Poker Strategy
[QUIZ] Would You Win the WSOP Main Event?
Every poker player has dreamed of playing at the final table of the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event. This quiz will give you that chance, putting you in the shoes of 2021 WSOP Main Event Champion Koray Aldemir. Your goal is to pick the move that he chose. And because Aldemir is a…
Read MoreThe Final Hand of the 2021 WSOP Main Event (Analysis)
High stakes poker pro versus fearless amateur… It’s a matchup that happens daily on poker tables around the world. But it usually doesn’t happen with the World Series of Poker Main Event title and $8,000,000 on the line. In the final hand of the No Limit Hold’em championship, German pro Koray Aldemir held a slight…
Read MoreWhat are Reverse Implied Odds & Why Do They Matter?
You’re probably familiar with implied odds, but what about reverse implied odds? If you are not familiar with implied odds, I recommend checking out How to Use Implied Odds Like a Veteran Pro before reading on. Reverse implied odds can be a tricky concept to wrap your head around, but today’s article will make it…
Read MoreWe’re Slashing Prices for Black Friday & Cyber Monday [25% Off]
Have you considered upgrading your poker skills with one of Upswing’s best-selling courses? It’s time to get off the fence because we’re slashing prices by 25% for Black Friday! Every course and tool on the site will be 25% off, including the Upswing Lab, Nick Petrangelo’s tournament courses, Alex “Kanu7” Millar’s advanced cash game course,…
Read MoreHow to Play Open-Ended Straight Draws in Cash Games
I get a rush of positive energy whenever I flop an open-ended straight draw. It’s just so amazing to hit one of those 8 sneaky outs and win a huge pot. I’d be willing to bet that most of you feel similarly. But playing straight draws correctly isn’t necessarily easy. This article will help you…
Read MoreWhat is Geometric Bet Sizing & How Do You Use It?
Introduction to Geometric Bet Sizing Geometric bet sizing — sounds pretty math-y and complicated, doesn’t it? It’s actually not that complicated at all. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve basically applied this concept at the table before, even if you didn’t know it by name. When used in the proper situations, geometric bet sizing…
Read More5 “Poker Boom” Hands That Will Make You Cry Laughing
Did you play poker back during the “boom years” of 2003-2006? If you did, I’d bet my bottom dollar you look back on that time period fondly. If you didn’t, let me paint a picture for you. It’s 2003. The World Poker Tour came out on television the year before, triggering increased interest in poker…
Read MoreElite Pros Battle for Chip Lead With 0 Pairs Between Them (Analysis)
When two elite players are seated together late on in a tournament, it is often wise for them to steer clear of one another. This is even more so the case if they both have big stacks. That being said, sometimes butting heads will be unavoidable. That is what happened in the later stages of…
Read MoreHow a Top Live Poker Crusher Deals with Six-Figure Losses
Unless you’re an absolute sicko, you probably hate losing money. But if you play poker regularly, it’s impossible to never have stretches during which you lose a significant amount of money. Learning how to emotionally handle losing is one of the many factors that separate the elite players from the rest. And one of those…
Read MoreHow to Play King-Queen Suited in Cash Games (Preflop and Postflop)
King-Queen suited is a pretty premium hand, but that doesn’t stop your average poker player from playing it poorly. It’s hard to mess up too much with super-premiums like pocket Aces or even Ace-King. But I see players overplay and underplay King-Queen suited (KQs) on a near-daily basis. In this article, I’ll lay out some…
Read MoreHow to Play Trips Flops Like a Poker Boss
Trips flops are the rarest kind of flops in poker. Out of a total of 22,100 distinct flops, only 52 of them are trips flops. This means that you will encounter such a flop once every 400 flops or so. Nonetheless, trips flops are still part of the game, so it’s still worth your time…
Read MoreShould He Fold Pocket Aces to a Close Friend? (Analysis)
When two friends clash at the poker table, it generally goes one of three ways: Some friends go after each other relentlessly; Others (consciously or unconsciously) try to avoid each other; And some just play their game and let the cards fall where they may. I ended up in this situation when I squared off…
Read MoreHow to Play Pocket Queens in Cash Games (Preflop & Postflop)
Who doesn’t love looking down at Pocket Queens? The ladies are the third strongest starting hand in No Limit Hold’em, and you should expect to win the pot very often when you get them. Despite the raw power of Pocket Queens, not everyone knows how to play them optimally. With the help of this article,…
Read MoreDoug Polk Semi-Bluffs All-In With $3.7 Million at Stake (Analysis)
To mark the beginning of the 2021 World Series of Poker (which started yesterday), today’s article zooms in on a key hand from the 2017 WSOP. Specifically, a hand from the $111,111 buy-in One Drop between Doug Polk and Main Event champion Martin Jacobson. This battle took place with 9 players left at the final…
Read MoreWhat is a Solver in Poker? How Solvers Work & How to Think About Them
A solver is a powerful piece of poker software that calculates ‘optimal’ strategies (called solutions) for user-inputted scenarios. The most commonly used solvers include PioSolver, GTO+ and Simple Postflop. Solvers have changed the game since they became commercially available in 2015, raising the standard of play significantly. A solver’s solutions contain a lot of valuable…
Read MoreWhen Should You Call With Just Ace-High?
Do you ever try calling with Ace-high? You probably see the pros pulling off this move pretty often on live streams. But, unless you’ve worked on this part of the game, you may be making these relatively light calls at the wrong times. This article explains when it is (and isn’t) okay to call with…
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