Mark Warner

“[A common] mistake [is] in not thinking ahead. Every time you make a decision in poker, you should be thinking ahead about what happens next. When you raise preflop, you should have a good idea how you will respond if somebody reraises, and what you will do on various flops. When you bet the flop, you should already be thinking about how...

“Beginners often think that calling is a compromise between raising and folding. It’s not.” -- Andrew Brokos, Thinking Poker Someone opens for a raise in early position. You’re in middle position and look down at two pretty face cards, or maybe a couple of medium...

“To construct a proper bet sizing strategy, you want to start by structuring your bets not based on the strength of your hand, but rather how strong your range is relative to your opponents.” -- Alec Torelli, Conscious Poker The texture of the board, combined with...

“Skilled poker players know exactly why they are betting and what they are trying to accomplish.” -- Donovan Panone, Pokerology Okay, we’ve chose a line. Now we need to implement it, and the first step to this is to remember your why. Ask yourself why are you...

“There is not, repeat, not a magic one size fits all way to learn to win at poker. Nor is there a single magic step by step roadmap of things to study. Sorry, mate. Poker is too big and you are too different from me to learn it the same way as me.” -- Professional High-Stakes...

“You need to understand that everything you do at the poker table conveys information.” -- Daniel Negreanu Poker is a game built upon making decisions that are based on incomplete information. As such, the person who gathers the most accurate information—...

“What’s a good fold? A good fold is one that saves you money… …A penny saved is a penny earned in life and business, and it’s also true in poker.” -- Sky Matsuhashi, Smart Poker Study TL;DR Executive Summary:Struggling poker players often...

The Situation:We are in an online 9-handed $0.25/0.50 NLHE cash game. Everyone has about $50 to start the hand. We’re in early position (EP) with A♥-A♠. The under-the-gun (UTG) player limps into the pot for $0.50. We raise to $2.50 Two players in middle position (MP) call, and the original UTG player also calls. ...

“We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.” -- James Clear TL;DR Executive Summary:Poker is complex, with doses of both luck and skill built into its structure. Little if anything can be done about the...

The Situation:We’re in a tough $5/$10 No-Limit cash game at a Las Vegas casino. Everyone starts this hand with approximately $1,000 stacks. A relatively unknown villain in the under-the-gun (UTG) seat open-raises to $40. Another villain in a middle position (MP) seat calls, and we also call in the cut-off, holding 7♦-7♥. Everyone else folds and we go to the flop with...

“My poker history is I’m 65 years old and have played poker since the age of seven. I’ve played in casinos and tournaments and high-stakes cash games and thousands of kitchen table games. I’ve written books and magazine articles and blog posts on the subject. And the funny thing is that after all that time and effort I only know one real...

The Situation:We’re in a loose-aggressive 6-max $50NL online cash game. Everyone has ~$50 stacks. We are in late position with A♠-K♠. A loose- aggressive player in the under-the-gun (UTG) seat open-raises to $2. We re- raise to $6, and the villain calls. The flop is 3♠-4♠-9♦. The villain checks and we bet $9 into the pot. The villain check-raises us all-in....

An entire book could be written on knowing when to quit, but the late, great, and prolific poker author Lou Krieger summed the entire topic up best when we wrote in Hold'em Excellence: From Beginner to Winner:...

The Situation:We’re in a $2/$5 NL cash game. Everyone has $600 stacks. A tight-passive player limps in early position. It is folded to us in the big blind. We have A♥-K♦ and we raise to $20. The limper calls. We are heads up and see a flop of 3♦-Q♥-K♣. We bet $30. The limper calls. The turn is the K♠. We bet...

One of the most important things you can do to manage tilt in poker is to accept poker for what it is. Many beginning players (and even some more advanced players that should know better) try to bend poker to their will. They struggle with results and ultimately become exasperated with the game when it doesn’t do what they want. Poker doesn’t...

The Situation:We have been dealt offsuit Ace-Ten in the under-the-gun (UTG) seat at a full-ring $2/$5 table at a local casino. We’re a winning player at these stakes and clearly the best player at the table. Click Image to Enlarge. The Question:The action is on us. Should we play this hand or not? (a) Yes, play the hand!(b) No, fold...

Just learned that Dave Smith, a/k/a Memphis Mojo passed away.Dave was a skilled Hold’em player and a fellow blogger. He was also an all-around great guy and a good friend. Dave and I first (virtually) ran into each other around 2010 when he commented on one of my old Pokerbug articles. I returned the favor on one of his blog posts a...

“Awareness precedes choice, and choice precedes results. ” -- Robin S. Sharma L.A.P. = Look, Analyze, Personal-CheckA new subscriber to the Exceptional Poker Email List once wrote me to say that the number one thing he was struggling with at the tables was: "to leave the table in time when i begin tilting and playing very loose.”This is a pretty...

The Situation:We’re in a live $2/$5 NL cash game at a local casino. Everyone has full 100bb ($500) stacks at the start of the hand. One player limp-opens in early position. We limp behind in late position with 4♥-4♠. The small blind folds and the big blind checks. The flop is 4♦-5♥-7♣. Gin! We’ve flopped bottom set.The big blind leads out...

The six reason why aggression is so important—and seven ways to UP your inner bully at the poker tables “I’m a bully. I’m a bastard. I push people around. I frighten them and manipulate them, lie to them, menace them, pressure them, threaten them, mislead them, outthink them, outfox them, run rings around them in every conceivable way. Then when I’m done,...