Ruff Poker Blog
Learn Train Dominate Poker

One of the most dangerous traps inexperienced players fall into is when they attempt to employ a “looser” style of play they have seen employed by another player. Poker is a game rife with machismo, which makes this an all too common problem: Players simply refuse to acknowledge that another player might be better than […]

Today’s mini-tirade will focus on a particular pet peeve of mine at the poker tables: Tanking. While I completely understand that some decisions are extremely difficult, and you may not want to snap-fold every single time you get raised and have an absolute airball, there is something to be said for keeping a game that […]

When I broke into poker it was not even a debatable point, you played tight and aggressive. That was it. End of story. But during the early stages of the poker boom the conventional wisdom shifted, and players started having very good results implementing a looser and even more aggressive style of poker. As the […]

Ok, we’ve now come to the final installment of this four-part series on poker coaching and this time around I’ll take a look at some of the red flags you should be on the lookout for when you hire a poker coach. What to Expect From a Poker Coach Before you even pay for a […]

We are now up to Part 3 in this series and it’s time to take a look at some of the questions you should be asking before hiring a poker coach, and what you should be looking for in your coach. What to Look for in a Poker Coach Experience No offense to younger poker […]

In Part 1 of this series I discussed the basics of poker coaching, focusing on the history of poker coaching as well as what precisely a poker coach is. In this installment I’ll layout the different methods players can choose from when they decide to hire a poker coach or receive coaching. Types of Poker […]

When I first came up through the poker ranks the idea of hiring someone to teach you to play poker was… hmmm, how should I put this… novel? While there were most certainly people teaching other people to play poker, it was far from a job title, and on the whole things simply were not […]

In Part 1 of this series I talked about a common question for a very uncommon scenario, folding Pocket Aces pre-flop, and now I’m going to talk about a more common situation, making Hero calls and folds. While these situations are far more common that folding Pocket Aces, they are still very rare, and require […]

For 90% of your decisions there is generally a clear-cut answer on the correct play, and a consensus is usually easy to arrive at. For 9.99% the answer is usually debatable, with case being made for a multitude of different lines. For the remaining .01% of decisions, the extraordinary decisions we sometimes have to make, […]

In Part 1 of this series I introduced you to the concept of foxes and hedgehogs; in Part 2 of this series I described the traits of poker foxes and poker hedgehogs; and now in Part 3 I’ll put it all together and give you some advice for dealing with both types of players. Understanding […]