blog
Nothing here yet.
This is where the English writing about our own measurements will go: what the numbers in the app turn out to mean, where the model was wrong, and what a few thousand hands actually show. There are no posts yet, so rather than a list of nothing, here is where the writing currently is.
Expected value (EV) in poker: thinking in expected value
Every decision has an average return. The EV sum, how it differs from equity, and why good calls sometimes lose.
Implied odds: when may you call anyway?
Calling a draw when the pot odds fall short, because you win extra later. When that holds, and when it is an excuse.
The rule of 2 and 4: estimating your chances fast
Outs times 4 on the flop, times 2 on the turn. How precise it is, and the correction for big draws.
Downloading your GGPoker hand history
Five steps to pull your hands out of PokerCraft and import them, plus why your opponents have a code and how many hands is enough.
The GGPoker SmartHUD explained
What VPIP, PFR, 3-bet and WTSD mean, with guide values per figure and the one number to start with.
Poker strategy for beginners: the complete roadmap
Seven steps from the rules to winning play, in the order in which they make money, each with a free lesson or tool.
Poker hand rankings: every combination from high to low
The full order with examples, the kicker rules that decide a tie, and the three thinking mistakes that cost beginners money.
What is Poker IQ?
A score for your poker decisions on a scale of 0 to 1000, the five parts behind it, and from how many hands it means something.
Calculating pot odds in 3 steps
The one sum you use every session, in three steps you can do in your head, plus the rules of thumb per bet size.
Counting outs: how to work out your chance of winning
What an out is, the rule of 2 and 4, the four counts worth memorising, and the trap of tainted outs.
What is equity? Explained with examples
Your fair share of the pot, how it works together with pot odds, and why the best hand does not always win.
Texas Hold'em rules: the complete explanation for beginners
The four betting rounds, the actions, the blinds and the showdown, plus the mistake every beginner makes on day one.
GTO poker explained in plain language
What equilibrium play really means, what a solver does, and why you are better off not starting there as a beginner.
The 5 most common leaks in NL10 cash games
Five mistakes that keep coming back at this stake, why they cost money, and an eight week schedule to fix them one by one.
Folding AKs on the bubble?
When ICM beats the chips. A worked example: +8.2 big blinds in chips, and folding is still the better decision.
The kicker in poker: how to tell who wins
The side card that decides who wins when two players have the same combination, with the five card rule and clear examples.
What is a straight in poker? The rules and the thinking mistakes
Five consecutive cards in any suits, how the ace works high and low, and the three thinking mistakes that cost pots.
All in and side pots: the rules with examples
Table stakes, how a side pot appears, who can win which pot, and what happens when several players are all in.
Poker tournament strategy for beginners: from the start to the final table
The five phases of a tournament and how your strategy changes per phase: deep and patient, the antes, push fold, the bubble and the final table.
Best poker training app: which app to learn poker suits you
Six concrete criteria to judge a training app for yourself, from plain language to leak detection, and where Pokiq stands on each.
Poker tracker on GGPoker: what is allowed and what is not
External trackers are banned on GGPoker. What is allowed, what it costs you if you ignore it, and how to improve on data anyway.
Flush vs straight: which hand wins and why
The flush always beats the straight. Why rarity sets the whole order, and how to compare two flushes or two straights.
ICM explained: why chips are not the same as money
Why tournament chips are not money, what that does to your decisions, and the three practical consequences at the table.
Position in poker: why the button is worth gold
Why deciding last earns money structurally, what the advantage delivers concretely, and the mistake that makes the blinds expensive.
Starting hands: which cards do you play and which not?
Three groups and one rule, how position widens your selection, and the expensive myth of the pretty face cards.
Thinking in ranges instead of hands
Why nobody can guess one hand, how a range narrows street by street, and what that changes about every decision.
Push fold: charts for short stacks
Below ten big blinds you have two buttons left. How to read a push fold chart, and why calling a push is a different story.
Folding is winning: when do you throw it away?
The arithmetic behind a good fold, the signals that you are beaten, and the trap of money that is already in the pot.
Bubble strategy in a poker tournament: surviving and profiting
Why chips count differently just before the prizes, surviving with a short stack, and turning up the pressure with a big one.
TAG style: the best base style for beginners
Tight aggressive explained: the selection half, the initiative half, why position completes it, and the trap of overshooting into scared.
The 10 most expensive beginner mistakes in poker
From playing too many hands to playing on tilt, in the order in which they hurt, with the simple fix for each.
Preflop ranges by position: a starter guide
Target percentages for every seat as the first player in, why you raise instead of calling, and how to train the shapes.
The c-bet: when do you fire on the flop?
Three questions before every continuation bet, why small works on dry boards and big on wet ones, and when the best c-bet is no c-bet.
Reviewing your own hands: this is how you learn most
The three step method, which hands to pick, and how single mistakes turn into the patterns that actually cost you money.
Cash game strategy for NL2 to NL25
The four principles that account for the whole margin at low stakes, and how to find out which of the five classic mistakes are yours.
3-betting: when and with which hands?
Why reraising beats calling, the value hands, why A5s makes a better bluff than anything, and how big to make it.
The semi-bluff: bluffing with a safety net
Betting with a hand that is nothing yet, why fold chance plus win chance is the sum that counts, and which draws lend themselves to it.
