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.

We started Fearless River to make it easy for everyone to improve their game in their spare time.

That’s why we present our Members with poker “lessons” via Strategy Videos so they can elevate their games by watching a short video on a phone, tablet, or personal computer.

Strategy Episodes are presented in short, easy to digest segments (usually 10-15 minutes) that focus on introducing and reinforcing specific aspects of the Fearless River game plan.

Join Fearless River.com for just $5 your first month and start improving your game with our on-demand library of over 450 game-changing strategy videos and access to all of the Fearless River Membership Features!

Have Questions? Contact the support team at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help!

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,
-Fearless River

P.S. A Membership with Fearless River 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 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.

Fearless River Tournament Strategy Workshops are for poker players who know the fundamentals of tournament strategy and are ready to take their game from good to great.

Attend a Live Workshop and learn...

• Strategies to take you from a player who "min-cashes" to one who dominates the final table
• What it takes to "close the deal" in Tournaments including final tables, short-handed play, heads up play, and deal-making
• How to thrive in today’s competitive tournaments

Start improving your results with the help of Fearless River's world-class teachers and Pros who boast over 17 Million in combined tournament winnings!

Have a question about Fearless River? Contact us at [email protected] or (888)600-5593 and we’ll be happy to help!

Fearless River 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.

Learn more about Tony and how he can help improve your game by clicking here: Meet Fearless River Instructor Tony Dunst

P.S. Join Tony on Tour and put what you've learned into play at the table! Click here to view the World Poker Tour's calendar of events.

• To Train and Play Hands using the WPT GTO Trainer for instant feedback on YOUR leaks
• On-demand access to in-depth Strategy Episodes
• All of your poker questions answered with the Ask a Pro Feature
• Expert analysis from Fearless River Pros using The Hand Input Tool
• Community Forums to discuss all things poker with fellow Fearless River Members
• Downloadable Tools you can use at and away from the tables

Join (just $5 your first month) to start improving your game!

Have Questions about Fearless River? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!

We all make mistakes due to lack of focus, loss of motivation, or because we are simply unprepared. Thousands of hours studying hands and playing in pressure situations should make decisions easier over time, but even the best players in the world make mistakes when it matters most.

The key to improvement and avoiding these mistakes comes from being a student of The Mental Game.

In Strategy Episode 58, Jared introduces us to the concept of The Mental Game and why players of every skill level should add these strategies to their study routine right now!

Gain access to our full library of Mental Game Strategy Episodes from Jared Tendler right now when you join Fearless River.com as part of your $5 First Month Membership!

We'll see you online!
-Team Fearless River

DECISION POINT: In a Tournament where blinds are 800/1,600 it folds to a Middle Position player who limps. The Hijack folds and you raise to 5,200 from the Cutoff with Q♥J♥. The Button folds, the Small Blind goes all-in, and both the Big Blind and MP2 fold. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: In a Multi-Table Tournament with 800/1,600 blinds and a 20 chip ante we are dealt QJs in the Cutoff. The MP2 open limps and it folds to us. We could potentially limp behind and play QJs speculatively as a suited connector. Specifically in tournaments, picking up chips is at a premium and a preflop raise here gives us an opportunity to take the pot down preflop or potentially on the flop with a continuation bet. While calling behind is profitable, raising is a better play. We decide to isolate with a raise to 5,200.

It folds to the Small Blind who moves all in for 19,000 chips. All of the other players fold and it is back on us with a decision to make. At this point there is 27,560 in the pot and it is 13,800 more to call. This means we are getting almost exactly 2:1 pot odds. Preflop hand values in No-Limit Hold’em run close enough together that it is extremely rare for a hand to have less than 33% equity versus all but the narrowest of ranges. We also have a reasonably strong hand for this situation, although probably not the best hand at the moment.

Even if our opponent has a fairly narrow range such as 88+, ATs+, KQs, AJo+, KQo we still have over 33% equity here. The final factors to evaluate are specific to this tournament. If calling in this spot would have a significant impact on our stack’s ability to accumulate chips in the rest of the tournament we could consider passing on this edge. For example, if we call and lose and our 25-30 BB stack is reduced to 10 BB stack, we would lose the ability to steal or reshove and must play push/fold poker.

