Articles

You’ve been looking forward to playing poker for at least a week now. You finally made the trip to the nearest poker room. There’s a seat in one of the games. You...

Regardless of whether you’re playing in a poker tournament or a cash game, it’s seldom fun to play on a short stack, although it’s easier out in a cash game because you...

Has your game gone to the dogs? Dogging it is an expression describing weak play on the end of a hand. If you’re not familiar with the expression, I’m sure you’ll be...

Of all the ways we sabotage ourselves at the poker table few are more pervasive, and ultimately more costly, than impatience. It can seep into every aspect of our game, impact almost...

The Scenario There are two players involved in a pot. After the flop Player A, who is first to act, decides to have a stab at it and makes a bet. Player...

Split-pot games are different by nature than games like Texas hold’em, where the high hand is usually the only winner. Whenever the pot is split in hold’em, it’s because two or more...

Right between the eyes is a description which normally refers to a top notch shot which stops a foe in his tracks. Other phrases used to depict this type of excellent marksmanship...

Everyone knows that poker players are actors. All of us, even the newest fish in the pond, knows that it’s important not to give away our hands by looking pleased with good...

Way back in poker’s dark ages (the years prior to 2003, before Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker’s main event after gaining entry via a $40 online satellite) no-limit hold’em...

“The Kids Are Alright” or “Teenage Wasteland”? In 1989, Phil Hellmuth set the record for the youngest winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event at the age of twenty-four. His...

The debate over whether poker is a game of luck or skill has raged on for what seems like forever. The premise that poker is a game of skill is the central...

If you're falling, dive - Joseph Campbell. We've all been through it at one time or another. The endless parade of garbage cards, punctuated by a few promising hands that never hold...

Situation: 2004 World Series of Poker Final Table Stacks : Greg Raymer 7,920,000Josh Arieh 3,890,000Matt Dean 3,435,000David Williams 3,250,000Glenn Hughes 2,375,000Dan Harrington 2,320,000Al Kruk 2,175,000 This often discussed hand from the 2004...

We poker players tend to want to present poker as a sport more than as a game. We point out how much skill is a factor – and how little luck plays...

In order to practice safe poker one needs to use protection just like so many other things in life. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. OK, let’s focus - I am talking about protecting...

The Scenario A player falls asleep at the table due to his medication and is unable to be awoken. He is in the big blind and there has been no raise pre-flop....

Everyone talks about implied odds as though it’s some sort of ubersophisticated poker concept that only poker’s in-group is aware of, but in truth it’s a simple idea to understand and just...

I’m entitling this series of articles, Poker Rx. For those of you not familiar with the symbol Rx, it currently is used to mean medicine, derived from the Latin word for “recipe”...

Poker strategies continue to evolve but at a faster rate than they did back in the day. I believe that is simply the result of many more minds, based upon its ever...

The Scenario During a hand Player A announces “all-in” and moves his stack forward. Player B then repeats this and says "all-in" in a quiet puzzled tone as he considers why he's...

Unlike many other forms of poker, Texas hold’em is a front-loaded game. That front-loaded structure has a significant impact on playing strategy, although this is a subject that many players don’t spend...

I have played the game of poker for a long time, too long to admit without sounding as old as Methuselah. An element of poker that had been central to most of...

Hi, poker players. I’m Lou Krieger and this is my first article for Pokerology. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the author of 11 books about poker, and you...

The beginning years of the twenty-first century have brought some incredible highs and devastating lows. The poker world has not been insulated from these ebbs and flows. With the peaks in poker’s...

I am principally a stud player. Stud players tend to be older than hold’em players. Even at 52, I tend to be just about the youngest player at the stud poker table....

There is a phenomenon that occurs frequently among amateur poker players. A recreational player starts running well and winning consistently and comes to the conclusion that playing poker for a living makes...