Poker Strategy

Welcome to our strategy section of the UK Poker Player site. Here you can browse all our articles written for players of all skill levels to help improve their game, we add new articles often so be sure to check back or sign up for our newsletter to be kept up to date on all things poker related.

Poker strategy be it for online poker or it’s live counterpart is an essential part of becoming a winning poker player. We aim to introduce you to high quality poker strategy articles which will see your game progress to a higher level.

• Manage Your Poker Bankroll

  Managing your bankroll is something all UK poker players should not need reminding about, but it is remarkable the number of times that players just dip into a higher stake level to get back some of the funds they lost at a previous table. Ironically, ...

• Online Distractions When Playing Poker

  Playing online poker requires the same amount of discipline and focus as if you were playing in a live event. Even the best online poker players will have bad sessions when they approach a game or tournament with the wrong attitude, and having too many...

• Re-Buy & Add-On Tournaments

  Poker tournaments which follow the re-buy and add-on format tend to attract a lot of players on the basis of generous guarantees offered by the online poker rooms hosting the games. At the start of a game you may well find some of these tournaments ver...

• Loose Online Poker Cash Games

  Looking for loose online poker cash games? Well look no further that the WSOP.co.uk where the vast majority of players are there to try and luck their way to the World Series and seem to have little or no understanding of any strategy at all! The loos...

• Poker ROI

  You may have seen the term “ROI” and wondered what it possibly meant and how it reflected on your poker profitability. Poker ROI stands for “Return on Investment” and is most frequently used to calculate how well you are performing in Sit ´n´...

• The Pros and Cons of Late Registration

  There is a growing popularity on many online poker sites to allow late registration after a multi table poker tournament has commenced. Sometimes this late registration can be up until the first break, and enables players to join a game when half of th...

• Online Poker Table Selection

  For a game in which profitability is heavily reliant on skill, it might seem a little crazy to suggest that one of the most influential factors that can affect that profitability is picking the right table to sit at. However, inasmuch as your choice of...

• An Introduction to Multi-Tabling

  Multi-tabling is the current buzzword in online poker. Playing multiple poker games at the same time has its advantages, but it can also lead you into difficulty if you get involved in too many difficult decisions at the same time. Inasmuch as you will...

• Omaha Poker Betting Rules

  Omaha Poker is a very different game from Texas Hold’em Poker in the respect that a greater emphasis is put on maths and outs in Omaha, and there are fewer opportunities to bluff your opponents. Nonetheless, Omaha Poker betting rules are much the sam...

• Dealing With a Hand Weakness

  Players at all levels of poker have a weakness with a certain combination of cards in their hand. This is most noticeable when novice players get involved in hands that contain an ace with a low kicker, but can also apply to intermediate players who go...

• Position, Opponent, Cards.

  The POC rule (Position, Opponent, Cards) is an exceptionally important one when it comes to success at playing in multi table poker tournaments. It is a thought progression that should be used every time it is your turn to act, and is the order in whic...

• Tips for Playing in Large Fields

  When players first start competing in online multi table poker tournaments it is normally on one of the major sites, with a low buy-in, a field of thousands competing for a first prize of a couple of hundred dollars and a deep payout structure. Poker ...

• Buying in For The Maximum

  If you play any form of online ring game poker, you will have noticed an alarming tendency for players to arrive at a table with the minimum number of chips possible and then “rathole” any winnings they have made (ratholing is when a player leaves ...

• How to Crush a Loose Table

  There are a number of online web sites which are notorious for the loose standard of their players  (see our 888 poker review for one) but sometimes a tight aggressive player can find that they experience more losing sessions on a loose site than on t...

• How to Play Two Pairs

  Conventional wisdom decrees that if you hit two pairs on the flop, you bet out to take the pot there and then and prevent anybody picking up a stronger hand with the late community cards - but there are some circumstances in which you may have to show ...

