Advanced GTO

An overpair is one of the most common strong hands you will hold, and yet it is easy to misplay when the action heats up. When you raise preflop and the flop comes all undercards, […]

A flop that looks like a mandatory bet sometimes plays best as a check. When you hold a hand that beats your opponent’s air but loses to the top of their range, betting can fold […]

Big draws and big made hands are two sides of the same coin. The way you play a flush draw on the flop should set up exactly how you play the flush when it arrives, […]

Aces are the best starting hand in poker, but they are still just one pair after the flop. The players who lose their stacks with aces are usually the ones who cannot let go when […]

A semi-bluff is one of the most powerful tools in poker because it lets you win the pot two ways: your opponent folds now, or you improve later. But the same draw that makes a […]

One of the most common and most expensive mistakes in small stakes poker happens with top pair on the river. A player bets the turn correctly, the opponent calls, and then on a blank river […]

A triple barrel bluff is not a single brave decision on the river. It is a plan that starts on the flop, with a hand chosen as much for the cards it removes from the […]

Knowing when to give up a missed draw is a skill, but so is knowing when it is correct to be going for it. The same blocker logic that tells you to check down some […]

Most players never lead into the preflop raiser. They were taught that the out-of-position player should check to the aggressor, full stop. But at shallow stack depths on the right board textures, leading the flop, […]

Flopping a set is one of the best feelings in poker, but it does not play itself. The instinct to slow play a monster and trap can be right or badly wrong depending on the […]

One of the fastest ways to bleed chips is to treat every bet size the same. Facing large bets calls for a different standard than facing small ones, and the hand you continue with against […]

Some of the best semi-bluffs in tournament poker do not look like draws at all on the surface. A tournament hand that flops a double gutshot straight draw has eight clean outs to the nuts, […]

The big blind does not have to surrender the betting lead just because it called preflop. On certain turn cards, the texture shifts enough that the out-of-position player can start firing first, and the cheapest […]

The hardest part of running a multi-street bluff is knowing when to keep firing and when to slow down. On a paired board, the threat of trips lets you attack aggressively, but not every turn […]

Bluff catching is one of the least understood skills in poker. Most players decide whether to call a big bet based on how strong their hand feels, but the solver decides based on blockers: which […]

A double barrel bluff with nothing is one of the scariest plays in poker, and also one of the most profitable when the spot is right. When you are the preflop raiser who called a […]

Most players are too passive when they are out of position. They check, they give up the initiative, and they let the in-position player run them over on boards that actually favor the out-of-position raiser. […]

Bluffing out of position is harder than bluffing in position, because you have to act first on every street and you cannot see what your opponent does before committing chips. That forces you to check […]

A pair with an open-ended straight draw feels like a hand that wants to bet, bet, bet. Out of position against a caller, though, the most profitable line is often more patient and more thoughtful. […]

Suited connectors are some of the most profitable and most misplayed hands in poker. When they hit, they win huge pots, but most of the time they whiff and leave you holding a weak draw […]

When your opponent checks and hands you the betting lead, a weak draw becomes a weapon. Semi-bluffing a gutshot is one of the most reliable ways to win pots you have no business winning at […]