In this situation, if we call and lose this hand our stack will be reduced from around 30 BBs to 20 BBs. While the impact of losing our stack is not insignificant, it is not enough to warrant passing up on a profitable call here.

Calling is the best play.

The WPT GTO Trainer allows you to Play and Train against True GTO Opponents and get real-time Feedback and Analysis on Your Actions.

Fearless River.com Members can choose from Cash Game and Tournament scenarios and receive immediate feedback on their play compared to GTO including EV (expected value) Loss, Percentage Played, and the Ideal Action.

Click the button below and play the WPT GTO Trainer for free....

Join Fearless River.com for just $5 your First Month of Membership and play through hundreds of solved hands per hour (anytime, anywhere, and as many hands as you want) on the WPT GTO Trainer!

DECISION POINT: In a Tournament a Middle Position player raises and it folds to you in the Big Blind. You 3-Bet with Q♥Q♦ and get a call. On the 8♠A♥J♣ flop you bet and MP2 calls. You check the 4♦ turn, MP2 bets, and you call. The river is 5♠ and you check. Your opponent goes all-in and action is on you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are dealt pocket queens in the Big Blind. It is folded to MP2 who raises to 2.5 BBs. It folds to us and we reraise to 10 BBs and our opponent flat calls. The flop is 8sAhJc. With a stack to pot ratio (SPR) of just under 2 here it’s very difficult to get away from our hand. So the question is: how we can extract the most value out of our Pocket Queens?

A pure GTO solution to this situation involves a mixed strategy of checking to induce bluffs as well as betting extremely small (around 5.5 BBs). Both of these strategies keep our opponent’s range extremely wide and allow them to either bluff with much of their range (when we check) or call with worse hands than ours (when we bet small). In this situation we elect to make a small bet of 5.5 BBs and our opponent calls.

The turn is the 4d, which changes very little. Given our small bet on the flop we have encouraged our opponent to float (a float is when someone calls the flop to take the pot away on a later street) with a wide range. This means checking to them makes a lot of sense here to potentially encourage bets from many of the back door flush draws, weaker hands, and pure air that is in our opponent’s range. We check and our opponent bets 8 BBs.

Against tougher opponents who are capable of fighting for pots in this spot it is very important that we call here or else we have set our opponent up to be able to float us VERY profitably in this spot with their entire range. Against very straightforward opponents who are not capable of floating or bluffing with the correct frequencies we could make an exploitative fold here, but against tougher opponents we must call and we do.

The river is the 5s which changes very little given neither of our ranges rarely connect with it. We check and our opponent moves all-in. This is an extremely difficult spot versus a tough opponent. We’re getting nearly 3:1 on our money so before considering any other tournament factors, we need our opponent to be bluffing here around 25% of the time as we should only beat a bluff. If you use a GTO solver on this problem, it actually recommends a mixed strategy of calling and folding.

This is one of the real benefits of GTO solvers. It shows us how to optimally play against the very toughest opponents who are fighting hard for every last chip. Against the absolute toughest opponents who are capable of bluffing in this spot we should absolutely be calling some percentage of the time.

So the question we have to ask ourselves is: Is our opponent capable of floating and bluffing in this spot? In most regular tournaments where the field isn’t as tough and doesn’t play as optimally as the computer does in these spots, most players simply aren’t bluffing in these spots for all their chips often enough to justify calling here against all but the absolute toughest opponents.

Knowing the optimal way to play a situation and then adjusting for opponent tendencies is essential to adapting to the field in a post solver world.

Folding is the best play.

• To Train and Play Hands using the WPT GTO Trainer for instant feedback on YOUR leaks
• On-demand access to in-depth Strategy Episodes
• All of your poker questions answered with the Ask a Pro Feature
• Expert analysis from Fearless River Pros using The Hand Input Tool
• Community Forums to discuss all things poker with fellow Fearless River Members
• Downloadable Tools you can use at and away from the tables

To join (just $5 your first month) click the white JOIN NOW button in the top corner of your screen or the JOIN TODAY button below to start improving your game!

Have Questions about Fearless River? Email us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!