• Tips for Poker Satellites

  Whichever poker site you play on, they are full of satellite multi table poker tournaments offering qualification for a major event or large stake game, and there is often the temptation is to enter these on the strength of the potential prize in the t...

• How to Play Against a Bluffer

  One of the more valuable benefits of regularly taking notes, is that when you arrive at a table, you already know most of the betting actions of the opponents you are about to face. Sometimes this can help determine which table you actually play on as,...

• The Vulnerability of KK

  When you are dealt pocket Kings in NL Texas Hold´em, you should give careful thought to how you intend to play them. You want to make as much profit from the hand as possible, yet cannot risk allowing too many players into the pot – particularly any...

• Protecting Your Stack

  Whereas there is plenty of advice available for players who find themselves short-stacked in a multi table poker tournament, there seems to be little guidance on offer for players who have started a tournament well and find themselves up amongst the ch...

• Playing the Big Blind

  Being in the Big Blind position when playing No Limit Texas Hold’em can often present a dilemma. In many cases, you may be happy situation where you can get a free card by checking through, or even picking up the small blind if all the players in fro...

• Playing Low Level No Limit Hold´em

  Whereas many of the strategy articles that you will find on the Internet and in poker training books will relate to the mid-stakes games, low level no limit hold´em consists of almost a different breed of player – not necessarily worse players, just...

• Putting Your Poker Opponent on a Range

  How would you play your cards if you were able to determine what your opponent was holding? The usual answer to this question is “more profitably”, but without cheating or having X-ray spectacles it is unlikely that you will never know for sure unt...

• Short Handed and Short Stacked

  With it being high season for live UK Poker Tournaments, we have been looking at some of the major performances during the final table action, and a particularly impressive rearguard action by Roland de Wolfe was one of the highlights of the final days...

• Whats Luck Got to do with it?

  There is a quote from Brad Gilbert´s book “Winning Ugly” which all poker players should take note of:- "No matter how hard you work, no matter how great your talent, your mind is the ultimate weapon. Most players use it against themselves... wh...

• Odds and Sods

  Knowing your odds of making a top hand in Texas Hold´em Poker is one of the ways of ensuring that you are a profitable player in the long term. If you know that three times out of four you are going to win a hand, then it makes it worth playing every ...

• Make the Most of the MTT Doldrums

  The Doldrums is an area of water a few degrees either side of the equator where trade winds converge and their subsequent calmness could trap sailing ships for weeks before they could continue on their voyage. Sometimes this inactivity would drive s...

• Check Raising Strategy

  Check/Raising is a potentially lucrative poker strategy when applied in the right circumstances. It requires that you have a good idea about the betting tendencies of players on the table behind you in the betting and should only be used in situations ...

• Best Way To Play Pocket Aces

  There is a lot of debate about the right way to play AA in Texas Hold´em poker, with notable figures such as Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson advocating going all-in after a re-raise, and Dan Harrington and Randy Ray suggesting that it is better to inc...

• Size Matters

  When players come to a ring game short-stacked it is frequently a sign that they are cautious about the amount of money they are prepared to lose or may lack confidence in their abilities. The excuse that it is good bankroll management is a load of...

• Bankroll Management and Porridge

  Sometimes you get to a poker table and you can sense something is inherently wrong. In much the same way as Father Bear returned from his walk in the story of Goldilocks to discover somebody had been eating his porridge, even though you are in the righ...

• Passive Poker Players are YOU one?

  In the same way that we all have a mixture of x and y chromosomes in our biological make-up, nobody is a completely passive player. However, it is better to know what constitutes passivity, so you are able to identify it in yourself, see it in other pl...

• Basic Sit n Go Poker Strategy

  One format of poker which is particularly popular online is the Single Table Tournament, or “Sit ´n´ Go” (also abbreviated to STT or SnG). These games are played from low stakes of $0.10 up to $2.000 per player, short-handed or on a full table, a...

• Seven Card Stud Odds and EV

  Calculating your odds of completing a winning hand in Seven Card Stud is a more reliable than in Hold´em or Omaha because you get to see more open cards as the hand proceeds. You also get to see the likely odds of another player holding the cards that...

