Normally when you feel like there is a good chance you have the best poker hand on the turn, you should put in as many bets as possible. However, against a habitual bluffer, your raise may scare him off, costing you a bet on the river at a poker table. Let's say you raise with A-10 and only Mr. Bluffer in the big blind calls. The flop comes A♠ 9♦ 4♠, Mr. Bluffer bets and you decide to call. The turn brings the 7♥ and Mr. Bluffer again bets out.Chances are that your pair of aces with a 10 kick... Read Full Story

As you move up in limits, you will notice that the better players are the ones who play poker ferociously on the turn, fearing nothing. In $10/$20, $15/$30 and $20/$40 poker games, many players tend to play passively on the turn, always fearing the worst, checking Q-Q when a king hits, checking when a straight card hits and so on. In order to reach the elite levels of limit hold'em, you have to be a little fearless and keep the pressure on.Let's look at a situation where you are faced with a ... Read Full Story

To some degree, you can throw the rulebooks out the window when playing heads-up. Now, anything goes; it is psychological warfare in its purest form. Your goal is to seek out your opponent's weaknesses and figure out a way to exploit them. How you do that depends on what those weaknesses are. Read Full Story

Earlier I talked in the previous articles about how successful bluffs start before the river at a poker table. In order for a bluff to work, it's important to play poker in accordance with the hand you are trying to represent. If you are going to bluff when a flush poker card hits the river, you better have played the hand like you would have if you'd the flush draw. You will also want to pick the right target, not the guy with the unbluffable sign on his forehead. You should pick the one who... Read Full Story

I often see players make last ditch efforts to win pots on the river of a poker table, thinking, "I can't win if I check. This is the only way I can win at the poker game". The problem with this logic is that this poker player can't win by betting either! A-K high is going to beat any busted draws. If that's what your opponent has, there is no reason to bet. If your opponent does in fact have a pair, he is simply not going to fold, not very often, anyway.Here is an example of a big but uncomm... Read Full Story

Bluffing on the river is less effective than bluffing on the turn. Usually when your opponents get to the river, they are going to throw in that last bet if they have any chance of winning. That's not exactly a bad poker strategy.However, the pay-off for a bluff on the river that does work is tremendous, but in order for one to work, it has to be set up before the river. Simply calling all the way to the river and betting when an innocuous 2♣ hits won't get the money. River bluffs will work o... Read Full Story

I could easily substitute bad or weak player for passive poker player in this section's title. A passive player is your ideal opponent heads-up. Against a player like this, you should be able to take full control and win all the pots where both you and your opponent miss the flop. The player who wins the majority of these pots is generally the player that will get the money in the end.If your opponent is folding too many poker hands pre-flop, you should be raising on the button 100 percent of... Read Full Story

The problem with hands like 6-7 suited is that if you don't improve your poker hand, you have virtually no chance of winning the pot in a showdown is even more valuable. You can blame some of that on internet poker.Since players can't pick up physical tells while playing poker online, they tend to call more often when there is a reasonable chance that you are bluffing, hoping their small pair or ace-high will pick off a bluff. Despite that, you shouldn't completely rule out playing suited con... Read Full Story

When playing heads-up, the button acts first before the flop but last on the remaining betting rounds. The button has the small blind, while the other player has the big blind. As I had stressed throughout, position is of paramount importance in Texas Hold'em but especially when playing poker heads-up. This makes virtually any poker hand playable on the button. In fact, when I was watching two world-class poker players play heads-up, I soon noticed that both players see a large percentage of ... Read Full Story

By now, you should be able to guess that I advise defending your blinds fiercely when playing poker shorthanded. Don’t be paranoid, fearing premium poker hands all the time. Shorthanded, your opponents will be raising will all kinds of junk and there is no reason to think they have a great hand just because they raised.For instance, say in a ten-handed poker game, you hold A-7 offsuit. The first player raises and all fold to you. Should you call, fold, or reraise? If you said fold, you are co... Read Full Story