Posts Tagged ‘Tournaments’
How to Play a Tight-Aggressive Style That Wins in Modern Games
What is a Tag in Poker? The concept of a tight-aggressive poker strategy is simple: play very few hands, but play them aggressively. TAG poker worked like magic 10 years ago, when fishy players with loose pre-flop tendencies were a dime a dozen. Heck, even Mike McDermott recommended it to the professor in Rounders (1998).…
Read More3 Tips for Crushing Rebuy Tournaments (Infographic)
More like WEEEEE!-buy tournaments, right guys?!?! Rebuy tournaments are fast, exciting and (usually) fun, but a lot of players bleed money this format by overthinking their strategic adjustments… …but making the correct adjustments can make you a force to be reckoned with in a format with so much “dead money” to be made. The infographic…
Read MoreThe 4 Dumbest Career-Ending Mistakes Tournament Players Make
Poker is a hard way to make an easy living. This perfectly sums up life as a professional poker player. On paper, though, making a living playing poker shouldn’t be so difficult. Granted, the games are tougher now than they have ever been, but I personally still see […]
Read MoreHow to Understand and Crush HUSNGs [2nd Edition]
Heads-up poker is sheer one-on-one competition. Every time you sit at the table you’re essentially telling a single opponent: “I’m better than you, and I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is to prove it.” But heads-up poker comes in different forms, so it’s important to know which fits best with your skill-set.…
Read MoreWhat Really Makes a Tournament Structure “Good” and Profitable?
You’ve probably seen a tournament with a name like this… Super MEGA-Stack Tournament of Champions Poker Event “Wow,” you may think. “This tournament must have a great structure, right?” Maybe, but not necessarily. Casinos benefit from disguising tournaments with bad structures by giving them fancy names and big starting stacks. We have to look past…
Read MoreHow to Make Big Money on the Final Table Bubble
You’ve spent several hours (or possibly even days) playing in a tournament, and the finish line is finally within sight. Just ten players left. One bust-out away from the final table. And you really, really don’t want to be that final table bubble boy walking away with 10th place money… …but could this be a…
Read MoreDoug Polk Answers Your 6 Best Questions About Pre-Flop Play
Pre-flop, where all of the mayhem that is no-limit hold’em begins. With the tough poker climate of 2017, a good pre-flop strategy is mandatory for long term success. In this article, I’ll be reviewing Doug Polk’s answers to 6 pre-flop related questions sent in by you, the Upswing readers. The questions cover the following topics:…
Read More3 Tips for Crushing Jackpot Sit & Gos
Want to experience the excitement (and heartbreak) of poker tournaments without the huge time commitment? Then you should try some Spin & Gos (generally known as Jackpot Sit & Gos). This relatively new game type has a lot in common, both good and bad, with multi-table tournaments: Opportunity for big wins Relatively easy competition High…
Read MoreHow to Crush Live Tournaments as an Online Player
Most online grinders find very little success when they take their first shot at a live tournament. We always talk about how TERRIBLE every live player seems to be, and then blame variance when we can’t beat them (or maybe that’s just me). The rules are […]
Read More3 Poker Concepts Every Aspiring Pro Needs to Know
Poker used to be easy. It almost makes me sick to think about how much money was up for grabs in the years following the ’03 poker boom. All it took to be a poker pro was a little know-how, and a lot of patience. But the poker landscape has changed with time. Nowadays, aspiring…
Read MoreMake More Money in Big Blind vs Small Blind Battles
Modern Short-Stack Play (Part 4) This is the fourth and final part of this article series about modern shallow-stack play from the blinds. This time we’re focusing on playing blind vs blind situations in the big blind with a stack of 20 big blinds or less. I strongly recommend you to read the previous article…
Read MoreHow to Master Short-Stacked Small Blind Play in Blind vs Blind Battles
Modern Short-Stack Play (Part 3) I used to be pretty bad at shallow blind vs. blind play. I didn’t really know how to approach it – according to simulation tools, you could just open shove a ton of hands from the small blind, even with 20 big blinds, and make a profit. But then I’d […]
Read MoreHow To Combat Steals with a Tiny Stack
Modern Short-Stack Play (Part 2) For years, poker books, articles and training videos taught us that we can’t flat a whole lot with shallow stacks because we don’t get to realize our equity that often. We still miss the flop around two thirds of the time, and when we don’t hit, we can’t really do…
Read More5 Goals You Must Set to Succeed in Poker
Goal setting works. On the endless road to strengthen your poker game, giving yourself targets will help you become a better player. However, to benefit as much as possible, it is important to set goals which are both useful and achievable. To give you an idea of some effective poker goals, here’s the top five…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Guide to Big Blind Defense
Modern Short Stack Play (Part 1) Over a decade of playing MTTs for a living, I’ve seen the game change in many ways. For example, back in 2010, open-raising to three times the big blind was considered standard. You could sometimes make it just 2.5x on the button, but 3x was the norm. Defending the…
Read MoreWhy Multi-Tabling Is Costing You Money
Multi-tabling is extremely common in the world of online poker. Many players will choose to sit at multiple tables at the same time, and will see and play considerably more hands per hour than those who do not. Of course, there is justification for this: if you are proven to be a winning player at…
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