You’ll find the answers to these key questions in this article:

• Why should you 4-bet?
• With which hands should you 4-bet?
• What 4-bet size should you use?
• How should you adjust our 4-bet sizes in tournaments?

The answers are relatively simple and you can start applying the following advice in the very next session you play.

Stick around until the end to grab your exclusive coupon code for $200 off our advanced tournament course, which expires in a few days.

What is a 4-Bet?

A 4-bet is the second re-raise in a betting round, usually seen preflop. For example, suppose you raise preflop and a player behind you re-raises (aka 3-bets). If the action gets back to you and you re-raise again, that’s a 4-bet.

While postflop 4-bets are possible, this article focuses exclusively on preflop 4-betting.

Why Should You 4-Bet?

You should 4-bet because you want to build the pot when you have a premium hand.

Sometimes you should 4-bet with a relatively weak hand with the goal of making your opponent fold — i.e. a 4-bet bluff — but your entire 4-bet range should be built around the premium hands.

Hypothetically, if you were never dealt the premium hands preflop, you should in theory never 4-bet because you’d have nothing to build your 4-bet range around. In other words, you 4-bet bluff in order to support (balance) the strong hands.

How Should You 4-Bet?

You can’t only 4-bet premium hands. If you did that, you’re not taking advantage of all the times your opponent will fold. And if your opponents caught on to your “only 4-bet premiums” strategy, they would always have an easy decision versus your 4-bets.

Of course, if you have a read that your opponent is unlikely to fold versus a 4-bet, you should weight your range more towards the premium hands and cut out most or all of the bluffs. 

Your goal when 4-betting is to make your opponents’ decisions hard. This goal is accomplished when you put most of their hands in a gray area between continuing or folding.

There are three steps to this:

1. Identify your value 4-betting range

The first step is to decide which strong hands are worth 4-betting for value in a given situation.

This will depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

• Your position
• Your opponent’s position
• Stack depth
• What you know about your opponent’s game

Later in this article, I’ll go over some examples that show these factors at play.

2. Add bluffs to your 4-betting range

The best 4-bet bluffing hands are suited Ax and Kx hands that can not profitably call the 3-bet. Some offsuit Ax and Kx hands get mixed into the bluff 4-bet range too, as do other hands on occasion.

The Ax and Kx hands have the best blockers to your opponent’s continuing range, which makes it a bit more likely they will fold (see: card removal).

The specific hands and how often you should 4-bet with them depend on your value range. As your number of value 4-bets increases, so should your number of bluffs.

3. 4-bet to an amount that puts your opponent in a tough spot.

Your 4-bet size should put the 3-bettor in a marginal spot with most of his hands, forcing him to call with a decent portion of his 3-betting range. If you use too large or too small of a size, your opponent will have an easy decision with most of his hands.

Bad 4-bet sizes essentially let your opponent off the hook too easily. They’re much more likely to make a mistake if you use a size that puts most of their range in a grey area between calling and folding.

What 4-Bet Size Should You Use?

The answer to this question depends on whether you are in position or out of position.

When you’re out of position, you should 4-bet bigger in order to mitigate your opponent’s positional advantage. Conversely, you should 4-bet smaller when you have the advantage of position.

Position matters because it impacts how your opponents will realize their equity. They will realize equity well when playing in position and poorly when playing out of position. If you’re not familiar with the concept of equity realization, read this article to learn about it. It’s a very important concept to understand if you want to play poker at a high level!

Now, let’s dive into specific examples, starting with when you’re in position.

4-Bet Sizing When In Position

Suppose you raise from the Button and the Small Blind 3-bets (cash game, 100bb deep).

Note: For this example, the ranges will be based on a 2.5bb open-raise and an 11bb 3-bet. If larger raise sizes are common in your games, make sure you play tighter than the ranges that follow.

A good player’s 3-bet range from the Small Blind will look something like this:

Yellow = 3-Bet | Grey = Not in 3-Bet Range

Here is what a balanced 4-betting range could look like for the Button:

Yellow = 4-Bet | Grey = Not in 4-Bet Range

This range includes:

• Pocket Tens+ and AK for value
• High card hands (red boxes) as the primary bluffs
• Some other hands (T8s, 65s, 55) as low frequency bluffs*

*These hands are mixed into the 4-bet range to improve board coverage (see: what is board coverage?).

I ran a quick and rough equity calculation to see how much equity the Small Blind’s 3-bet range has against the Button’s 4-bet range in this example:

The Button’s 4-bet range has around 55% equity versus the Small Blind’s 3-bet range

The Small Blind’s entire range has just under 45% equity, and most of his individual hands will have roughly 35% raw equity.

Let’s decrease that to a range of 26-30% equity to account for his positional disadvantage. This decrease is due to that equity realization concept I referenced earlier.

The Button should use a 4-bet size that effectively targets these 30% equity hands. The size should make the Small Blind feel indifferent between calling and folding with these hands.

If the Button chooses the right size, the Small Blind’s decision will be marginal either way with most of his range.

The 4-bet size that hammers his range most is somewhere around 2.3x his 3-bet size. That’s about 25bb in this scenario. This size gives the Small Blind a 27% price to call (see: how to calculate pot odds), which is a tricky spot for the heart of his range (remember, those hands will realize 26-30% equity).

Now let’s take a look at when we are out of position.

Out of Position 4-Bet Sizing

Suppose you raise from the Cutoff and the Button 3-bets (cash game, 100bb deep).

Note: The following ranges will be based on a 2.25bb open and a 7.2bb 3-bet.

A good player’s Button 3-bet range will look something like this:

Yellow = 3-Bet | Grey = Not in 3-Bet Range

Here is what a balanced 4-bet range could look like for the Cutoff:

Because two different 4-bet sizes were used by the solver, I included the full color key for this situation.

This range includes:

• Pocket Tens+ and AK for value*
• High card hands (AQo, A5s, KJs, etc) as the primary bluffs*
• Some other hands (but fewer than before) as low frequency bluffs

*This example reveals why value and bluff are imperfect terms. There are some hands, such as AQs, that straddle the line between bluff and value bet. But thinking in these terms can still be helpful when building your ranges.

Again, you should choose a 4-bet size that effectively targets the heart of your opponent’s range. You’ll need to go a bit bigger than before to account for your positional disadvantage.

Something in the neighborhood of 2.5x to 2.6x the 3-bet size is appropriate. That’s 18-19bb in this scenario.

Note: You might have noticed a new sizing option emerge: the all-in 4-bet. This is a nice play to make with certain hands when you’re out of position against the 3-bettor. Read this article to learn when and why you should make this play.

How Should You Adjust in Tournaments?

You know who knows a lot about tournament poker strategy?

High stakes crushers Darren Elias and Nick Petrangelo, who collaborated on an advanced tournament course called Road to Victory here on Upswing Poker.

