Recently I have been reviewing hands from small stakes poker tournaments for some of my private students and it seems like their opponents (amateur small stakes players) check-raise in exactly the wrong spots. In general, you want to check-raise the flop when you can extract value from many inferior made hands, when you can make many superior hands fold, or when your marginal value hand plays poorly on future betting rounds, usually because your opponent is overly aggressive and the board will significantly change. …

When NOT to Check-RaiseRead More »

In this blog post, I am going to share with you five mistakes most amateur players make on a regular basis. If you stop making these mistakes, you will immediately see an increase to your win rate.

1. Overplaying marginal made hands

Almost without fail, every time I play a major tournament where lots of people satellite in, I see an amateur vastly overplay a hand like A-A after the flop. They see a flop of J-9-5, think they have the nuts, and strive to get all-in. In reality, when 300 big blinds go into the pot in this spot, A-A is almost always crushed. …

Top 5 Mistakes Amateur Poker Players MakeRead More »

I recently asked on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook if you would rather have $500 to play poker with 15 years ago or $10,000 today. Here is my answer:

Thanks for taking the time to watch this video. Be sure to check back at JLPoker.com/blog next week for another educational poker blog. Good luck in your games!

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I was recently told about a dicey situation from a $1/$2 game that you should strive to avoid while playing. A loose, weak player with $80 limped from middle position and our Hero found Jd-7d in the cutoff with a $200 stack. Hero decided to raise to $10.

Hero told me that he thought he could outplay the limper, winning most pots where the limper missed while sidestepping difficult situations where Hero happens to flop well but is still behind. While this may be true, as stacks start to get shallow ($80 is only 40 big blinds), you should mostly raise limpers with strong big cards and hands that have a lot of potential to make strong postflop hands, like Tc-9c. Jh-7h is simply too weak to justify raising. Hero should fold and wait for a better spot. An added bonus of playing only reasonable hands (besides making better postflop hands) is that your raises over limpers will tend to elicit most folds compared to when you frequently raise. If you are mindlessly aggressive, even the most obtuse opponents will eventually figure out your strategy. …

Playing a Marginal Made Hand with a DrawRead More »

The World Series of Poker upon us, so today I want to share an article from a few years ago that illustrates my mindset during the WSOP. I hope you enjoy it!

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Lucky flop leads to the final table in the $5,000 WSOP eventRead More »

One of my students recently told me about a hand from a $5/$10 no-limit hold’em cash game that demonstrates exactly how you should play a marginal under pair. Although he ended up losing the pot, he played it great.

A somewhat loose, splashy player raised to $30 out of his $1,000 effective stack from first position at a seven-handed table and our Hero with 10d-10c elected to 3-bet from second position to $90. …

The right way to play an under pairRead More »

Despite spending a decent amount of time studying, getting in shape, and finding my way into a tranquil mindset, the 2015 $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event did not go well for me. I felt like I played my best but the cards simply did not cooperate at all. However, I did get off to a nice start. Today I will share with you a hand that may seem straightforward, but in reality, it is a tricky spot that I think I played in the most profitable manner.   …

Choosing the correct river bet sizeRead More »