• Leveraging Your Bets

  Leveraging your betting in Texas Hold´em means placing a bet that implies you will be increasing your betting activity in stages all the way through to the final rounds of the hand, and makes an opponent hesitate when calling your bet because he has t...

• Fish That Bite Back

  One of the most common grumbles about playing online at some of the less populated poker rooms, particularly those noted for a high percentage of loose players, is that the RNG is fixed in the favour of the less experienced players and there are a high...

• Sex, Drugs ´n´ Rock ´n´ Roll

  Playing poker can be a very stressful game, and there are times when you have to get away from it all, chill out and give your mind a chance to stop working on pot odds and identifying characteristics of players around your table. These top tips may...

• Basic MTT Strategy

  Seeing as it’s that time of Year when there are some great online tournaments on offer and of course gukpt satellites, here’s some basic MTT Poker strategy which may be of use. Multi-Table Tournaments can range in size from two tables to over tw...

• Poker Intuition and Gut Feeling

  Intuition, or your “gut feeling”, can turn a hand of poker around for you when you use it in conjunction with the knowledge you have acquired about the game and the dynamics of the table on which you are playing. It can be your best friend when you...

• Differences Between Live and Online

  There are some big differences between playing poker online and going into a casino or club to play – and even if you excel at one, it does not necessarily mean you will do well at the other. The major difference playing online is the anonymity th...

• Playing Tight? Loosen Up a Little!

  There is a point that you come to in Texas Hold´em poker, where you feel you have the balance just right in respect of knowing when to fold your cards.  It takes a lot of time, effort and experience to get there – and then you find that you are nev...

• Play Money to Real Money Poker

  Making the transition from play chips to playing for money can be a huge shock for some players. Inasmuch as it is recommended that you always start your poker education in an arena that has no chance of collateral damage, at some stage the desire to s...

• What’s Behind a Raise at The Poker Table?

  Raising is an integral part of playing any form of poker, but it is especially important in No Limit and Pot Limit games that you comprehend the psychology behind raising, and the message that you are sending to other players. Winning poker players ...

• Do You Play Poker To Win?

  In sport, participating and being a good loser is sometimes seen as a virtuous quality. It won’t get you very far in poker! Whether or not you think that poker is a sport, the aim is still to win, and there are far too many players out there who are ...

• Setting Your Goals When Playing Poker

  Although every time you enter a poker room, the goal is to leave with more than you came in with, we have to accept that it is not going to happen every single time. That is why we have “Meta-goals”. A Meta-goal exists because we are all natural...

• Debunking Poker Systems and Ebooks

  Once you have registered with a number of different poker web sites, word seems to get around that you are a prolific poker player, and you get an enormous amount of junk mail coming through your email. Many of these are from the poker companies themse...

• Mixed Poker Game Strategies

  Around the online poker sites, there are a number of mixed game options for players. HORSE is the most popular, being an acronym for Hold´em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi/Lo (8´s or better), but there are several others, including Full Tilt Po...

• The Implications of Time Difference

  It may seem crazy or worrisome to anybody who knows you, but if you regularly play poker on one of the web sites that accept American players, it might be a good idea to set the alarm, get out of bed early and get onto your computer for a game of poker...

• Choosing an Online Poker Screen Name?

  All the way through our formative years, it has been drummed into us that “you do not get a second chance to make a first impression”. Yet, when you sit down at your next online poker game, just take a look at some of the names around you. How can ...

• Pre-Flop Madness In Pot Limit Poker

  If you frequently play Pot Limit poker of any variety, you may have witnessed a phenomenon known as pre-flop madness. It is unique inasmuch as it rarely seems to occur in No-Limit games, and could not possibly happen in Fixed-Limit. However, there s...

• Obtaining Information From Opponents

  Poker is not only a game of skill with the element of luck in there but its about having the ability to be able to extract and absorb information from your opponents that are seated around you. Just imagine if you had enough information from each pl...

