Tournaments

VPIP stands for voluntarily put $ in pot, and it measures the percentage of hands in which a player voluntarily enters the pot before the flop. VPIP is the most important stat in any HUD, […]

PFR stands for pre-flop raise, and it measures the percentage of hands in which a player raises before the flop. Of all the poker stats available in a poker HUD, PFR is the one I […]

The squeeze play in poker is a re-raise (3-bet) made after one player raises and at least one other player calls. The squeeze strategy exploits the “sandwich effect”: the original raiser now faces pressure from […]

Poker HUD stats are numerical measurements of your opponents’ tendencies, displayed in real time over the table by tracking software, and they are one of the most powerful weapons available to online poker players. The […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

There are poker players you will come across who speak adamantly about how they cannot stand playing pocket jacks. Often their uneasiness with fish hooks comes from a lack of understanding on how to play […]

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 […]

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 […]

Rebuy poker tournaments allow players to purchase additional chips during a designated early period whenever their stack drops to or below the starting chip count. Unlike re-entry events, rebuys cost no additional rake, are played […]

A re-entry poker tournament is an event that allows eliminated players to buy back in as a completely new entrant, receiving a fresh chip stack and a new seat at the table. I have played […]

Are you a Short Stack Ninja? See how you do in our latest quiz! If you get a 10/10, you are a crusher! The BTN raises to 2bb and the SB folds. Should you call […]

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 […]