Poker Strategy Articles & Free Poker Coaching
Online poker is getting tougher every year, so it becomes more and more important to have the best-possible poker strategy.
The purpose of this page is to provide a viable and advanced poker strategy guide for the most popular poker games such as Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha as well as poker tournaments like MTTs, SNGs, and Spin & Gos.
Texas Hold’em is called the Cadillac of Poker and all big tournaments and cash games are played in this variant, that’s why we will dive deeper into its strategy than in the rest of the games.
Nevertheless, we are providing all necessary tips and advice to be able to play all the poker games mentioned here profitably.
Their rules are very simple and easy to learn and we expect our players to know them already, so we want to focus more on the most important tips and poker strategy advice that will make you win more.
We will give a short introduction of the most common poker types, give expert advice on how to increase your win rate and you can also find our latest strategy articles sorted by the different forms of poker below.
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About poker coach and John “WhatA298” Bradley
- Consistent long-term winner with over $2,000,000 in online poker tournament winnings
- John has played more than 10 million hands online and over 25k MTTs at $85 ABI
- Winner of Winter Series 106-H and 2nd place in both the Sunday Million and Super Tuesday
- Experienced poker coach with over 600 hours poker coaching experience
- Poker Metagame and population tendencies specialist
John Bradley aka WhatA298 on PokerStars, started playing poker in 2007 and has more than 16 years of experience.
He quickly moved up the limits and was able to make a living playing online poker.
Although he specialises in poker tournaments, he has played more than 10,000,000 cash game hands online and has good knowledge in this field as well.
John was able to maintain a consistent winning rate through all those years and stay ahead of the curve, even though it got much tougher to make money from online poker.
As of today, John has amassed more than a staggering $2,000,000 in online tournament cashes alone and over $800,000 in profits.
He plays under the nick names “WhatA298” on PokerStars and “JBradley” on GGNetwork.
His biggest cashes are a second place in the legendary Sunday Million for $99,292, a victory in the Winter Series 106-H, a $530 NHLE , for $64,025 and a Runner-Up finish in the Super Tuesday for $65,512.
Over the last years, John Bradley has also become a sough-after poker coach with more than 600 hours of poker coaching experience.
He specialises in poker strategy for online tournaments, bankroll management, poker psychology. Poker Metagame and population tendencies.
New poker strategy articles every Saturday
John is also the author of our in-depth poker strategy articles, where he focuses on the topics that are essential for online poker players such as Bankroll management, GTO, Exploitative Play, poker ranges and how to beat live cash games.
Once a week on every Saturday one of John’s poker strategy articles is published on VIP-Grinders.com.
Note: Every Saturday one of John Bradley’s poker strategy articles is published on VIP-Grinders.com.
The different forms of Texas Hold’em
No-Limit Hold’em
No-Limit Hold’em is by far the most popular poker game in the world and all big tournaments such as the WSOP or WPT are played in this variant.
In No-Limit Hold’em you can bet all of your chips at any given time, that’s where the name No-Limit comes from. Betting your entire stack is called going “All-In”.
Therefore swings and variance in No-Limit Holdem are much higher than in Pot-Limit and Limit Hold’em and strict bankroll management is a key to long-term success.
Pot-Limit Hold’em
In Pot-Limit Hold’em, the maximum bet is the size of the pot, as the name Pot-Limit implies.
The most important rule in Pot-Limit Hold’em is: You can raise the amount in the pot after you have called the previous bet.
Consequently, you should check-raise more with strong hands in order to build the pot and get maximum value.
Limit Hold’em (Fixed Limit)
Limit Hold’em used to be the most popular form of hold ’em, but is mainly played live nowadays and hardly played online anymore.
In Limit Hold’em the size of each bet is fixed in advance. Your bets in the first two betting rounds must be equal to the big blind and are called small bets.
In the last two betting rounds bets must be equal to twice the big blind and are called big bets. Usually, the number of bets and raise in each betting round is limited to three or four. After that, a cap is reached and there are no more bets or raises allowed.
Same as in Pot-Limit, check-raises are far more important here than in No-Limit Hold’em as it is much more difficult to build a big pot.
Except for the above differences, the rules and gameplay are the same in No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit. However, due to the different betting structures, it requires adapting your poker strategy for every single game, when you want to become a winning player.
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How to win at Texas Hold’em Poker?
As mentioned above Texas Hold’em is a game that takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. However, there are some simple rules, which will give you a huge advantage over your opponents.
3 Golden Tips that will help you to win more in Texas Hold’em:
1. Don’t play too many hands and stick to a tight-aggressive approach
The most important advice is not to play too many hands and to play them aggressively. Aggression is one of the keys to success in Texas Hold’em, so stick to a tight-aggressive approach.
Playing only the best 15% – 20% of starting hands you have a huge range advantage against your opponents and can easily avoid mistakes and difficult decisions after the flop. By playing tight preflop, you will have easier decisions and make stronger hands post-flop.
Enter a pot by raising or reraising and avoid limping and slowplaying. Aggression is one of the keys to success in Texas Hold’em, especially in 6-max and Heads-Up games.
2. Position, Position, Position
The importance of position in Texas Hold’em can’t be overstated!
By playing your hands in position you gain a lot of information about the strength of your opponent’s hand plus you avoid ugly spots and difficult decisions.
Don’t play marginal hands out of position as it opens the doors to get exploited by strong players
3. Strict Bankroll Management is the key to long-term success
Having good Bankroll Management is one of the most important factors if you want to make a living off poker or play poker profitably long-term.