Fearless River Instructor Tony Dunst recently broke down a hero fold he made on the bubble of the WPT Montreal $5000 CAD No-Limit Hold'em High Roller Event that helped add $95K to his already impressive Tournament winnings.

Check out Tony's blog where he breaks down his thought process with big pressure and big money on the line...

Learn more about Tony and how he can help improve your game by clicking here: Meet Fearless River Instructor Tony Dunst

DECISION POINT: At a 6-handed Tournament final table where blinds are 6,000/12,000 the Middle Position player limps and the Cutoff raises. It folds to you in the Small Blind with T♠T♥. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: At the final table of a daily local casino tournament the blinds are 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante we are dealt pocket tens in the Small Blind. The MP2 player limps and it folds to the Cutoff who raises to 35,000. The Button folds and action is on us.

Play has been a little tight and players have still been limping with some regularity. The first thing we need to do here is put our opponents on estimated hand ranges. Normally the open limper would be a bit concerning as they have only around 8 big blinds to begin the hand and most players are aware that with a short stack they should be either pushing all-in or folding a vast majority of the time. Given that limping is going on with some regularity, we can assign a range of some premium hands and some hands our opponents want to “see a flop” with such as mid pocket pairs and connectors or broadway hands such as QJo.

The Cutoff player, if they are aware of players limping fairly wide ranges, should be raising quite wide here. With the Hijack only having 65,000 chips and it being the final table, pay jumps should be fairly significant at this point. This means MP2 should be very wary of busting prior to the Hijack without a decent hand so they move up the pay scale.

Given both of those factors, our pocket tens are likely well ahead of both ranges. Another factor to consider is how important is it for US to not bust before the shorter stacks and move up the pay scale. Certainly if our hand were a bit more marginal like pocket sevens we would have to seriously consider folding here.

Pocket tens is a premium hand and even though we are unlikely to generate a huge amount of fold equity when we move all-in, our chip stack does potentially hurt Villain and take away many of their opportunities to abuse the shorter stacks in this way. This means we will generate some folds which will give us an additional 77,000 chips. In other instances we will be playing a pot with a significant equity edge over our opponent’s range of hands that if we win, will make us the chip leader and give us opportunities to abuse these same concepts against the rest of the table.

While this decision is closer than it may seem on the surface, our hand is still far too strong versus our opponent’s ranges in this situation to fold.

Moving all-in is the best play.

Whether you are a tournament or cash game player, looking to advance your move arsenal, or ready to master the game, attending a Fearless River Live Strategy Workshop is the quickest and most effective way to expand your No-Limit Hold’em game plan and get you on a path to success.

For the current schedule of 2-Day and 3-Day interactive training events taught by winning Professional Players and world-class Instructors click the button below:

Have a question about Fearless River Live Workshops? Contact us at [email protected] or (888)600-5593 and we’ll be happy to help!

Fearless River Students Scott and Lisa Roberts have been on a tear at the poker tables in recent months adding on to their impressive combined $125,000 in tournament winnings.

The World Poker Tour recently interviewed and featured Team Roberts in an article highlighting their phenomenal summer.

Click here or read more about Scott and Lisa's poker journey below

By Sean Chaffin

The couple that plays together, stays together. At least that’s the case for Scott and Lisa Roberts. This poker-playing pair have been married 37 years and is affectionately known as Team Roberts. The recreational players from Atlanta, Georgia, have been on a tear at the poker tables in recent months – and credit much of their success to strategies and techniques they’ve learned attending several Fearless River events.

The Roberts have apparently been good students. Scott, 62, works as a real estate investor and has more than $89,000 in live tournament winnings. Lisa, 63, is a retired personal trainer and has $35,000 in tournament winnings.

For Scott and Lisa, working with Fearless River has definitely transferred to the tables. They now hope to keep that mojo going.

Poker Power Couple

It was an especially nice September for Team Roberts at the WSOP Circuit stop at Seminole Coconut Creek in Florida where Scott won a $400 event for $6,994. Lisa notched a runner-up finish in a $250 seniors event for $5,284 and took sixth in a $600 turbo for $2,100.

“It was very frustrating coming in second,” she says laughing. “But I was very happy.”