Darren and Nick’s course comes with an easy-to-use preflop browser app, which contains numerous ranges that cover almost every preflop situation you can imagine at 6 different stack depths.

The 4-bet size recommended by those charts are similar the sizes I recommended for cash games:

As you can see from my giant red arrows, these charts suggest 4-betting to:

• 2.2x when in position
• 2.6-2.8x when out of position

Nick and Darren’s charts recommend using these sizes when deep (the chart is for 100bb, and the sizes are reasonable when sitting with ~60bb or more).

Once your stack approaches 50bb, all-in becomes a prevalent 4-bet size. In many situations, this all-in size is used in tandem with a non-all-in 4-bet strategy.

For instance, let’s click and examine their Middle Position vs Hijack 3-bet chart at 50bb:

Opening up the MP vs HJ 3-bet chart to see which hands 4-bet non-all-in at 50bb

The coaches recommends 4-betting non-all-in with AA, KK, and AKs every time in this spot. A bunch of other hands are non-all-in 4-bets at a mixed frequency (JJ-TT, 77, AQo, ATs-A8s, KTs-K9s, QJs). 

The rest of the 4-betting hands simply go all-in (AKo, QQ, and these hands as a mixed frequency: JJ, TT, A5s, A4s).

At 30bb, the only 4-bet size the coaches recommend is all-in. Which makes sense given that you’d have to commit such a big chunk of your stack when 4-betting anyway.

You can own this tournament preflop app + 30 hours of his coaching footage from Darren and Nick when you get their Road to Victory course.

As a special deal for reading this entire article, you can save $200 by using the coupon code 4BET at checkout. That code expires this upcoming Tuesday (2/18) at midnight. Learn more now!

Final Thoughts on 4-Betting

To sum up, when you 4bet, you want to use your premium hands for value (obviously). Then, balance those premium hands by also 4-bet bluffing, mostly with hands that block the premium part of your opponents range.

As far as sizing goes, you should 4-bet to around 2.3x the 3-bettors raise when you are in position and around 2.6x his raise when you are out of position (assuming 100bb stacks).

When you’re deep stacked in tournaments, roughly the same sizes are good: 2.2x when in position and 2.6-2.8x when out of position will do the trick.

These 4-bet sizes will put your opponents in a tough spot and allow you to profit whether they over-defend, under-defend, or even play optimally.

As usual, if you have any comments or feedback don’t hesitate to use the comment section below.

If you’ve gotten value from this article, consider sharing it with your friends!

What Top Poker Pros Already Know About 4-Betting
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The post What Top Poker Pros Already Know About 4-Betting appeared first on Upswing Poker.

It’s time to get off the fence because we’re slashing prices by 25% for Black Friday!

Everything on the site will be 25% off. That includes the Upswing Lab, the Smash Live Cash course (ft Brad Owen), Darren Elias and Nick Petrangelo’s Road to Victory tournament course, the Poker Blueprint by Uri Peleg, and even Lucid GTO!

The sale begins on Monday, November 25th and will expire at midnight on Cyber Monday, December 2nd. The discount automatically applies when you sign up for a Lab subscription or purchase a course during the sale. 

The Upswing Lab

You save between $25 and $175, depending on your subscription plan.

Great for low and mid-stakes cash game and tournament players, the Upswing Lab is an extensive No Limit Hold’em training course that is updated every week.

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• 6 Learning Tracks that will help you master your preferred No Limit Hold’em game type
• 300+ “Play & Explain” videos so you can watch your coaches play.
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You save between $12.50 and $125 depending on your subscription plan.

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The Poker Blueprint by Uri Peleg

You save $125.

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• 25+ hours of video training on tournament strategy, theory, and dynamics.
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• Private group access
• Darren’s exploitative preflop ranges that show you winning counter-strategies to use vs specific player types

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The Black Friday sale applies to all Upswing Poker courses. You can view the entire course library here.

The post We’re Cutting Prices for Black Friday & Cyber Monday (25% Off) appeared first on Upswing Poker.

…but, as you probably know all too well, they can also cost you an entire chip stack.

To help you get max value and avoid costly mistakes, you’re about to learn some key tips for playing the three biggest pocket pairs in No Limit Hold’em.

Let’s start at Pocket Queens and work up to Pocket Aces.

Note: Want to watch a free preview from our new course designed for low stakes players? Sneak a peek inside the Poker Blueprint now!

5 Quick Tips for Playing Pocket Queens

The following tips are from this in-depth guide to playing Pocket Queens.

Tip #1: Don’t slow-play if you have an overpair multiway (especially when there is a weak player in the pot)

Suppose you raise with Q Q, get 3 callers, and the flop comes J 8 3.

In this spot and ones like it, it is best to make a small bet to force out some of the other players and get some value. If you bet and face a raise, proceed very cautiously.

Tip #2: Use big bets in heads-up pots when you have an overpair

Overpairs are great hands with which to bet relatively big. This is because they block only a few combinations of top pairs — and you really want your opponent to have top pair when you have an overpair.

That being said, if the board is very dry or good for your opponent, it’s still best to go with a small bet size to force your opponent to call with very weak hands (see: this article on flop texture).

Tip #3: Do not slow-play when you hit a set multiway

It might be tempting to slow-play your set of Queens in a multiway pot on a flop like Q-J-6, but that is basically gifting a lot of free equity to the other players. Imagine checking and letting a player with 98s or K9s bink their gutshot straight for free — that would be a disaster!

Unless the board has no flush draw possible and no straight draw possible, do not slow play. Just bet and thank me later in the comment section!

(Slow-playing with top set in a heads-up pot is a lot more reasonable, as I’ll cover in tip #5.)

Tip #4: If the turn makes your hand into second pair, you should usually check

When the turn is an Ace or a King, the value of your hand drops significantly. So, instead of continuing to bet, you should most often go in pot control mode by checking. Should you face a bet, you should probably bluff-catch at least one street.

But you can still bet sometimes…

When there are still a lot of worse hands in your opponent’s range that will likely call a bet, then making a small bet is probably best.

For example, suppose you 3-bet from the Button versus a Cutoff open. The Cutoff calls and the flop comes 9-5-3 with a flush draw. You c-bet when checked to, get called, and the turn is an offsuit King.

In this scenario, your Pocket Queens are often good enough to bet for thin value. Your opponent will have a lot of worse hands that can call a small bet (9x, TT, flush draws, etc) and you also deny equity (from hands like Ace-high) by doing so.

Tip #5: You can slow-play when you hit top set in a 3-bet or 4-bet pot (heads-up)

When you hold the top set, you heavily block the range with which your opponent would call a bet on the flop.

When you add the fact that the stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) is much lower in a 3-bet/4-bet pot, then increasing the size of the pot right away drops in the priority list. You can always just start betting on the next street and still get all of the money in by the river.

