DECISION POINT: You are in a 100 BB deep cash game against tough opponents. The action folds to you in the Cutoff with Q♣Q♥ and you raise to 3 big blinds. The Button and Small Blind both fold and the Big Blind calls. Your opponent checks the K♠8♣J♠ flop and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: This hand comes from the WPT GTO Trainer and involves a cash game scenario where we are 100 BBs deep and it folds to us in the Cutoff with pocket queens. We raise to 3 BBs and it is folds to the Big Blind who flat calls and we’re off to the flop.

The flop is Ks8cJs and the Big Blind checks to us. Since this is a GTO opponent (all opponents in the WPT GTO trainer play game theory optimal ”perfect” poker) we know that they will be appropriately defending against what is a very wide Cutoff opening hand range.

One of the first questions we want to ask when deciding if we should bet the flop with a made hand is “how many streets of value is our hand worth?” In this particular case even with us opening a wide hand range and our opponent defending with a very wide range, if money goes into the pot on all three streets it is very unlikely that second pair to the board is the best hand.

Another question we want to ask is “does our hand benefit from equity denial here?”. While there are some obvious draws on this board, we are unlikely to fold out any flush draws and we block all the straight draws with our queens even if we choose to bet.

We would potentially fold out some ace high hands that could improve on the turn, however in this spot a GTO opponent may continue with even ace high. In this situation our particular holding doesn’t benefit much from equity denial and it is not strong enough to bet, so we really don’t want to start building a huge pot.

This hand is an excellent candidate to balance our checking range and induce some value from hands like Jx or 98s or even induce bluffs from a GTO opponent. Keep in mind that against some “real world” opponents who are either very loose/passive or extremely fit or fold postflop, taking a more exploitative line here by betting the flop may be more profitable than checking.

However, against a GTO tough opponent though who may be capable of check-raising us with a variety of bluffs and backdoor draws, checking here to keep the pot small and get to a controlled showdown versus a wide range is the most profitable play.

Checking is the best play.

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All of the big prizes and money in a Tournament are at the Final Table. Whether it is your local daily or a WPT Main Event, understanding the unique strategy adjustments for Final Table play is vital to finishing strong.

Are you prepared to put pressure on a short stack and do you know how to respond when the pressure is on you?

Do you consider ICM (the estimated dollar worth of a stack size) and how to adjust when there are pay jumps?

We are excited to announce the brand-new WPT GTO Final Table Play scenarios to help better prepare you to make the most of your next Final Table!

Members can click "What you would like to train today?", select the Final Table Play filter, and choose from the list of available scenarios to start training.

Review the payout structure before you begin by clicking the Payouts link. These numbers represent the percentage of the prize pool for each place.

Click START NEW SESSION and begin! Practice these new simulated Final Table situations to gain valuable experience, be better prepared, and have the advantage the next time you are in position to win.

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Your goal is to select the action for each individual hand that is as close to 0.00 EV as possible.

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For most players the middle pocket pairs (eights through tens) are some of the trickiest hands to play.

When playing middle pairs, your position and the number of opponents in the pot should significantly influence your decision-making.

Accurately putting your opponent on hand ranges is also extremely important for taking down pots with middle pocket pairs.

Put your decision-making skills to the test against our Pros with the following scenarios and be ready to make the best decision possible the next time you look down at a middle pocket pair:

• 9♥9♣ on the Turn
• T♠T♣ on the Button
• 9♥9♦ Multiway on the Flop
• Late in a Tournament with T♠T♣
• 8♣8♦ Facing a Preflop Raise
• T♠T♦ Facing a Check-Raise

Deliberate application of key concepts at the table and consistent practice of your decision-making skills is essential for success in No-Limit Hold’em.

Remember… Amateurs play, Pros practice!

That’s why we ask that you read these scenarios and keep practicing… even if you don’t always agree with our analysis.

See you online,
-LearnWPT

P.S. A Membership with LearnWPT is the easiest way to add more levels of complexity and nuance to your game PLUS members have access to 300+ scenarios like this to practice!