• How Poker Mentality Can Cost You

  Poker is a game that requires a lot of concentration as well as determination, giving a player the opportunity to know when they are just in a small glitch as the cards run dry or whether their losses account to more than poor cards. A poker player ...

• Rebuy Poker Tournament Strategy

  There are advantages and disadvantages to playing in rebuy/add-on multi-table tournaments depending on what style of player you are and how much value these games represent to you. The R/A tournaments offer the opportunity to add to your stack of ch...

• The Gap Concept

  The Gap Concept is a term first introduced by David Slanksky in his book “The Theory of Poker” – one of the first comprehensive guides to playing poker, published well before the boom of the online poker rooms, and regarded as many current stars ...

• Coping with Reverse Tilt

  Poker is much more fun when you are winning, but just like in other games, when you are winning all the time, it gives you a feeling of invincibility and can cause you to lose your focus on what created that winning streak in the first instance. This i...

• The Value of Online Poker Satellites

  The lure of the bright lights of Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker, Monaco for the European Poker Tour and even Margate for the GUKPT, entices players to invest their cash in satellite tournaments to qualify for the Main Events at each of these s...

• Understanding Implied Odds

  Understanding pot odds and the chances that you have of making your hand on the draw is a basic skill in poker. Most players have a good idea about how to calculate probability, or use a piece of poker software to do it for them – then use this infor...

• Selecting the Right Table to Win On

  When you first enter your poker site, you may well (and correctly) be using the filters in the lobby area to lead you to the tables which fall into the criteria set by your bankroll management, but there may be times when it could be worthwhile extendi...

• Pros and Cons of Multi Tabling

  Online multi-tabling is an art form and an acquired skill, and for many people is the only way that they can enjoy their poker. There is a buzz of constant action, instant decisions to be made, tables flashing away at you and clocks ticking down the ti...

• Short Handed Poker Strategy

  The term “short-handed” usually relates to a poker table which contains 6 or less players. In Texas Hold´em, it is a very aggressive game where the best hand does not necessarily win the pots. A short-handed table is no place for a loose-passiv...

• Pre Flop Poker Strategy

  Your Texas Hold´em pre-flop strategy should be something which you have organised well before the cards are dealt. There are plenty of factors to consider such as how aggressive or passive the players are at the table, your bankroll, your tolerance to...

• Basic Bluffing Strategy

  Bluffing is part of the game of poker that some people have a psychological block against using. Whether it is because there is an element of dishonesty about it, or perhaps the fear of loss is greater than the potential gain, for some reason there are...

• Odds and Probabilities

  An Introduction to Odds and Probabilities for Limit Hold’em players. Odds and probabilities form the basic foundations on which a winning game is built, each and every decision you make at the table, must in some way be influenced by simple math. ...

• Poker Aggression and Unpredictability

  Most poker players already know a little about aggression. The word is thrown around by poker strategy articles all the time. The basic idea is to play a tight game and then play your strong hands with aggression. That’s a great strategy but remember...

• Maximizing Your Returns from SNGs

  Sngs are a great way of making money in online poker. Running every couple of minutes in various stakes at the popular poker rooms, Sngs are an increasingly popular variety of game and activity. While most players claim using the right in game strategi...

• Poker, Boredom and Tilt

  Boredom is a disease and it’s also a common occurrence in Poker. It’s not really something that you can catch from another person as much as it’s something that you can catch from sitting at the same table, playing the same game, for too long. ...

• Find the fishy poker sites

  As a poker player you want to be playing others who simply are pretty poor at the game, the term poker fish is used to describe a bad or weak player, finding these players should be a priority to us all. So the question we set out to answer is which is...

• Bad Beat’ An overused term

  Chalk up another loss at the casino last night. How? Well, we had two cards, and he had two cards, and after the five community cards showed, his were better. Sound like a bad beat? Probably not. Let’s take a closer look at the hands. We’re play...