3 Tips for Playing Pocket Kings on Dreaded Ace-High Flops

The following tips are from this in-depth guide to playing Pocket Kings.

Tip #1: In 3-bet pots, you should almost always c-bet

I won’t sugar coat it — this spot sort of sucks!

You’re not going to put much money into the pot after the flop barring a King on the turn or the river, but that doesn’t mean you should check on the flop.

You need to focus more on your whole range, and Ace-high flops are extremely advantageous for you as the 3-bettor.

Remember to bet small, as you want to force your opponent to continue with weaker hands than yours. You are not bluffing! Rather, you are making a thin, range-driven value bet.

Tip #2: In 4-bet pots, you should almost always c-bet

Very similar to 3-bet pots, Ace-high flops massively favor you as the 4-bettor both whether you’re in or out of position. For this reason, it’s best to fire a c-bet with your kings.

The upsides of this play include:

• Keeping your range uncapped
• Realizing some equity (because you are very likely to see the turn)
• Getting some value from worse hands
• Denying some of your opponent’s equity.

As uncomfortable as it may feel, putting in a very small c-bet is your best course of action on Ace-high flops in 4-bet pots.

Tip #3: If you encounter resistance after betting, concede the pot

You had a great hand preflop, but a terrible flop came. You bet the flop, as the tips above suggested, but now you have settled into a part of the game tree where KK simply doesn’t have much expected value, and that is fine.

Don’t feel like you need to win every pot just because you had a great hand on the previous street!

Sometimes you just gotta give it up and move on to the next hand.

5 Mistakes to Avoid with Pocket Aces

These mistakes are from this article on mistakes to avoid with Pocket Aces.

Mistake #1: Slow-Playing Preflop (Especially Against A Single Raise)

When holding pocket aces, your best option will almost always be to build as big of a pot as possible as fast as possible. This entails raising if no one else has raised, 3-betting if someone else has raised, and 4-betting if someone has already 3-bet.

This way, over time, the average pot that you win with pocket aces will be larger.

Mistake #2: Increasing Your Preflop Raise Size

Players raising to larger-than-usual sizes when they have a strong hand is a mistake I’ve seen both online and live.

While it is your goal to play a big pot with aces, you should keep your raise sizes consistent with the other hands in your range. This consistent sizing approach will make you significantly tougher to play against.

Mistake #3: Being Too Willing To Go Broke Postflop In Multiway Pots

Multiway pots are a different animal.

As more players enter a pot, the complexity of the situation increases exponentially. Here’s why:

• You have much less equity vs two opponents than you do against one opponent.
• The more players there are, the more likely it is one of them outdraws your aces on the flop.
• The pot will be roughly 50% larger on the flop, which will make it surprisingly easy to play enormous pots.

For these reasons, when you see your opponents very willing to put a lot of money into the pot, especially on scary boards, you must be willing to make some heroic folds.

Remember that your relative hand strength is significantly lower in these situations!

Mistake #4: Playing Too Passively Postflop

This goes hand in hand with mistake #1.

When you flop a strong hand, as you usually will with aces, you generally want to fast-play in order to build the pot as fast as possible.

When you have a chance to bet, you can increase the size of the pot to your desire. Checking gives that power to your opponent. He may choose to increase the size of the pot with a bet of his own, or not. More often than not, players will bet less often than they would’ve called versus your bet.

Mistake #5: Over-Valuing Your Hand On Scary Boards

Generally speaking, wet flops with a lot of low or middling cards favor the preflop caller. As a result, you should play more passively with your entire range, including pocket aces.

For example, let’s say you raise A A from UTG and get called by the big blind. Then the flop comes:

On boards like this, your opponent will have a higher concentration of sets, two-pairs, and even straights. Since you raised UTG, your range is concentrated more towards high cards and medium-high pairs. As the caller, your opponent can have a bunch of hands like 44, 87o, or 65.

This advantage at the top of the ranges (aka ‘nut advantage‘) allows them to put a lot of pressure on you, should you choose to c-bet.

In these cases, a nifty option is to check back with your pocket aces and look to bluff-catch on the next streets. One pair hands are generally not strong enough by the river to bet 3 times for value on these boards anyway, so checking back doesn’t even sacrifice much value.

The main reason why checking the flop works well is that aces will always be top pair on any turn, and thus will almost always be able to call a bet (or bet when checked to) on the next street. Compare this to a hand like pocket tens, with which there are many possible overcards that you don’t want to see. 

Final Thoughts

If you want to learn more about playing these hands, I suggest checking out the full guides for each one:

• Pocket Queens
• Pocket Kings
• Pocket Aces

I hope this article proves helpful for you during your next poker session.

Thanks for reading!

Note: If you prefer the straightforward language in this article compared to complex poker speak, check out the Poker Blueprint!

It’s a relatively short course for players who want to win, but don’t want to spend countless hours studying solvers and complicated math.

Watch a sneak peek now!

The post How to Play Big Pocket Pairs in Cash Games appeared first on Upswing Poker.

This quiz will present you with 10 hypothetical cash game situations. Your goal is to choose the best action* in each situation.

*When playing poker, sometimes you will have information on your opponents that will sway your decisions. In this quiz, assume you have no such information.

After each question, you’ll see a pop up that explains the correct answer so you can improve your skills as you progress through the quiz.

You’ll get a No Limit Hold’em starting hand based on your final score. Be sure to let me know in the comments which hand you got!

Note: All questions and answers were taken straight from the new Lucid Poker Trainer, a tool that lets you practice countless situations. A new quiz just like this one is added to Lucid every single day. Become a Lucid Poker member to access 100+ quizzes and more.

What’d you score? And which starting hand did you get?

Let me know in the comments below.

And remember, there are literally 100+ more of these types of quizzes for cash games, tournaments and spin & gos in the Lucid Poker Trainer.

Thanks for stopping by!

The post Great Poker Players Will 10/10 This Cash Game Quiz appeared first on Upswing Poker.

Poker strategy has advanced a lot in the past 8 years (thanks to the widespread use of solvers). It’s simply never been easier to gain a deep understanding of the mechanics of the game.

But working with tools like solvers can be incredibly tedious, and even the associated terminology can be tough to understand.

I’m going to share 3 poker strategies that will help you win in 2024 and beyond. To help you truly digest the advice, I’ll favor using simple language over “nerdy” poker terms that tend to confuse people.

I’ll prove the validity of each strategy with screenshots from the Lucid GTO Trainer, a new easy-to-use tool coming out this Thursday on Upswing Poker.

Note: Lucid GTO is amazing for coming up with strategies you can take to the table. You can use it to practice against “perfect” opponents and get instant feedback on your play. Or you can browse entire strategies for any common spot. Get access now!

