Author name: Jonathan Little

A poker straddle is a voluntary blind bet placed before the cards are dealt, typically by the player to the left of the big blind, for twice the big blind. It acts as a third […]

Limping in poker means calling the big blind preflop without raising, and it is almost always the wrong play in a cash game when you are first into the pot. You give up initiative, invite […]

The best Texas Hold’em starting hands are, in order: pocket aces (AA), pocket kings (KK), pocket queens (QQ), ace-king (AK), pocket jacks (JJ), ace-queen (AQ), pocket tens (TT), pocket nines (99), ace-jack (AJ), and king-queen […]

The biggest poker tournaments in the world are the WSOP Main Event, the WPT World Championship, and the European Poker Tour (EPT) series: live events that attract tens of thousands of players and generate eight-figure […]

Poker is a skill game in the long run: short-term luck creates the illusion of randomness, but over a large enough sample of hands, the better player always wins because every decision has a mathematically […]

As much as all of us here at Pokercoaching.com love coaching and learning, we of course also love playing. Peak summer poker season is upon us, and that means it’s PLAY TIME! Some of you […]

A poker downswing is a prolonged period of losing results that stems from variance rather than poor play. Most players experience multiple significant downswings each year regardless of their skill level, and some lasting hundreds […]

Poker etiquette is the set of unwritten behavioral standards that govern how players are expected to act at a live poker table, from how you handle your chips to how you behave after a bad […]

Insurance in poker is an optional agreement, typically in cash games, that allows a player who is all-in and a favorite to win to pay a premium in exchange for a guaranteed payout if they […]

Sit and go strategy is the approach you use to navigate SNG poker tournaments from the tight early stage through the critical bubble and into heads-up play. I have coached hundreds of students through sit-and-gos, […]

Poker hand nicknames are informal names that players use to describe specific starting hand combinations, ranging from the legendary “American Airlines” for pocket aces to the humble “Dirty Diaper” for three-two. Over decades of card […]

RTA in poker, short for real-time assistance, refers to any tool or method that helps a player make decisions while a hand is actively in progress. This ranges from static preflop charts consulted during play […]

In 2003, when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event, nobody could have possibly foretold the seismic effect it would have on all of poker. Certainly David Peters, a high-school student at […]

A bluff catcher in poker is any hand that beats the bluffs in your opponent’s range but loses to all of their value hands. It does not have to be a strong hand in absolute […]

Poker tournaments have changed a lot over the years, and the introduction of online poker has certainly had a massive impact on the way tournaments are played. Online poker operators have introduced countless tournament formats […]

Many online poker players find themselves riding an emotional roller coaster during a poker session, experiencing euphoria with every win and disappointment with every loss. However, to truly excel in the game of poker, it’s […]

A poker tell is any involuntary behavior, physical cue, or timing pattern that gives you information about an opponent’s hand strength. In live poker, these signals are everywhere if you know what to look for, […]

A progressive knockout poker tournament, or PKO, is a format where half of each player’s buy-in funds a growing bounty on their head: when you eliminate a player, you pocket half their bounty in cash, […]

A slow roll in poker occurs when a player who holds the winning hand deliberately delays revealing their cards at showdown to give their opponent false hope. It is not against the official rules, but […]

Pocket queens are always beautiful to look down at at the poker table, especially when the flop doesn’t provide any kings or aces. Even when you get to play them as an overpair, it’s still […]

Bluffing in poker means betting or raising with a hand unlikely to win at showdown, with the goal of making your opponents fold their better hands. I have spent years reviewing student hand histories, and […]