Poker Strategy
3 Poker Tips and Strategies from Upswing Coaches
(Photo copyright: Antonio Abrego) Pro poker tips and strategies have never been as plentiful as they are today. You can’t spend more than an hour in the poker corner of the internet without getting information that would be considered advanced poker training back in the 90’s. From poker blogs to poker training websites, we live in…
Read MoreHow to 3-Bet (Like a Boss) in Heads Up No Limit
A 3-Bet is the act of reraising a pot preflop that has already been raised by another player. The objective of 3-Betting is to extract value when your opponent calls and deny them their equity when they fold. Constructing proper 3-Betting ranges is especially crucial in heads up games given the positional disadvantage of the 3-Bettor. Since you must…
Read MorePoker Sit and Gos – Explanation and Strategy
SNGs – What Are They, and Are They Worth Playing? With so many different poker formats available, it can be difficult, especially for beginners, to choose the best game to play. One of the most popular formats for new players are sit and go tournaments. Today we will take a look at the pros and cons…
Read MoreLive Poker Tournaments – How Much it Costs to Grind Under the Lights
While it’s all good and well to sit for hours on end in your boxer shorts, staring at your computer screen and grinding on five, ten, or twenty online tables, there’s nothing like the thrill of live tournament play. The pace is slower, but there’s a different, more human element to sitting at the tangible…
Read MoreDoug Polk Q&A Twitch Poker Segment
Upswing Poker pro Doug Polk is all about taking care of viewers and subscribers. That’s why he’s set aside a segment on the Upswing Poker Twitch Channel to field questions each live-streaming day at 4:00pm PST. Doug Polk Live Poker Q&A Recap conspapgr: When I am facing min-raises and overbets, are they mostly polarized? Doug…
Read MoreICM Poker Introduction: What Is The Independent Chip Model?
Long gone are the days where tournament poker was played by “feel” alone. The introduction of basic mathematical terms such as equity and the calculation of odds changed the game of poker forever some time ago. More recently, however, increasingly advanced concepts have been introduced. Among the more relevant are ICM poker: a mathematical model that uses stack sizes…
Read MoreHow to Incorporate Blockers Into Your PLO Game
Blockers in PLO I started playing poker in 2005, when the best strategy advice on the internet still included a hand rankings chart. PLO wouldn’t become huge for a few years and it was very rare to have someone talk about card removal as being a valuable concept to learn. It’s an extremely important lesson…
Read MoreHow to Maneuver a Tournament Short Stack
Monitoring your stack size is one of the most crucial elements of the tournament poker play and beginners often don’t pay it enough attention. Most tournaments start off with 100 BB stacks or higher, but the blinds will continue raising with our stack in relation shrinking. Large 100 BB stacks allow players to employ a wide range of intricate…
Read MoreREVEALED: Pot Odds vs Implied Odds
Pot Odds and Implied Odds When Facing a Bet To many tournament players’ chagrin, pot odds in poker do not refer to how likely you are to score some weed on dinner break. To be a consistently winning poker player it is crucial to have a complete understanding of how to calculate and take advantage of pot…
Read MoreWhat Separates Good Poker Players From the Best (Explained by Doug Polk)
Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Doug Polk explains what separates good poker players from the best poker players. In this video Doug shares what he has learned over his career that began at micro stakes and ultimately ended up at the very tip top of the poker world (We are not shy about it here at Upswing, Doug…
Read More7 Tips For Winning In Limit Holdem
If No Limit Hold’em is the Cadillac of poker, Limit Hold’em is the Toyota Camry. Solid, dependable, and not nearly as flashy. Limit was THE way to play Hold’em until the poker boom took off in the early to mid 2000s. Even until 2005, Limit Hold’em (abbreviated as LHE) was the cash game of choice…
Read MoreWhy You Are On A Downswing
Variance is very good at tricking the human brain. Things that seem unlikely, highly improbable, or impossible happen all the time, whether in poker, in the weather report, or even in a professional basketball game. The highly improbable occurred recently in the National Basketball Association. The Golden State Warriors lost to the Los Angeles Lakers…
Read MoreDoes A Good Poker Face Matter?
“So, do you have a good poker face?” When I meet people casually and strike up a conversation about poker, they always ask this question. In my experience this is the leading misconception about the game: whether or not I smile during a hand will not determine if I win or lose. It is truly not…
Read MoreHow To Play Winning Poker
It doesn’t matter if you’re a recreational card player who enjoys a game once a month, or an aspiring pro spending hours grinding out profits every day… But I’m guessing you always knew truly successful players do something different than the rest. Some say it’s ‘natural instinct’… Others put it down to years of practice… practice……
Read MoreHow To Use Your Opponent’s Ego Against Them
Check your ego at the card room door. Language is a powerful tool, and it can be used for or against you. Do you ever let ego affect the way to speak to others at the table? Your words often reveal truths about yourself, for better or worse. Consider Jordan, who suffers greatly from his ego…
Read MorePro Tip: Don’t Always Continuation Bet
Many players new to poker learn that if they raise preflop and continuation bet the flop, they can often times win the pot right there. This is a very straightforward and simplistic approach to how to play the game. The problem is that when players do this as they are still learning the game, they…
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