1. Slow-play Pocket Aces when you actually want your opponent to catch up

I’ve noticed a tendency among poker players who aren’t super familiar with solver-based strategies…

When they get strong pocket pairs like Pocket Aces, they tend to always play fast and reach for bigger-than-usual bets/raises.

I believe this tendency is motivated by fear. The fear that their Aces will be cracked if they dare to make a tricky play. The fear that they’ll miss out on value with the strong hand they’ve been waiting for.

Funnily enough, that fear often leads them to the right play. You should usually play your strong hands fast because that will usually make you more money.

But there are some situations in which mixing in a cagey slow-play with Pocket Aces will make you much more money on average.

Example: You’re playing $1/$2 and your stack is $200

The player on the Button raises and you 3-bet from the Small Blind with .

The Button calls and the flop comes .

In this situation, checking on the flop with your Aces is heavily favored over betting. Take a look at how Lucid GTO’s built-in solver-based strategy plays this situation:

Lucid GTO’s preferred strategy with Aces on this flop is to check (around 70% of the time)

This check has 3 major benefits:

1. You allow your opponent to catch up just enough to pay you off.
   If your opponent has and the turn is a dreamy turn card like the , you’ll be in great shape to win a big pot.
2. Checking gives your opponent the chance to bluff.
   It’s really nice when your opponent reads your check as weak and tries to make a move with a missed hand like .
3. You protect the rest of your checking range.
   Sometimes you’re going to have a hand that missed like . By checking when you have Aces as well, you bolster your checking range so you can’t always be read for Ace-high or worse when you check.

If you’re thinking “but Mike, I want to protect against draws! What if a diamond comes on the turn?”

I would push back by saying “would your opponent fold a diamond flush draw if you bet on the flop?” The answer is no, of course not.

Your Aces don’t get much meaningful protection by betting. But they do get those 3 major benefits by checking.

So, when you find yourself with Pocket Aces in a situation where you actually want your opponent to catch up (or have a chance to bluff), mix in some checks.

2. Bet (really) big when the flop is much better for you than your opponent

Example: Suppose you raise before the flop and a player calls in the big blind. The flop falls and your opponent checks.

When you bet in this situation, it should be a big bet.

You’re the only player who can have the nuts (a flopped set of Aces), the second nuts (a set of Kings) and the fourth nuts (top two pair). After all, your opponent would have re-raised preflop with any of those hands (Pocket Aces, Pocket Kings, or Ace-King). The best they can have is the third nuts (a set of Twos) and that hand is probably in your range too!

This is referred to as having a nut advantage, which is a key factor that drives bet sizing.

Take a look at how Lucid GTO’s builds the betting range in this spot:

When the solver bets on this A-K-2 flop, it prefers an overbet

There are 3 major benefits to betting big on this flop:

1. You force more money into the pot.
   This is obviously good when you’re the only player who can have all the really good stuff.
2. It puts your opponent in a brutal spot right away.
   Imagine having a hand like or against a big bet on this flop. It would already start feeling pretty dicey!
3. Your bluffs make more money.
   Notice that the solver bluffs on this flop not only with draws (like QJ) but also total airballs and low pocket pairs.

I want to expand on benefit #3 a little bit.

The solver really likes bluffing on the flop with low cards like and because of how the opponent is supposed to respond to the big bet.

With 1 click in Lucid GTO, you can see the big blind’s GTO response to this big bet:

The big bet forces immediate folds from hands as strong as . Even weak Aces like fold at some frequency!

That means, as the bettor, we are absolutely printing money with those low hands. Imagine betting with and forcing a fold from a King. You were basically drawing dead, and yet here you are dragging the pot.

Of course, your human opponents may be stickier than the solver. They may always call with any Ace and any King on the flop. But that just means you’ll be making WAY more money when you actually have a value hand like , , or .

If you use a big bet and build your range close to how the solver does, you will find yourself in this desirable win-win situation.

Note: Other flops that warrant this type of big bet include , , and . This trend is quite common on flops with two high cards and one low card.

3. Check a lot when you’re out of position, even if you’re the player who raised before the flop

You may already know to always “check to the raiser” when you’re out of position, but did you know you should often check as the raiser as well?

Example: Suppose you raise and a player who has position on you calls. The flop is .

This flop is quite favorable for the player who called you in position. You are more likely to have a strong overpair like , but you also have way more missed high card hands like and .

Meanwhile, the opponent’s range has a high proportion of sets, two pairs, pairs, and flush draws with much fewer missed high cards.

Accounting for these factors, Lucid GTO takes the extreme measure of checking the entire range as the out of position player on this flop:

Checking with your good hands (sets, two pairs, overpairs, and flush draws) protects your weaker hands (gutshots and overcards) and makes you much tougher to play against.

But just because we’re checking doesn’t mean we’re giving up on the pot. Far from it. Take a look at how Lucid GTO responds to a small bet after checking on this flop:

Lucid folds just 34% of the time against this small bet from the opponent.

More importantly, it check-raises a whopping 21% of the time. That check-raising range (light green) consists of mainly strong hands (top pairs, overpairs, sets) and draws (gutshots and flush draws) along with a few random bluffs.

This was, admittedly, an extreme example. is one of the worst possible flops for the out of position preflop raiser.

But Lucid GTO also checks at a fairly high frequency on more favorable flops. Here are some examples along with their checking frequency:

• – 58% check
• – 92% check
• – 94% check*

*This one really surprised me!

If you were the type of player to c-bet out of position very often because you were the preflop aggressor, hopefully this section has convinced you to check much more often.

It’s also worth noting that checking with a protected range becomes even more important in multiway pots. When you have multiple players’ condensed ranges to worry about, you shouldn’t be unleashing bets willy nilly!

So, if you play in those splashy live cash games where 3+ players tend to see every flop, get ready to do a lot of checking as the preflop raiser — and then stick it in their face with an aggressive check-raising strategy!

Any questions?

Let me know in the comments below and I’ll respond as soon as I can.

The post 3 Easily Understood Poker Tactics That Will Make You Money in 2024 appeared first on Upswing Poker.

This is a wild pot that took place in a $25/$50 game with roughly $90,000 effective stacks.

Let’s jump in!

Preflop Action

Nik Airball straddles in the Cutoff to $100 (it’s called a Mississippi straddle), so the action starts on the Button who folds.

Rampage open-raises to $500 with Ah 8h from the Small Blind. Andy 3-bets from UTG with Ad Qc to $1,500. Nik Airball calls the from the Cutoff with 7h 5h. Rampage calls.

Preflop Analysis

This is an unusual preflop action given the Mississippi straddle dynamic. Nonetheless, I will give you the best strategy that I can think off, without any sort of preflop simulations being available.

Rampage is out of position against 7 players, and he will be out of position against all of them postflop. This means that he should play an extremely tight strategy as he is at an enormous strategic disadvantage, being forced to always act first.