DECISION POINT: In a live $1-3 game with a $6 Under The Gun straddle, the UTG+1 player calls and it folds to you in the Hijack. You raise to $25 with A♠A♥. The Button and UTG call and UTG+1 folds. UTG checks the 3♠3♦5♣ flop and you bet $35. The Button folds and UTG check-raises to $70. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are dealt pocket aces in the Hijack seat in a $1-3 cash game with a $6 straddle from under the gun. UTG+1 calls the straddle and it is folds to us. In this spot it is standard to make it 3x the straddle amount plus the call amount, or $24.

In most common live games players in the UTG straddler tends to be “stickier” than other players. Making an UTG straddle is a bad play, and people do it to either create action or gamble. Because of those reasons the likelihood of UTG folding goes down significantly. In addition, if we make our raise too small the UTG+1 player is likely to call as well, and taking a multiway pot with pocket aces isn’t what we want to do. This is a spot where we should probably make it $30+ but in the moment we elect to bet $25 instead and get called by both the Button and the UTG straddler.

The flop is 3s3d5c and is one of the better flops for us that doesn’t contain an ace. UTG checks and action is on us. Given the dryness of the board and how our hand performs versus our opponent’s ranges, we don’t need to bet very big here. Something in the neighborhood of 35-40% of the pot is perfectly fine, especially given that the stack to pot ratio (SPR) is around 3. The Button folds and the original straddler min-raises to $70.

This is a spot where some players often see monsters under the bed. The very small raise does make it less likely that our opponent is bluffing, since they can reasonably expect us to call with most of our range. That being said, their range here is much wider than just 3x/55. Our opponent could easily have other overpairs, or could be setting up a big turn semi-bluff with a hand like A2s/A4s/46s/76s. Villain could also be overvaluing a hand like 77/88 or even A5s in this spot. Sometimes our opponent will have 55/3x and we will be crushed.

When we consider all the hands UTG's range we are way ahead, especially once we factor in that our opponent is straddling UTG preflop. Straddling from UTG is a very negative expectation play typically used by people who are looking for action rather than a tight aggressive strategy.

Given the overall wide range UTG can have in this spot and our position, if we move all-in now it gives our opponent the opportunity to get away from some of their semi-bluffs and even A5s type hands fairly easily. If we proceed by calling we give UTG additional opportunities to pot commit themselves on future streets with bluffs and worse value hands, which is very good for us.

Calling is the best play.

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DECISION POINT: In a Tournament where blinds are 500/1,000 it folds to you in the Cutoff. You minraise with K♦8♦ to 2,000 and it folds to Big Blind who calls. Big Blind checks the 2♠K♣7♠ flop, you continuation bet, and Villain calls. The 9♠ turn is checked. The K♥ comes on the river giving you trips and BB check-raises. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: In a multi-table tournament at 500/1,000 blinds we are dealt K8s in the Cutoff seat. It folds around to us and we make a standard raise for this point in the tournament to 2,000 and the Big Blind is the only caller. Even though we only raised to the minimum amount preflop, often in the mid/late stages of tournaments this small of a raise size is more than enough to put our opponents to meaningful decisions and skew the risk vs reward heavily in our favor, allowing us to steal more often and play more hands.

The flop is 2sKc7s and the Big Blind checks to us. This is a relatively dry flop and we have a massive range advantage in this spot as the preflop raiser. Given both of these factors we should continuation bet and favor a smaller bet size. We choose to make it 2,000 and our opponent calls.

The turn is the 9s. This is actually a close decision for us. Our opponent could reasonably have called on the flop with a flush draw, but they could also have any pair as well as ace high. Many of those are hands that we beat that will fold if we bet again, making it tough for us to get additional value out of our hand.

On the other hand we don’t want our opponent to get a free card with any of the random hands containing only 1 they could have in their range. If the pot were much bigger in relation to our stacks, we could make a better case that equity denial is more important than extracting some additional value in this spot. We decide to check in order to induce some bluffs from our opponent on the river as well as get some value out of some 2x/7x hands (or hands like 55 or ace high) on the river.