Check-raise: when to use it and when not
The strongest weapon out of position: why it beats automatic c-bets, check-raising for value and as a semi-bluff, size and traps.
Why limping is almost always a leak
What entering without raising really costs, why it gives your hand away, what to do instead and the one genuine exception.
Reading and using GTO preflop charts
The grid of 169 hands, what the colours and mixed frequencies mean, one chart per situation, and the trap of blind trust.
Is a poker HUD allowed?
The rules differ per site. What a HUD does, why GGPoker bans external ones, and how to keep improving without one.
How to get better at poker: studying vs playing
Why playing alone becomes your ceiling, what studying actually means, the right proportion, and a weekly rhythm you can keep up.
How to defend your big blind: call or 3-bet?
The discount in numbers, the brake of playing out of position, when 3-betting beats calling, and the three leaks you see everywhere.
Board texture: reading dry and wet flops
Dry boards where little moves, wet boards where everything can tip, whose range a board hits, and the three special cases.
The difference between cash game and tournament: which suits you?
Chips and time, the flexibility of cash against the climax of a tournament, and the quiet difference that decides it: variance.
NL2 strategy for online poker: the simplest winning approach
Tight starting hands, value betting as your engine, bluffing little and believing big bets, plus the standard leaks to avoid.
Playing GTO or exploitative: which suits your stake?
GTO defends, exploitative play attacks. Why the weaker the field the more equilibrium costs you, and the practical middle road.
Do you need GTO at NL2 to NL10?
The honest answer is largely no. Where the money actually comes from at these stakes, and what you may borrow from the GTO world anyway.
What does a solver actually do?
What you put in, how the calculation reaches equilibrium, what the frequency tables really tell you, and what a solver cannot know.
Blockers: what your own cards give away
Counting in combinations, the famous nut ace, how blockers work both when calling and folding, and how heavily you may lean on them.
Bluffing on the river: the checklist
Five questions before you fire: your story, your showdown value, your blockers, whether this opponent can fold, and the size.
How often should you bluff in poker? The right ratio
Why bluffing is a ratio and not a feeling, the arithmetic behind the number, why you bluff wider early, and the low stakes adjustment.
Bankroll management: how many buy-ins do you need?
The buy-in guidelines per format, when you move up and down a level, and why they are rules of thumb rather than laws.
Recognising and preventing tilt
The four signals that you are already tilting, and the system of three agreements you make with your clear headed self.
Variance: why good players lose anyway
What variance actually is, how big the effect really is, why your brain underestimates it, and the two weapons you do have.
Surviving a downswing: a practical playbook
Test your game first, then protect your bankroll, guard your head and build back up calmly. Four steps, written before you need them.
What is a good win rate per stake?
Guidelines in bb/100 per stake, why your sample decides almost everything, the quiet brake of rake, and how to improve the number.
where the writing is
The lessons
Preflop, flop, turn, river, position, tournaments
The long form writing that would otherwise be a blog, in the order the game is actually played. Each street has its own page, and each one ends where the next begins.
The glossary
One term, one page, one honest definition
Every piece of jargon you will meet at a table or in a training video, explained without using three more terms you do not have yet.
The rules
Hold'em, Omaha, stud, draw, and what is true in all of them
What the cards do, who acts when, and how the betting works. The pages people actually arrive looking for, and the ones that make the rest readable.
what will be here
Findings, not filler.
Pokiq measures decisions rather than results, and that produces things worth writing down: which thresholds turned out to be too strict, which leak was really variance in a costume, how wide the margin of error on a winrate is at the volumes people actually play. That last one has a page of its own already, because it is the single number most players get wrong about their own game: what VPIP, PFR and the rest mean, and how many hands each of them needs is the piece we would have written first anyway.
Until then the useful reading is elsewhere on this site. The first lesson starts from nothing and assumes no jargon, the Hold'em rules page covers a full hand from the blinds to the showdown, and our method page explains how anything on this site gets written and checked before it is published. If you want to see what the measurements look like on a real set of hands, the example report shows a full analysis with its margins of error attached.
next step
Start with lesson one instead.
It takes about ten minutes, it assumes you know nothing, and it ends with you knowing which hands to play and why. No account, no download.
questions
Why is there nothing in this blog yet?
Because nothing has been written for it yet in English. The Dutch site has a blog with several dozen articles; the English side of Pokiq is newer, and the writing effort has gone into the lessons, the glossary and the rules first. Publishing an empty list with a promise attached would say more about our marketing than about our work.
How often will you publish here?
We are not going to name a number. A schedule is easy to announce and hard to keep, and a blog that publishes to fill a slot is exactly the kind of writing nobody needs. When there is something worth reading, it will appear here.
Where should I start reading in the meantime?
If you have never played, start with the rules. If you play and want to get better, start with the lessons: they are ordered by street, which is the order you make decisions in. If you keep meeting a word you do not know, the glossary has one page per term.
Is the Dutch blog worth reading if I do not read Dutch?
Not really, and we would rather say so than send you to a translation. The Dutch articles are written in Dutch for Dutch players, including the parts about which sites operate there and what the rules are locally. The English lessons cover the same strategy ground.