Cash Games

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

A value bet in poker is any bet made with the goal of getting called by an opponent holding a worse hand. I have seen players at every level leave significant money on the table […]

Bet sizing in poker is the skill of choosing how much to bet based on your range against your opponent’s range on the board texture in front of you, not on the absolute strength of […]

A nit in poker is a player who voluntarily enters only 10 to 12 percent of hands, preferring premium holdings and folding to almost any pressure in marginal situations. I have reviewed hundreds of hand […]

This is a hand I played in a $3/$5 NLHE game that has a mandatory $10 straddle. It had some interesting features that made me bring it to the PokerCoaching Discord group.  Preflop Action – […]

A 3-bet in poker is the second raise made on a betting street, most commonly seen preflop when a player re-raises the initial raiser, representing a strong range that puts maximum pressure on the opener. […]

A calling station is a player who calls bets almost regardless of hand strength, rarely folds, and almost never bluffs, making them one of the most consistently profitable opponent types you will face at poker […]

Floating in poker means calling a flop bet with a weak hand, little to no showdown value, and the intention of bluffing on a later street after your opponent slows down. In my experience coaching […]

 LAG poker, short for loose-aggressive, describes a playing style where a player enters a wide range of hands preflop and plays them aggressively on every betting street through raises, re-raises, and multi-street barrels. In my […]

Deep stack poker strategy refers to the specific adjustments you need to make when playing with 100 big blinds or more, whether in a cash game or the early stages of a tournament. I have […]

The types of poker players fall into four core categories defined by two axes: how many hands they play (tight or loose) and how aggressively they play those hands (passive or aggressive). Every player at […]

Cash game poker strategy differs from tournament strategy since every chip has a direct cash value, you can buy in and leave at any time, and no blind escalation forces action. That means hand selection, […]

EV in poker, or expected value, is the average profit or loss of any decision over the long run. A call with positive EV makes money over thousands of repetitions even when it loses in […]

Fold equity is the additional equity you gain when your opponent folds in response to a bet or raise. It is calculated by multiplying your opponent’s equity by the probability they fold: if your opponent […]

Poker strategy tips separate consistent winners from players who break even for years, and the gap almost always comes down to the same handful of mistakes. I have reviewed tens of thousands of student hands […]

Here’s another hand from the PokerCoaching Discord. Our hero, Matt, is in a $5/$5 no-limit hold’em cash game in the Los Angeles area and is delighted to find K♥K♦UTG7 (traditionally called “UTG+1” – there are […]

Poker outs are the cards remaining in the deck that will improve your hand to a likely winner. When you hold a flush draw on the flop, for example, nine hearts are still out there. […]