Latest activity in the network
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Bankroll and Mindset
Variance and losing stretches
A run of losing sessions is an ordinary property of a game with a small edge, not a broken strategy.
2012-03-25
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Opening Ranges
Opening ranges by position
Position decides how many hands can be played profitably, because acting last is worth more than any card.
2012-03-18
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Opening Ranges
Table position and initiative
Initiative is the right to make the first statement on a street, and it survives an unimproved hand.
2012-03-11
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Postflop Play
Continuation betting on dry boards
A dry board misses most calling ranges, which is why a small bet on it does so much work.
2012-03-04
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Postflop Play
Reading bet sizing
Sizing leaks more than any mannerism, because an amount has to be chosen on every single street.
2012-02-26
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Cash Game Play
Pot odds and implied odds
Pot odds settle whether a call breaks even now; implied odds price the rest of the hand.
2012-02-19
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Tournament Play
Short stack push-or-fold play
Below fifteen big blinds the decision tree collapses to two branches, and that is the advantage.
2012-02-12
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Bankroll and Mindset
Bankroll and mindset study area opened
Variance, stake selection and the habit of reviewing a session by its decisions rather than its result.
2012-02-05
Recent dispatches
Featured discussion
Opening ranges by position
The seat a hand is dealt in constrains it more than the cards do. A player under the gun at a nine-handed table has eight opponents still to act, any one of whom may wake up with a better hand or simply decide to attack a range that looks weak. The button has two. That difference is not a detail of etiquette; it is the single largest structural advantage available in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, and opening ranges exist to price it in.
Acting last on every postflop street means seeing what everyone else does before committing chips. A marginal holding that would be difficult to play out of position becomes straightforward in position, because the decision to bet, check or fold can be made with more information than the opponent had. The practical consequence is that the same hand carries different value from different seats: a suited connector such as 7-h 6-h is close to unplayable as an early open at a full table and a comfortable raise on the button.
The other half of the argument is arithmetic. An early-position raise has to survive eight players. A button raise has to survive two. Even if every opponent played identically, the chance of running into a stronger hand falls sharply as the seats behind empty out, so the threshold a hand has to clear falls with it.