The river is the Kh and our opponent checks to us. Given the action so far it is difficult to put our opponent on a big hand. We have to figure most flushes or Kx hands would bet this river given the action thus far, so we’re really targeting 7x/2x/55/Ax type hands if we decide to bet. Given those target hands are all relatively weak, a smaller bet sizing seems reasonable. We elect to go with 2,000 which may be a little too small as most players who will call 2,000 here will likely call a bet as large as like 3,000-3,500 as well. Our opponent raises to 5,000.

This is one of those spots where game theory would say to call 100% of the time with our hand. We only need to have the best hand 16% of the time and our line in this spot somewhat caps our hand range, making it harder for us to have a strong hand.

If our opponent believes we have a capped range, they should be bluffing some percentage of the time which makes this a fairly trivial call. In the real world we will run into opponents who simply never check-raise bluff the river and we are ahead here very close to 0% of the time.

The price we are getting to make this call is simply too good given the strength of our hand. If we had an opponent specific read then we could perhaps make an exploitative lay-down here. Absent that information we are simply too strong to fold.

Calling is the best play.

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LearnWPT Instructor Tony Dunst recently faced a tough river spot against two time WPT Champion J.C. Tran at a $3500 buy-in event at Thunder Valley Casino.

Check out Tony's blog where he breaks exactly what he was thinking during this heads up battle against a fellow WPT Champion.

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DECISION POINT: In a Tournament where blinds are 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 big blind ante, it folds to the Hijack who pushes all-in for 13BB. The Cutoff and the Button both fold. You have 8♠8♣ in the Small Blind with a 32BB stack and action is on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: In a Tournament with 2,000/4,000 blinds with a 4,000 big blind ante we are dealt pocket 8s in the Small Blind. It folds around to the Hijack who moves all-in for 52,000 chips. Action folds to us and we have a decision to make.

The first thing we want to do when facing an all-in is estimate our opponent’s hand range. In this particular spot they shoved 13 big blinds. Since most players don’t start shoving all-in until they hit around 10 big blinds, this is far more likely to be a reasonable range of hands instead of a very wide range. In addition, our opponent may not want to play with a low stack to pot ratio (SPR) postflop.

With that in mind, it is less likely, although not impossible, that our opponent has QQ/KK/AA since they would be far more likely to just raise with those hands to encourage some action.

If we put our opponent on a range of pairs 22-JJ, A2s+, ATo+, and KQ (both suited and offsuit) we are roughly 59% versus that range. With dead money in the pot it is very hard to justify passing up on nearly a 60% edge in a Tournament. Even against a range that does include the big pairs we are likely to be around a 55/45 favorite.

We could potentially fold if we had a player specific read that they are shoving much narrower here, but without that read we just have too big of an edge with additional dead money in the pot from the blinds and antes.

A shove in this spot is nearly half the Big Blind’s stack so if we continue we want to reraise all-in to maximize our leverage over the Big Blind and shut them out of the pot with big cards that have reasonable equity against us.

Moving all-in is the best play.

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Our goal for 2019 was to create new ways to help LearnWPT Members improve their poker game.

We accomplished that goal by adding new game-elevating features, advanced content, additional ways to interact more with our Pros, and more. All with the help of feedback from YOU.

Here’s a recap of the best from 2019:

Nick Binger and the Development Team spent most of 2019 creating the The WPT GTO Trainer where Members can now practice and learn Game Theory Optimal Strategies used by the world's greatest players by simply playing hands of poker.

The Community Forums were created in 2019 for Students to join in and discuss all things poker with Nick, Eric, LuckyChewy, and fellow Members.

We've also made it much easier to improve your game with our new Membership Tiers. Now you can choose the Membership to best fit your budget, schedule, and stage in your development

• Viewed 99 New Strategy Videos
• Reviewed 100 New Poker Hands
• Voted 224,335 times to Fold, Call, Check, or Raise
• Played 100+ different WPT GTO Training Packs using over 1 Billion Solved Hands
• Received 1100+ Answers to Ask a Pro Questions
• Submitted 770+ HIT Hands for Analysis
• Attended 315 Minutes of Webinars
• Downloaded 12 New Studying Tools
  
  

LearnWPT Member Sue bested a field of 1,713 to win her 1st WSOP Bracelet (and over $120K).

