Archive for Strategies

We have talked before about understanding our cash or chip situation understanding that we can sit back and wait for a good hand as long as the chips last. But in many games the blinds go up to pressure people to play or get out of the way of the pot. So now we will go just a little further into understanding good cash flow or chip management in Texas Hold ‘em.

In a game of strategy its always important to understand the element of time. Anything is possible with all the time in the world. Everyone runs on a different time clock in Texas Hold ‘em which is partially dependent on their playing style and partially dependent on how many chips they have in their stack. In this article we delve into betting structures and how a simple time clock can work when we play it tight.

Forget for a moment that the “make online poker illegal” crew is active again, raising their collective ugly head. Some people are still playing. John helped me put together a quick primer on how to lose your money fast. It’s a collection of tips based on some of the things John has already learned this […]

You may have met me in one of many poker rooms; I get around. Chances are, you may think I’m exceptionally rude. Now that I think of it, I may well be, though honestly not intentionally. Typically, I have both player and observer chat set to ‘off’. My reasons for this — […]

And then there was Muffy. Muffy is usually miffed because a) she plays online poker, and b) utilizes that arcane science of mathematics . . . specifically, the branch of probabilities for hand odds.
Quite rightly, Muffy is ecstatic when her pair of sevens (spades and diamonds) turns into a sevens four-of-a-kind on a 9h, Kh, […]

In Texas Hold’em, when you start off with your two hole cards, your only next step is to decide whether to stay in the hand or fold. This is stating the obvious, but how much you bet is going to depend on your odds, right? Wrong. If you make a habit of making your bet […]

In the past three articles, I’ve covered some fairly advanced calculations for determining hand odds for poker, particularly for Texas Hold’em. In this post, I want to cover the next level of calculations: factoring in multiple players. I’ll start with this post covering the basic mathematical formula, and in the next post I’ll provide an […]

In the last post, I covered two mathematical formulas useful for calculating advanced odds for poker hands - Texas Hold’em in particular. That post covered the basics. Let’s get in to some more details. (Please re-read the previous post before continuing, as the latter-half of this post is fairly math-dense.)
There are 10 categories of poker […]

By now, hopefully you’ve had a chance to read some or all of my numerous posts on calculating hand odds for Texas Hold’em. Let’s have a look at some more advanced calculations, including determining the number of possible specific hands. (Warning: math ahead. But it’s easy, I swear.) With cards, order of dealing sort of […]

Understanding hand odds should be a crucial part of your strategy for playing Texas Hold’em, or any of its variations. It’s not exactly easy to think on the fly, especially when it comes to dividing strange fractions in your head during a tournament. So you should get a handle on how to calculate when you’re […]