An overcall occurs when there is already a bet and a call in front of you. You really need to put the brakes on in this situation before you throw more money into the pot. Realize a couple things here, you now must beat two hands and while the original bettor might be bluffing, a [...]

When the pot is small you need to tighten up because there isn’t much to gain by playing loose. If anything, it will be you who contributes most of the money into a pot with one or two opponents, which will add up over time. You need to be much more confident that you have [...]

Let’s continue with the theme from yesterday, head’s up on the river. But now we will look at it from each side of the coin. Obviously you want to act last here, as you would on any other street. If you are in the fortunate position of acting last you can decide how to proceed [...]

When it gets down to the river and you have one opponent across the table from you, you can be sure they have some kind of hand, unless they’re bluffing. This isn’t likely to happen in a hold’em game all the way to the river though. Look at the board and identify any draws or [...]

Before the river card falls you give a lot of consideration to the possibilities for you and your opponents based on an unseen card and the chance of that card to improve your chances. Once the river card is dealt, it is what it is. After the river card is dealt your hand only has [...]

Inducing bluffs is a version of the slow play. You check when you find yourself in a pot with an aggressive player who you know will bet if you check to him. Do this when you have a strong hand on the flop or river. To consider this move a number of things will have [...]

Because checking and calling is rarely correct hold’em strategy, you usually don’t want to give a free card. If there is any amount of money in the pot you will usually prefer to win it right away, unless you have a monster hand (nut flush, full house and up). If you give someone a free [...]

The number of opponents you have on the turn is another factor you should consider in your strategy. If you are head’s-up you can use more tricks, like bluffing, slowplaying, semi-bluffing and inducing bluffs. When the hand has many people involved you want to pull back on the fancy play and play straightforward.
You should not [...]