[QUIZ] Can You Ace These 10 Fundamental Preflop Decisions?

preflop fundamentals quiz

Ready to put your preflop fundamentals to the test? This quiz was made with relatively new poker players in mind, but anyone could benefit from a refresher on basic preflop decisions. For each of these questions, imagine that you just sat at a new cash game table with a 100 big blind stack and no…

Read More

3 River Bluffing Tips That Will Help You Smash Cash Games

river bluff tips

Bluffing is the most fun part of poker for some people. For others, it’s the most terrifying part. On the river, when the pot is at its biggest, it can be especially hard to pull the trigger. But you can’t let the fear of getting called deter you from bluffing the river altogether. In order…

Read More

Heads-Up for €29,620 — Should David Lappin Call with Jack-High?

lappin vs sinclair

For my fifth strategy article, I thought I’d put myself on the chopping-block and breakdown a hand from the 2018 Irish Open. I made the final table of the ‘JP Masters’, eventually finding myself heads-up against breakout poker star and WSOP Main Event 8th place finisher Jack Sinclair. The hand is the poker version of…

Read More

This is When (And Why) World-Class Players Overbet the Turn

turn overbetting

I think we can all agree there isn’t anything sexier in poker than a big overbet. (If there is, let me know what in the comments below.) From the early days of high stakes online poker, the overbet was first popularized by online legends like Tom Dwan and Dan “Jungleman” Cates. The strategy behind overbetting…

Read More

Doug Polk Flops a Straight vs Phil Hellmuth — And Lays It Down?!

Last week, Doug Polk was the talk of the poker world for making a massive fold in his debut on High Stakes Poker on PokerGo. Squaring off against the legendary Phil Hellmuth, Polk mucked the second nut straight on the flop — a play that many players wouldn’t even consider. The Hand Blinds: $200/$400 Big…

Read More

Top Pro Plays Pocket Queens Passively with $2.7 Million On the Line

nitsche qq limp and fold

Dominik Nitsche is considered by many to be one of the best tournament players in the world, and for good reason. In his career, the German native has amassed $18,649,880 in live tournament earnings, including 4 World Series of Poker bracelets. But being one of the greatest players in the world doesn’t mean others won’t…

Read More

How Being Scared Money Can Cost You Big Money (Hand Analysis)

jamie kerstetter vs brandon cantu

Have you ever been scared money? It can do funny things to you. Some players adjust too aggressively and fire out loose 3-bets and 4-bets, afraid to trust their postflop skills. Others get too timid and look for reasons not to put chips in the pot. One way a person can be scared money is…

Read More

What is Four-of-a-Kind? And How Should You Play Four-of-a-Kind?

how to play flopped quads

Four-of-a-kind marks one of the rarest and strongest hands you can possibly make in a poker game. The third-strongest hand in the standard poker hand rankings, four-of-a-kind only loses to straight flushes and royal flushes. A 52-card poker deck features four aces, four kings, four queens, and so on. To make four-of-a-kind, you need to…

Read More

The Range Bet: 10 Spots to Continuation Bet 100% of the Time

range c-bet 100%

Poker strategy changes a lot over time. Before the poker boom, people generally played too passively. Then there was an over-correction by some players, who would continuation bet (c-bet) almost 100% on every flop. This is known by some as a “range c-bet” (shorthand for “c-betting with range”). While c-betting 100% in every situation is…

Read More

The 100 Most Valuable Poker Strategy Articles for 2021

best poker strategy articles

Hopefully you’ve taken advantage of all the great strategy content that’s available here at Upswing. But in case you’ve missed something, or want to double back and reinforce what you’ve learned, we’ve compiled our top strategy articles.  Each of them falls under one of the following categories (click to jump to that section): General poker…

Read More

What is a Straight? And How Should You Play Straights?

flopped straight cash games

True to its name, a straight consists of five sequential cards in a game of poker. Straights are often strong enough to win in a poker showdown and rank sixth in the poker hand rankings.  A straight only loses to a royal flush, straight flush, four-of-a-kind, full house, or flush. Here’s an example of what…

Read More

Jungleman Hits $825,635 Straight Flush vs Phil Ivey’s Quads (Analysis)

jungleman vs ivey

Half-man, half-machine, Steve Austin was the original six-million dollar man. With superhuman strength and speed, he battled evil for the good of mankind. (I feel like I’m showing my age here!) In this hand, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates is a modern-day Steve Austin, his superhuman brain battling poker legend Phil Ivey for over six-million HK dollars…

Read More

Doug Polk vs Daniel Negreanu at $200/$400: Two Live Bluffs Analyzed

doug polk vs daniel negreanu bluff

If you haven’t been following the Doug Polk vs Daniel Negreanu Heads Up Grudge Match, you’ve been missing out. Doug jumped out to a lead of almost a million, but Daniel has since cut the deficit to just under $500,000. The match has already provided amazing entertainment value to those following the action. But on…

Read More

5 Paired Board Tips to Help You Win More Chips

paired flops strategy

Paired flops can be quite tricky to play. All paired boards are different, but there are some general tendencies that you can follow. In this article, I will share 5 tips for playing paired flops. Given that this is one of the most frequent types of flop (roughly 17% of flops are paired), these tips may…

Read More