The basic rule is: You should have 30 – 50 buy-ins for a cash game limit to be able to play it safe and 100 buy-ins for tournaments or in other words
Don’t play over your limits and never invest more than about 1% of your bankroll in a poker tournament!
Our latest Texas Holdem Poker Strategy articles:
- How to play and win at Texas Hold’em Poker
- 4 steps how to defend the small blind in poker
- What to do against big raises in poker?
- When to overbet in poker and how to size overbets correctly
- Betsizing Theory: What is the minimal defense frequency?
- Using HUD stats to make reads
- Multi-tabling Guide: More tables, more money!
- How to use Hold’em Manager
- Moving from Micro to Low stakes: How to Beat NL100
- The best online poker rooms that don’t allow tracking software and HUDs
Omaha Poker
The term Omaha Poker must be distinguished into two games. Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo also called Omaha 8-or-Better.
Pot-Limit Omaha
We want to focus on Pot-Limit Omaha as it is much more popular and all big cash games and tournaments are played in this variant.
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Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) is also called the Action Game as it offers a lot of action and massive pots.
The gameplay is the same as in Texas Hold’em with the major difference being that:
- Every player gets 4 cards and you have to use exactly 2 of your 4 hole cards together with 3 of the community cards to form your best 5-card poker hand.
- The maximum you can bet is the size of the pot
Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Strategy
Below are 10 Golden Tips for Pot-Limit Omaha:
- Stick to a very strict bankroll management and beware of tilt as the variance in PLO can be huge
- Omaha is a flop game so you will often find yourself All-In on the flop
- Position is key and even more important than in Texas Hold’em
- Play tight out of position
- Stick to good hands which can make the nuts or draw to the nuts and play them aggressively
- Off-suit aces are much worse than in Hold’em and have to be treated carefully
- Don’t slowplay
- Be careful with the Second Nuts when there is a lot of action, you will often look into the nuts
- Rarely draw to straights on flush draw boards
- You don’t always need to bet pot, ¾ Pot is often the right sizing
Our latest Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Strategy Articles and Videos:
- Hand of the Week – How to maximize your profit with the nuts in PLO
- Hand of the Week – Second nut flush on a paired board in PLO
Tournament Poker Strategy
Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)
Poker tournaments and especially Multi-Table Tournaments are a great way for beginners to learn the game without having to risk a lot.
In addition to that, MTTs give you the unique chance to win a huge amount of money, when you make it to the Final Table or to the Top 3.
A good Tournament Poker Strategy is pretty straightforward and can be learned in a comparatively short time.
Furthermore, the cash game or Sit and Go regulars are much better than the average tournament player, so there is much more value in Multi-Table Tournaments than in any other kind of poker.
Here are our 7 Golden MTT Tips, which will help you win more in poker tournaments
- In a deepstack tournament 3-bet and play the early stages like a cash game
- Don’t always make a continuation especially not in multiway pots
- Steal a lot from late position especially when the antes come into play
- Defend your Big Blind as often as possible by restealing/3-betting late position raises
- Put pressure on your opponents with a big stack at the bubble or final table
- Go for the win as payouts in poker tournaments are very top-heavy
- Practice your Heads-Up Play
Our latest Tournament Poker Strategy articles:
- 3 Simple Strategies to make you win more at Knockout Bounty Tournaments
- MTT Strategy: What are Overlays and how can you benefit from them?
- Bet sizing in MTTs vs Cash Games
Spin & Go Poker Strategy
Spin & Gos, also called Lottery Sit & Gos, are 3-handed Hyper-Turbo Sit and Gos, which offer the unique chance to turn your buy-in into a fortune within only a couple of minutes!
The prize pool is drawn randomly before the start of the tournament and the multipliers range from 2 up to 10,000 times your buy-in!
Spin & Gos are pretty easy to play, but favor the aggressive and active player as the structure is super-fast with only 25 big blinds starting stack and 3-minute levels.
By following the 5 poker strategy tips below, you should be able to improve your results:
- Try to build a stack early
- Do not call with speculative hands
- Stick to minimum bets when making continuation bets or taking stabs
- Only play 3-bet or fold in the small blind
- Push or fold on the Button and in the small blind
Our latest Spin & Go Poker Strategy articles:
- Introduction and Rules of the latest online poker game variants
- Advanced Strategies for Spin & Gos
- 5 Golden Tips for Spin and Gos
- Win more money playing Lottery SNGs
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Sit and Go Poker Strategy
Sit and Gos (SNGs) are single-table poker tournaments with 6 to 10 players, which start as soon as all seats have been taken.
If you don’t or can’t invest too much time and still want to play tournament poker then Sit and Gos are for you as they only take between 20 and 60 minutes.
Only the top three places are paid and the payouts are as follows:
- 1st Place – Gets 50% of the prize pool
- 2nd Place – Gets 30% of the prize pool
- 3rd place – Gets 20% of the prize pool
SNG regulars are usually the strongest tournament players, that’s why you need to have a very good Sit and Go Strategy to be able to play them profitably.
Here are the most important tips for Sit and Gos:
- Play tight during the early stages and aggressive in the late stages
- Stick to the top hands and fold mediocre hands in the early stages
- Don’t open limp and call out of position
- Don’t be afraid of aggressive all-in moves even as the small stack
- Preserve your stack and don’t take any unnecessary risks as the medium stack
- Put the pressure on at the bubble as chip leader and try to abuse
- Go for the win
- Stick to stakes you can beat long-term