I would advise raising with roughly the top 7-8% of hands in this spot. That would include Pocket Eights or better, Ace-Queen offsuit or better, and suited broadways.

This might seem unnecessarily tight, but if you calculate the cumulative 3-betting frequency of the players left to act and add that to the fact of always playing out of position with a very high stack-to-pot ratio (SPR), raising even tighter than this might be the best course of action. 

Now, granted, A8-suited is not far from that list of hands. But choosing to open-raise to 5x the size of the straddle means that you are risking a lot to win a little. This puts a large amount of mathematical pressure on him to win the pot at a very high frequency.

He is risking $500 to win $675, meaning that he needs to win the pot >74% of the time to profit. This is extremely improbable to happen with A8-suited over the long term no matter what kind of postflop edge you have over the other players.

Andy has a very strong preflop hand with Ad Qc, and a 3-bet is probably going to be slightly profitable in theory. I am saying slightly because Rampage should be open-raising an extremely tight range to begin with.

In practice, given that we see this A8-suited from Rampage, 3-betting with Ace-Queen offsuit is going to be highly lucrative. His 3-bet size is a good choice, putting enough pressure on Rampage’s range while still forcing him to continue with some weaker hands.

Nik Airball makes an extremely loose call here. It certainly has a very negative expectation given that he is likely up against extremely strong ranges to begin with. If you couple that with his horrible pot odds and the fact that Rampage can still 4-bet behind him, then it’s a recipe for a bad outcome.

Flop Action

The flop comes Kh 9h 4h. The pot is $4,600.

Rampage checks. Andy bets $1,700. Nik raises to $5,000. Rampage 3-bets to $13,000. Andy folds. Nik calls.

Flop Analysis

An action flop gives Rampage the nut flush and Nik a small flush.

Rampage makes a standard check to the preflop raiser as he doesn’t have the nut or range advantage on this type of flop.

Andy should be looking to check with his entire range in this spot. This is due to being out of position against Nik’s highly condensed range and Rampage’s uncapped range (i.e. Rampage can have a good amount of flushes in his range).

Firing a c-bet here likely has a lower expected value (EV) than checking, and it might even be -EV given that he has very little equity against the range that calls.

Nik’s raise is fine; he has an extremely strong hand. I do, however, think that keeping the pot smaller with such a low flush, especially multiway, is a better course of action. While the hand might be alluringly strong on the flop, it shrivels up as a lot of money gets put into the pot.

Rampage’s 3-bet is fine too, but it’s hard to say if it’s better than calling. If he was in position, it would be easy to argue for a call as he would get to decide the size of the pot on the turn. But since he is out of position, raising and taking charge of the pot seems like a good option with the nut flush.

He could perceivably balance this range out by also 3-betting with some hands like Ah Qx, for example. His 3-bet size is good. In theory, he wants to be able to spread the betting out across 3 streets so that he gets to deny the most amount of equity possible. Raising to a small size allows him to do that.

Andy’s decision to fold is straightforward here with nothing.

Back to Nik, who has an easy decision to call with his flopped flush. Folding the flush here would be too presumptuous, though he should recognize that Rampage is representing a stronger flush and proceed with caution on future streets.

Turn Action

The turn comes the Td, making the board Kh 9h 4h Td. The pot is $32,300.

Rampage checks. Nik checks back.

Turn Analysis

A turn that is better for Nik as Rampage’s probable bluffs have not been completed.

Given that most of his range is either the nuts or blocking the nuts, Rampage should continue with the aggression, building the pot so he can win Nik’s entire stack. With a nice $14,000-$15,000 bet, he is setting up for a pot-sized shove on the river, which would close to maximize both his value and the amount of equity that his bluffs would deny.

Checking here is a mistake given that Nik almost certainly has a flush or a flopped set himself. If Rampage checks and Nik checks back, then he will allow Nik to sometimes hit a full house and cooler him, or have the 4th heart roll off and kill the action. 

Nik’s check-back is the perfect decision here as he has a pure bluff-catcher at this point given the action on the flop. Betting wouldn’t accomplish much of anything since Rampage either has him beat or is drawing to beat him. But he can easily get away on the river 4-flush, for example.

There’s a small caveat here: Nik could potentially make a small bet here, something like 20-25% of the pot, giving Rampage direct odds if he has the Ah. This move could manipulate Rampage into playing his range “face up” — check-calling with his nut flush draws and check-raising with his slow-played nut flushes.

River Action

The river comes the 5d, making the board Kh 9h 4h Td 5d. The pot is $32,300.

Rampage bets $55,000.

River Analysis

All draws miss, which means that Rampage most likely has either a slow-played nut flush or a missed nut flush draw.

He should not only be over-betting in this “nuts or nothing” scenario, he should be going all-in. This way he gets to maximize the amount of bluffs that can “win the pot” (in GTO if you bet with a perfectly balanced range, all those bluffs are considered to have won the pot, as there is no edge to be gained by pure bluff-catchers).

Nik has one question to ask himself: Is Rampage going to bet this size more than 39% of the time with a bluff? (calculation based off of the pot odds offered to him by Rampage – 55000/(55000×2+32300).

If he wants to go with the more theoretically based strategy, then he could consider what his range is and defend a certain percentage of it in order to deny Rampage a profitable bluff.

In this case, he’d need to defend with (1 – 55000/87300 =) 37% of his range. This calculation is obviously impossible to make in real-time, in a spot that never happens more than once in his life (after cold-calling a 3-bet from the Cutoff straddle).

Results

Nik Airball calls and gets the bad news. Rampage scoops the $142,300 pot.

Do you think Nik Airball made a good or bad call on the river?

Let me know in the comments below.

Different blind structures make for interesting, unique scenarios and it’s awesome to see them play out in real-time. This type of straddle changes the game dynamic similar to how changing the starting position of the pieces in chess (such as in a Fischer random game) changes the entire dynamic.

That’s all for this article! I hope you enjoyed it and that you learned from it! 

Want more poker hand analysis? Check out Flopped Quads vs LLinusLLove ($194,718 Pot Analysis).

Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!

The post Flush vs Flush! Rampage Flops The Nuts vs Nik Airball (Analysis) appeared first on Upswing Poker.

The post Doug Polk’s Bold Bluff Versus a Top Pro’s Pocket Aces appeared first on Upswing Poker.

Straight Flush Draw vs Daniel Negreanu ($100,000 Duel Hand Analysis)

Doug and his longtime heads-up coach Fabian Adler have been working on a new course called The End Boss System for the last few months.

The End Boss System is literally guaranteed to be a game-changer for you. The course focuses on heads-up strategy, but the concepts and mechanics you learn will help you succeed in any No Limit Hold'em game type.

Join The End Boss System waiting list for free!

