If you choose to put most of the volume of your play into tournaments instead of cash games be prepared that you’re going to have a lot more variables on your mind than at the cash tables.

Because of that, the way you should play your hand can vary drastically even within the same tournament – there may be a case where Q7 off-suit is a clear shove pre-flop, while pocket tens are an obvious fold.

This is based on a number of things – payout structure, your and your opponents’ stack sizes, and many other variables.

This a whole new set of calculations.

While cash game players only need to worry about EV (expected value), tournament players need to have ICM (independent chip model) constantly on their minds as well.

Therefore, tournament poker is an objectively more complex game than cash game poker since EV calculations are still at play for each decision but on top of that comes the ICM factor.

In this post, we’re going to look at how you can cash in more poker tournaments and the knock-on effect this can have with your overall profitability.

Poker is a very simple game. There are only 10 named poker hands. They are (in rank order)

1 – Royal Flush
2 – Straight Flush
3 – Four of a Kind
4 – Full House
5 – Flush
6 – Straight
7 – Three of a Kind
8 – Two Pair
9 – Pair
10 – High card

The player with the highest-ranked poker hand wins.

Although less well known than the more illustrious (and more expensive rivals) Holdem Manager and PokerTracker, DriveHUD has a loyal band of supporters and is an excellent entry point into the world of poker databases and HUDs.

As its name suggests Drive HUD is essentially a Heads-Up Display (HUD) driven by a database collected from the hands played by a poker player and their opponents.

For the uninitiated, a HUD has its origins in aviation. 

They were designed so a pilot would have access to critical information without having to deviate from looking forward. 

They are also becoming increasingly popular in motor vehicles.

A poker HUD relays all the on-screen information by accessing its constantly improving database of information. 

It can draw a multitude of data on your play and your opponent’s play in both cash games, Zoom (on Pokerstars), and tournament events.

Used correctly, a poker HUD can give vital information about your opponent’s style, bet frequency, tilt level and help you become a better online poker player.

A new year and a new collection of the best online poker sites for you to have a look at. If you’re sitting on a few hundred pounds, ready to deposit on a poker site and hit the tables, it seems like your choices are endless.

Luckily, the passing of the 2005 Gambling Act granted UK residents total freedom to choose to play online poker on whichever site they wish; and at the same time established a regulatory process to make sure player funds are safe.

In addition, later legislation allowed offshore companies to apply for UK licenses as well, further broadening the selection of rooms.

So everything is going well for UK gamblers – compare that to the US, where the vast majority of the states don’t even offer legal online poker. But with all the freedom comes the burden of choice.

Online poker has taken the game to the next level.

The sheer number of hands you can play has let people experience all the different situations available.

This experience has translated into big profits for some players and allowed them to excel and crush the games.

Everyone is improving more quickly and coaching/training sites have added to the trend. 

As the industry has expanded, the tools available to assist you have become more varied.

Whether you are an improving recreational, small stakes poker player or a committed online table ninja grinder, Holdem Manager 3 is arguably the most comprehensive and poker HUDs and tracking software currently on the market.

If you are a player who is familiar with the ins and outs of online poker software, you may want to skip ahead to find out the improvements introduced in this latest version of HEM. 

It will show you how the new features help you to improve your game and can maximise the number of tables you are able to play confidently.

For the rest of you, here is a brief introduction to HUDs and poker tracking software.

It will show how they are used and why no semi-serious cash game player should be risking money without one.

As you should have come to expect with Beating Betting, you will find zero bullsh** in this Holdem Manager 3 review.

We don’t beat around the bush, only providing honest facts in order to help you make an informed opinion on the best poker HUDS for you.

Bluffing – for the “layman”, it’s probably one of the first words that pop into their heads when they hear about poker. And in a certain way, they’re right to make that association.

See, bluffing is an essential tool to overrealise your equity in poker.

“Overrealising equity” is just a posh way of saying ‘win the pot more often with your hand than it would win if it went to showdown each hand’.

The Twitch Poker Twitter account recently shared this video of a player, “Cwien”, live on stream folding pocket Aces before the flop, when it is impossible that anyone has a better hand than you.

https://twitter.com/TwitchPoker/status/981908994146164736

In the footage, Cwien comments that “we made the right fold” since after the board is dealt he learns that he would have lost to a King-high straight. But we all know poker doesn’t work like that.

A fold doesn’t become “right” or “wrong” based on whether you won or lost a single pot.

A sample size of one hand is not enough if you want to be profitable over the course of thousands and thousands of hands.

But is there any time when folding the best possible hand pre-flop is actually the right move?

Poker, after hundreds of years of being played around the globe, is still changing.

The game is constantly evolving, whether it be the advancement of strategy, new game types emerging – think of short-deck hold’em, the latest fad among high stakes pros – or changes to tournament structures.

The focus of this article is going to be the last of these categories, more specifically the button ante.

Recently a new trend has swept across all of the major sites – knockout tournaments.

This fresh format puts a bounty on the head of all players, so if you knock them out you get that money instantly credited to your account. The more people you knock out, the more money you accumulate.

With this new trend comes a whole new set of variables to think about.

You need to adapt traditional strategy to accommodate this change of perspective because really, the game has changed. Let’s take a look at the main types of tournament.