The World Poker Tour interviewed and featured LearnWPT Students Scott & Lisa in an article highlighting their phenomenal summer.

LearnWPT Instructors Tony Dunst and Andrew "LuckyChewy" Lichtenberger had huge 2nd place wins in 2019...

Tony added $250K to his bankroll in the Baccarat Crystal World Poker Tour Tournament of Champions and Chewy banked $917K in the WSOP 50K High Roller!

1. Episode 294: C-Betting Against Tough Opponents
2. Episode 305: Advanced First-In Hand Ranges
3. Episode 290: Equity Advantage and Nut Advantage
4. Episode 352: WPT GTO Introduction
5. Episode 287: Advanced Big Blind Defense - Cash Games

1. Q♣Q♠ vs a River All-In
2. K♠K♣ Facing a Flop Raise
3. A♦K♠ vs a Check-Raise
4. K♥K♦ vs a Donk Lead
5. A♠Q♠ Facing a 3-Bet

1. Jared 's AMA series
2. WPT Final Tables at the HyperX Esports Arena
3. Danielle's Poker After Dark Live Sessions
4. LuckyChewy Sits Down with Matt Savage
5. New LearnWPT Live Lab Day Sessions
   
   

We hosted Live Workshops in Los Angeles, Vegas, and Atlantic City which included:

• Two Advanced Cash
• Two Advanced Tournament
• One Tournament Mastery
• Two Brand-New Interactive In-Person Lab Day Experiences
• Two $3500 WPT Seats Won During Workshop Satellites
• Savings to Members of up to $600 off Live Workshops
• Attendees Winning Big and Getting Results

To all of our current, former, and future Members - THANK YOU for a great year and for being a part of LearnWPT!

The LearnWPT Development Team is hard at work on several Enhanced Features and we look forward to helping your game grow in 2020.

We'll see you online,
- LearnWPT

We know, you want it all now….

The calendar has just turned over and 2020 is gonna be your year, no matter what it takes. You’re committed to making the changes that will transform your game and your life.

• Effortless decision-making
• A dynamic game-plan that accounts for all the situations you’ll face at the table
• A calm and unshakable mental game
• And maybe even to shed a few pounds from the holidays 🍗

But we both know that in order to make a real change it takes small pieces of consistent effort over time.

We see it each January... everyone rushes to join the local gym in attempt to affect change immediately. You can barely find a parking space, let alone an open treadmill or weight machine.

Fast forward to March 1st.... you can pick any machine and park with ease! Everyone who made the big commitment to exercise and make a change is gone.

So how can YOU avoid the January rush and the March drop-off in your game? Simple, commit to a cycle of constant improvement.

It’s a fact that new habits take time to form, a little over 2 months on average (p.s. 2 months of LearnWPT will cost you only $34!).

Not sure how to do that for your poker game? Here are some suggestions to get started today:

• Choose one section of your game that you want to improve such as preflop play, and commit to memorizing hand ranges by position. Pick a hand range to try and memorize for 15 min a day then move on to the next range.
  

• Commit to work on your Mental Game. Write down exactly what you are feeling and thinking when you make a strategic mistake. Review your notes before each session to inject logic and avoid the risk of future blow-ups. Need help setting 2020 goals? Check out this free Strategy Episode from Mental Game coach, Jared Tendler.
  

• Schedule time on your calendar to study by watching Strategy Episodes on LearnWPT.com. Block out 15 mins twice a week with no distractions and watch an Episode to reinforce a strategy or to start learning a new concept.
  

• Practice strategies by playing 25 hands each day using the WPT GTO Trainer. You'll find specific leaks, narrowed down to hand categories and specific actions, by playing solved poker hands. There’s no grey area, simply play, review your Session Data, and see which leak is YOUR biggest.

Winning players train consistently to change bad habits and sharpen decision-making.

Let LearnWPT help you build the same consistency, one day at a time!

That’s what we’re here for.
-LearnWPT

PS Join LearnWPT.com now for just $5 and you'll also have the ability to Ask a Pro all of your poker questions.