion I've been reading in other threads around here.
More Poker Lessons From My Daughter
The expertise involved with calculating odds, surmising hand strength with incomplete information, negotiating with bluffers, and staying within a bankroll all offer lessons that my daughters will eventually learn to apply to other aspects of their life journeys. In this world, I think those are especially valuable lessons and applications for women to have learned.
The Danger of Optimism : Texas Holdem Odds
In most things in life, there is little danger in being optimistic. In fact studies have shown that optimists tend to be happier and more successful than pessimists.
Omaha Hi-Lo Hands : Close in Value
Sometimes players say that Omaha hands “run close together in value”. Others disagree with that statement and claim that they do not.
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.
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.
Selecting Good Poker Tables : Finding the Best Fish
If you want to really excel at the poker tables, then the "need for action" that a lot of us have must be contained while you patiently look for a group that appears to have as many loose/poor players as possible. This reminds me of something that I read in a Doyle Brunson book (the man is such a great poker player....
Are you prepared? A look at poker tournament training
Play different-structured tournaments Last fall I wrote a column titled "Improving Your Game.
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.
Don’t make the Biggest Mistake in Short-Handed Limit Holdem
My real passion is playing in shorthanded games. I don’t play nearly as much online as I once did, but when I do, I play mostly shorthanded.
Omaha Hi-Lo Starting Hand Strategy Look-Fors
In the previous article, we discussed how winners play to scoop the pot. Winners always keep an eye out on how well their cards are coordinated.
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.
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.
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
Shorthanded Pot-Limit Omaha
The five biggest mistakes that average players make Editor's note: What follows is a special excerpt from Jeff Hwang's upcoming book, tentatively titled Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: Advanced Play Vol.
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.
Turbo SNG Tips
Turbos have taken off lately due to their reputation as a quick and exciting way to play tournament poker. In this two-part article, I’ll explain how to adapt your game as you move through the blind levels of a Turbo SNG.
Beginning Poker Tips : Little Things to Succeed in Poker
At the time of this writing, England has just beaten Ecuador 1-0 in the soccer World Cup to progress to the quarterfinals. It was a scrappy game, in which England was on the better side but was unable to really put the game away.
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.
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.
A Shorthanded Limit Hold’em Hand
Breaking it down I recently played an interesting hand online during a shorthanded six-max limit hold'em game.
What Makes a Bad Poker Player
At college I played on the football team. Now this isn’t exactly a bragging right in England where football is not nearly as big as it is over in the US, but nevertheless I loved the game and was fairly good at it.
Some Mistakes Down Under
The Aussie Millions If there is one poker trip that every poker player should make, it is to the Aussie Millions, held in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
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.
Improving Your Poker Game : New Year’s Resolutions
Improving your game - People write to me all the time, telling me their poker history, which inevitably ends up with the same question: “What can I do to improve my game?
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.
Playing Trash Hands in Limit Hold’em
The situation has to be right My last column looked at how to play the nuts in limit hold'em.
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).
Las Vegas Pot-Limit Omaha
Small-stakes game officially born - On Wednesday, July 22, I walked into the poker room at The Venetian with a plan.
Stack Size is Everything in Tournaments
Keep track of the changing stack sizes I just completed working on the book Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time, Volume I.
Calculating the Probability of Losing your Bankroll in Texas Holdem
When I started learning about poker I was less than impressed that there was a section called “bankroll management”. I wanted to play poker, have fun and win.
Re-buy Tournament Strategy
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).
Leaks in Limit Holdem : Plugging the Right Leaks
This article will not tell you what is wrong with your game; there are plenty of resources out there to help you with that. This article will suggest ways that you can assess how important leaks are and prioritise accordingly.
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).
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.
Master the Basics
Sometime in the 90s, I enrolled as a computer science student at a certain Canadian university. The first year was tough enough.
Short Stack Strategy in Limit Holdem
Beware the Short Stack Much has been written on the impact of stack size in no-limit hold’em, including how to play both with and against a short stack.
The Journey : Stages of Poker Development
We begin the journey the first time we play poker.
Poker Tips for Beginners : Three Decisions that are Never Wrong
Some decisions, both game and non-game, are relatively easy to make while others are more difficult. Everyone makes bad decisions from time to time, but the key to being successful is to make as few as possible.
Playing Poker Online
by: Kathy Watterson and Lou Krieger©
Following Through in PLO
The betting machine - Editor’s note: What follows is an edited excerpt from Jeff Hwang’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small Ball and Short-Handed Play.
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.
Quiz: Playing with the Initiative, Combination-Call, and Value-Betting River
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).
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.
The Emotional Paradox of Poker
Remove all emotion from decisions, but …
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.
Automated Poker
Is the future here?
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.
Variable-Ratio Reinforcement
Regulating opponents’ behavior - What follows is a special preview from Jeff’s book, Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha Volume II: LAG Play
New Zealand Blues
When the flops keep missing - I recently returned from a nice two-week vacation to New Zealand.Let’s Play Poker!