As we approach the October 9th launch of The End Boss System, Doug is releasing in-depth hand analyses videos every Friday, starting with this hand he played against Daniel Negreanu in a $100k buy-in Heads-Up Duel (basically a deep stacked sit and go).

Note: If you'd prefer watching to reading, check out Doug's video above.

Preflop

The blinds are 200/400. Doug starts the hand with 93,600 chips in his stack and Daniel has him covered with 106,400.

Doug raises to 1,000 with 5c 4c. Daniel 3-bets to 4,000 with As Jd. Doug calls.

Expand Read Doug's Preflop Analysis

Doug's Preflop Analysis

Quick note on preflop sizing: I make it 1,000 to go. If you wanna get really precise, as stacks get deeper you want to increase your raise size on the Button.

It's possible that the correct raise size here would be more like 1,100. As you get closer to 60k (150bb) or 50k (125bb) stacks, it might move down to 900. When you get under that, you might even go smaller than that.

But the point is, this is roughly the right raise size. You don't have to be super-down-to-the-chip-accurate. But I want you to know that as you get deeper, you do open to a larger size on the Button.

Negreanu makes it 4,000 to go. This is actually just a little bit too big.

The opposite thing happens when you're in the Big Blind [and out of position]. You want to make your raises smaller as you get deeper. I know that is against conventional logic, which was "as you get deeper you want to cut down on their implied odds [by raising bigger]."

But what's more important is that as you get deeper, the [in position player] just wins more money. So, you want to keep the pot smaller rather than trying to prevent hands from seeing flops. It's just what the math [dictates in this spot].

Negreanu's size isn't crazy big, but I'd like to see the size be slightly smaller here.

Ace-Jack offsuit in this situation is not a hand that will always 3-bet. Let's take a look at some 3-betting ranges for heads-up.

The more yellow a hand is, the more it 3-bets. You can see the exact 3-bet frequency for each hand in the bottom right corner of each cell. For example, AJo shows "0.6" which means it should be 3-bet 60% of the time.

This chart shows what an optimal 3-bet range would look like around these stack sizes.

You can see that Ace-Jack offsuit is only 3-betting 0.6, that means 60% of the time. So, Negreanu actually will just call preflop with Ace-Jack offsuit more than you might assume.

As a quick note, at 100bb stacks, Negreanu would always 3-bet this hand. But as you get deeper, these offsuit broadway hands perform worse. They tend to flat more, they do worse versus 4-bet.

Essentially, on this stack size, Negreanu should mix in calls, but mainly 3-bet.

Over to my call versus this 3-bet. This chart is how I should respond to an optimally-sized 3-bet (I should actually respond a bit tighter because Negreanu used a bigger size):

The more yellow a hand is, the more it calls. You can see the exact call frequency for each hand in the bottom right corner of each cell. For example, 54s shows "0.79" which means it should call 79% of the time.

Five-Four suited is mainly calling versus the 3-bet -- 79% of the time you're going to call. It actually 4-bets 21% of the time.

As you get deeper, these [suited connectors] make nice 4-bets because your playability improves. You get some nice boards to be able to barrel. Your equity versus the high pairs, with a hand like Five-Four suited, is better than a hand like Queen-Jack or something like that.

I think I 4-bet something like a quarter of the time in-game. I can't remember exactly.

So, this hand gets in there every now and then with a 4-bet, but it mainly just calls, which is what we do. Let's take a flop.

Note: The End Boss System will include preflop charts for every heads-up situation at 100bb, 200bb, 300bb and 400bb stacks. There are different sets of charts for each raise size, so you'll be prepared to respond to any open size, 3-bet size and 4-bet size.

Flop

The flop falls Ad 7c 3c with 8,000 in the pot.

Daniel bets 4,000. Doug raises to 12,000. Daniel calls.

Expand Read Doug's Flop Analysis

Doug's Flop Analysis

Daniel decides to bet half pot with his top pair good kicker. I want to talk about a couple of things on the flop.

I play a single size strategy on the flop -- which means I have one specific size I will use when I choose to bet the flop. I think Daniel does the same, but I'm not sure. So, we're going to approach [this analysis] from the perspective of using an optimal, single size.

If you're using an optimal single size, Daniel's size of half pot is not a very great size. The reason is that it's simply too big to allow you to value bet with hands like Kings, Queens, and Jacks.

If we look at the total value of this strategy [in PioSolver], the out of position player's pot share would be 4660 chips when they use the big size.

And if you use a small size, like I'm recommending something like 22% pot, the value is 4710 chips. So, basically you make about 50 chips more [on average] by using the smaller size strategy.

*You can see Doug compare these values in the video analysis for this street*

It's not the end of the world. You can definitely use either one. But one of the things I like about the small size, the 22% pot rather than the 50% pot, is this is what the flop c-bet range looks like for Daniel if he uses the size he used...

Salmon = Bet half pot | Green = Check

...and this is what it looks like if he just does the 22% pot size.

Salmon = Bet 22% pot | Green = Check

Basically, if you go small, like I'm recommending, not only do you make more money, but you also can just bet every single hand and there's nothing that Button can really do about it

It is a much easier strategy to play and is a higher value strategy to play. I would strongly recommend doing this over what Daniel did here on the flop.

Going back to Daniel's size that he did use Ace Jack would quite often be betting here, but it would do a check about 20%, 25%, 30% of the time depending on the combo.

You can see the ones like Ace-Jack with a Jack clubs actually check almost half the time, whereas the ones with no club are a little more likely just to bet and get some value.

Also, when you have a diamond, you're a little less likely to bet because you block some backdoor flush draw hands that would call. So, Ace-Jack with the Jack of Diamonds doesn't like betting as much as Ace-Jack with the Jack of hearts.

I know it seems kind of nitpicky and not that important, but these small differences between these hands are actually something that matter when you're creating your strategy.

If you're going to try and play poker at a really high level, you want to be thinking about blocker and unblocker effects as you go through a hand.

Anyway, one thing that Daniel successfully did here was he kind of knocked me off of playing a correct strategy. All of the work that I've done on boards like this assumes that your opponent is going to bet a really small size, which Daniel did not do. He bet half pot.

Because of [Daniel's bigger size], the Button does almost no raising. If we look here, when I decided to raise to 12,000 on the flop, basically I don't have almost any raises. In fact, I would only be raising 1.4% of the time.

Typically speaking, when raise frequency gets below 2 or 3%, you don't really lose that much by never having raises at all. And that's definitely what I would recommend to do here.

If I look at 5c 4c, specifically, it would always call. If we look at the EV of raising versus calling -- they're very, very similar. [Calling has a value of 11903 chips whereas raising has a value of 11851 chips.]

But the point of the matter is when sizes get big on flops like this, your opponent is much more polar. It makes way less sense for you to be raising.

So, I do think my raise on the flop, while very close, is a mistake.

I want to show you guys why I did what I did, though.

If your opponent bets the small size and we look at what you're supposed to do...

Salmon = Raise 3x | Green = Call | Blue = Fold

...you do lots of raising. The idea is that you can't let your opponent bet really small and knock you off a bunch of equity. You need to fight back, get value, get your bluffs in and work all these ranges together.

Versus the small bet, Five-Four of clubs will raise about a fourth of the time:

So, there's a good principle here that I use, which is that this hand does fit into a raising strategy.

But I did miss the main strategic concept, which is that as that flop size from your opponent gets bigger, you should respond by never raising.

This is going to make the rest of the hand a little bit weird because we're out in the wilderness in a line that shouldn't really happen.

Anyway, back to the hand, I raised a 12,000 and now over to Negreanu. What should he do facing this raise?

He actually does do a good chunk of 3-betting on the flop:

Salmon = 3-bet | Green = Call | Blue = Fold

The strong Aces like 3-betting, as do [the sets with] Pocket Sevens and Threes. (Note that this matrix is not proportional to weight. This is just giving you an idea of what the strategy should be.)

So, basically if Negreanu has any Ace, he's going to at least call. If he has a pocket pair, the strong pairs are more likely to call. The weaker pairs are more likely to do some folding -- like Eights, Nines, Tens. The stronger Aces are more likely to just call.

So, Ace Jack here actually do some 3-betting, but only when you have the Jack of clubs. I don't mind just never doing this and only calling [with all Ace-Jacks], but I do think as you get closer to Ace-Queen, Ace-King, you have to put some uncomfortable 3-bets in on the flop.

Anyway, Daniel does decide to just call. Let's take a turn.

Turn

The turn is the (Ad 3c) Ks. There's 32,000 in the pot and Doug has 77,600 behind.

Daniel checks with his As Jd. Doug bets 21,000 with his 5c 4c. Daniel calls.

Expand Read Doug's Turn Analysis

Doug's Turn Analysis

Negreanu checks as he should with all of his hands in this spot.

This is what my bet range should look like:

I put in some various sizes so you can see what size is optimal to use. I went for a geometric pot bet -- so I bet 21k (roughly two thirds pot) trying to setup [a shove on the river for] roughly the same percentage of the pot.

As you can see, the solver would only really use that. So, I feel quite good about my size here.

As for my hand, 5c 4c -- and I felt this end game -- it feels a bit awkward because if I bet five four of clubs and get jammed on, it is a complete disaster for my hand.

Because of that I felt like maybe I should do some checking. I forget in the moment if I did all bet or randomized -- I assume I randomized some check backs. But you want to be a little bit more polarized when you do bet the turn. It doesn't feel like it's that bad for you if you bet 9c 6c, for example, and get jammed on. You're okay to bet-fold that.

But with 5c 4c, bet-folding is a complete disaster for your hand. You're almost priced in to have to call, but it will be quite close.

Because of this, the solver does not bet when it has 5c 4c even though it's a very strong holding.

If we want to break down the EV difference, it's kind of similar to the flop. Betting and checking not too far off from one another. The bet value is 1609, the check value 1644. But it is a mistake. It's a little bit better to be checking here than it is to bet because you do not want to have to bet-fold your equity.

So, when we look at other kinds of hands that like betting, we can see if we decided to raise the flop with some Ace-Queens, those will bet the turn when we don't have a club. If we have Ace-Seven or a set, those hands are pure barreling to turn -- at least sets are to try and get value.

We can see some other bluffs here. The main hands to think about in this spot are the Five-Three suited hands are going to be nice bluffs. You raise those and barrel because you block two pair and sets. And then some of these straight draws hands are getting in there as well. Pocket Fours is making it in there as well. And then of course your value.

Very, very slim range here because we do not have flop raises. So take this with a grain of salt.

Over to Daniel with Ace-Jack on the turn. He really doesn't do anything here other than call:

Dark Salmon = Raise All-In | Salmon = Raise | Green = Call | Blue = Fold

There's no frequency of raising with Ace-Jack, but sometimes Ace-Queen and Ace-King will raise, particularly Ace King when you do not have a club.

Some Pocket Kings always raises the turn with the idea being you want to try and get value and prevent your opponent from realizing their equity. Kings with the club likes to raise all in. If you have Kc Kd -- I don't want to get into suit combos too specifically.

But you can see in the solver that basically there is a good chunk of check-raising. About 8% of hands going for check-raise here.

Ultimately an Negreanu decides just to go for the check-call, which he should always be doing with Ace-Jack. And let's take a river.

River

The 2c on the river completes a board of Ad 7c 3c Ks 2c. There's 74,000 in the pot.

Daniel checks. Doug goes all-in for 56,600.

Let's go ahead and see what he does.

Expand Read Doug's River Analysis

Doug's River Analysis

The river comes the beautiful 2c. We have hit our flush, although the offsuit deuce would've been slightly better, a little more disguised, either way we have gotten there.

Daniel checks over to us. Not too much to really talk about here. If we do have 5c 4c, we're pure jamming.

I guess the question might be what would be the thinnest that we go for value? Some pretty weird stuff starts to happen here because we can have flushes so often. Even hands like sets are going to do a chunk of checking back here. This kind of boils down to us having such a specific range that's able to raise this big on the flop and barrel to turn.

But basically flushes and some sets are able to go for value. Pocket Threes, a little bit of Sevens, but more or less you're going to be a flush or nothing when you decide to jam here.

The bluffs are going to be hands that raise with a club, but you have almost none of those. Guys, when ranges get this specific, it's not even really worth going into because, basically, this hand is off the rails because of my flop raise.

If you are going to have raises on the flop, this is why you need to have some bluffs in there -- [so you can have bluffs on rivers like this]. Like if you did have Jx Tx with a club, sometimes that needs to bet the turn so that you're able to jam when the river is a club.

This is why it's important to construct a range as well on earlier streets and why you should not take lines that have very, very few hands in them because it will be very hard to be balanced.

I really don't even think it's possible I could be balanced here. I don't think I would look to raise many of these hands versus the flop size. I think I'm just basically exploitable value heavy here and I don't entirely know what I can do about it other than not raise the flop.

Anyway, back over to Negreanu. A difficult situation for him for sure, but when he has Ace-Jack, no club, he basically always folds.

The solver will once no blue moon go for the call.

I think exploitably, your opponent really has to have some bluffs that they prepared here, like a club in their hand just to get to barrel off.

I have definitely had some hands like that even versus Daniel. I can think of one in a 4-bet pot where I raised a two club flop with just the Kc and I just barreled off when the club got there on the river.

But the point of the matter is you got to be playing a pretty sick animal to even debate calling here without a club. I just don't think there are enough hands that could really make sense to bluff with and you really have to prepare for that on earlier street.

So, I do think that check-folding on the river is the best play for Daniel.

Results

Expand See Results

Daniel makes a nice fold with his As Jd and Doug scoops the 74,000 chip pot.

While that did put Doug into the lead, he eventually went on to lose the match several blind levels later.

Check out the next hand analysis video from Doug here!

And be sure to join the waiting list for The End Boss System if you want to take your poker game to a higher level on October 9th.

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Mike Brady|Poker Strategy|Sep 15, 2023

Mike Brady|Poker Strategy|Sep 15, 2023

Home > Archives for Mike Brady

About the Author

Mike Brady

I used to play a ton of poker. Now, I'm the Vice President of Upswing Poker and only play a decent amount of poker. Read my full bio here.

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The post Straight Flush Draw vs Daniel Negreanu ($100,000 Duel Hand Analysis) appeared first on Upswing Poker.

Two of the world’s best poker pros have combined forces to create the ultimate course for players who want to final table and win more tournaments.

It’s called Road to Victory and it reveals the strategies that Darren Elias and Nick Petrangelo use to navigate from the first hand to the final table.

Darren and Nick have combined for $40 million in live tournament earnings and around $20 million online.

Darren has a record 4 World Poker Tour titles and is a master of exploitative tournament strategy, while Nick is a Super High Roller regular who is a master of equilibrium strategies.

You get the best of both worlds as the two longtime friends reveal their winning strategies in this course. Expect an emphasis on practical strategies that work against real-life opponents.

Road to Victory: The Ultimate Tournament Course is out now. Get it right here if you want to take your tournament game to a high level with guidance from the best.

Darren and Nick have been working hard on this course and its extensive preflop charts for many months, and that hard work shines through.

Here’s a look at what’s inside Road to Victory, including 2 sneak peek videos at the bottom of this article.

What’s Inside Road to Victory?

The course comes with 27+ hours of video training content divided into 7 sections, most of which follow the Tournament Journey from the Early Stages to the Final Table:

1. Darren’s Approach
   Darren breaks down the 5 player types that are regularly referenced throughout the course and provides general tips and mindset advice.
2. Exploitative Ideas
   Learn 7 hyper-specific exploitative strategies which Darren has used for many years of his wildly successful career.
3. Early Stage
   Your walk through the Tournament Journey begins with an extensive section on playing the Early Stages, when stacks are deep and weak players are in abundance.
4. Intermediate Stage
   The key strategic concepts for when re-entry has closed and around half the starting field remains.
5. Bubble Stages (Soft Bubble and Hard Bubble)
   Discover how to set yourself up for a deep run and/or survive to lock up some cash (depending on your stack).
6. In The Money
   Learn how to adapt to the stacks at your table and make that key push to reach the final table.
7. The Final Table (Including Heads-Up Play)
   Lock-in, ladder up, and close the deal. This section is highlighted by an incredible series in which Nick and Darren review every hand from a massive online final table, which Darren won for $448,842.

Now, have a look at the extensive tournament preflop charts the fellas included.

Road to Victory Preflop Mastersheet

Nick and Darren included over 250 solver-generated, hand-adjusted preflop charts so you know exactly how to navigate any common preflop situation.

The upgraded Preflop Mastersheet covers the following situations at 6 different stack depths (100BB, 50BB, 30BB, 25BB, 20BB, 15BB):

• Raising First In (RFI)
• Big Blind Defense
• Blind vs Blind
• Vs RFI
• Vs 3-Bet for 30BB+
• Squeezing for 30BB+

This custom-built tool is easy to use and has a bunch of features that make it easy to extract the value for your own game.

Darren’s Exploitative Ranges

As a master of exploitative play in large-field tournaments, Darren Elias is uniquely qualified to provide special preflop charts that will help you adjust your strategy like a top pro.

There are a total of 50 Exploitative Ranges. Most show you how Darren plays versus different player types in different situations, while some show you what Darren estimates different player types are doing.

The Exploitative Ranges cover a variety of spots, such as playing versus limpers and cold-calling 3-bets versus relatively weak players. You’re sure to get value from these charts and Darren’s explanation for each throughout his videos.

What’s Inside The Victory Vault?

The Victory Vault is a 4-hour hand review based course also made by Darren and Nick. Members of Road to Victory get a special $200 discount on this course.

All hands were sent in by Upswing Poker tournament members. Here’s a list of the videos (which include two blooper reels to prove these guys are actually humans and not perfect poker playing robots):

• Early $109 Ignition Hand
• Early $55 Global Hand vs Good Reg
• Early $109 Stars Hand vs Streamer
• Bubble $250 Stars MI/NJ Hand
• Intermediate $1,700 WSOPC Hand
• In The Money $1,600 Venetian Hand vs Loose Recreational
• Intermediate $1,100 MSPT Event vs Table Chipleader
• Deep In The Money $1,100 WPT Event
• Hard Bubble Hand in Medium-Sized Tournament
• Early $15 Online Tournament: To Bluff-Catch or Not?
• Intermediate $55 Online Tournament: Fold Aces?
• Hard Bubble $1,500 Small Field Tournament
• Fiji vs Poland Spring (Blooper Reel)
• You’re Gonna Hurt Yourself (Blooper Reel)

Sneak Peek Videos

The following 8-minute clip was taken from the Dealing with Limpers video in the Early Stages section of the course. This gives you a good idea of the presentation style of much of the course content:

Video not loading? Click here to watch it on YouTube

And here’s a short clip from the GG Millions Final Table review, in which Darren and Nick review every hand from a final table that Darren went on to win for $448K.

Video not loading? Click here to watch it on YouTube

Road to Victory FAQ

Q. How much does the course cost?

Road to Victory costs $999 for lifetime access. Darren and Nick’s Victory Vault course costs $399, but you can get $200 off if you sign up for Road to Victory. Just purchase Road to Victory and you’ll have a chance to add the Victory Vault afterwards with your exclusive $200 discount.

Q. Is there a members-only group?

Yes. All members get access to a private Facebook group, where you can ask questions and discuss the course content with fellow tournament players. Note that Darren does not have Facebook, but he will be recording Q&A videos to answer questions posed by members in the group.

Q. Is the course appropriate for new players?

Players at all skill levels will benefit greatly from Road to Victory. Several advanced players were part of the beta testing period, and they consistently praised the course as high value. Due to Darren’s easy-to-understand presentation style, beginners will be able to extract a lot of that value too.

Q. What is the difference between this course and Nick’s previous tournament course?

Nick’s previous course, Winning Poker Tournaments, had a heavy focus on equilibrium, solver-based strategies. Those key strategies are not neglected in this course, but Road to Victory puts greater emphasis on practical strategies that win versus the players you actually play against in most tournaments. There’s also the upgraded Preflop Mastersheet 2.0 browser app with updated ranges.

You’re ready to start winning more poker tournaments, right?

Learn More About Road to Victory Here >>

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