At the turbo final table, Lisa was also joined by Scott and he took runner-up for $8,096. He followed up the runner-up finish with yet another second-place finish in a $250 DeepStack event for $4,486.

In total, Scott finished with four cashes for $20,182 and was named the player of the series. His background as a Fearless River student certainly helped, he says, and everything seemed to come together.

“It was one of those times where I was using moves to make moves and running well too,” he says. “When those two go together you can be unstoppable. It was just a really good trip.”

The couple, who have two grown children and a grandchild on the way, have family in the area and spent some time with them during the trip. Scott didn’t even realize he was in contention to be casino champion.

“We didn’t play a lot of the events just because we were seeing family,” he says. “We skipped several events, but if I had known I was in contention I definitely would have played a few more.”

Scott began playing poker in 2005 with some friends and online. He cashed in smaller tournaments and then won a $235 event in Las Vegas in 2017 for $20,108 followed by another big win a year later for $11,348.

Lisa wasn’t into the game like her husband however, and it took her a while to appreciate poker.

“I’d sit behind him when I was done playing Blackjack after losing money,” she says. “The TV was always on the poker channel [the WPT included], and I wasn’t really watching him play, but I started knowing all the players because of all the little vignettes they ran about them. Scott would come over while he was playing online and say, ‘Look I have such and such hand. What do you think the nuts would be right now?’”

Lisa would answer and often would be correct. She didn’t have much interest in the game but seemed to be picking it up. To her, the game just looked boring with the people looking “all serious and unfriendly.”

One night at a casino, Lisa planned to play Blackjack but her husband convinced her to take a seat at the tables. That first night she played Limit Hold’em holding a card with the ranking of hands.

“I won four hands in a row at one point,” she says. “I couldn’t even stack them fast enough because I didn’t know how to handle chips. I was so excited.”

She left the tables with some winnings, and some confidence. Her poker life took off from there – and that hand ranking card hasn’t been needed since.

Hitting the Books and Crushing the Tables

The Roberts figured out early that working on their game with some outside help would be a good idea. Team Roberts has attended several Fearless River events, spending many hours with instructors Nick Binger and Andrew Lichtenberger.

“I took a couple classes and realized how much I didn’t know,” Scott says. “Then we took one together with Nick and it just kind of opened our eyes up. It was just incredible how different the pros play from how we were playing.”

“After the first day, I was thinking, ‘This guy’s nuts. This is not going to work. Why did we take this class?’”

However, they stuck it out for the second day of training. The concepts Binger was presenting began making more sense. They headed to the Venetian that night and used some strategies they’d been taught at the tables. One thing Binger told the couple to practice in a tournament or two was raising on the button every time action folded to them, no matter what cards they had. If one of the blinds three-bet, he told them to four-bet. This overly aggressive strategy would take them out of their comfort zone of passive play.

“I told him I was going to need a few drinks before I played the tournament,” he says.

The coaching worked and Lisa made the final table that night and they won $10,000 playing tournaments that week.

“I was very unaggressive,” Lisa says of her play before attending Fearless River events. “I didn’t know what to do with anything. I’d limp, call, and maybe I’d raise. For me, I learned when to be aggressive and when to feel okay with being aggressive in the right situation regardless of your cards sometimes. I didn’t have any of that in my arsenal – I had no arsenal.”

For Scott, opening hand ranges was an idea he had never much considered. He may have put a player on a certain hand but had trouble adjusting his game to those kinds of scenarios.

The new concepts made his game more complex. Team Roberts also learned more about playing in position to maximize profits. They’ve gone on to take more advanced classes with each session building on others. The lab days are a particular favorite of theirs, where a group plays at a table and break down hands played with instructors.

“It ties everything together from what you learned the two days before in the class,” Scott says.

Would they recommend Fearless River to other players?

“If they’re people we play against, definitely not,” Scott says laughing.

Lisa adds: “I think it is the best poker money that we’ve ever spent. I know we were hesitant the first time, but it made major changes for us as far as winning. It’s an incredible class. You don’t really know what you don’t know until you take it.”

As recreational players, they try to find events that fit in Scott’s schedule running his real estate business. He plans to retire within the next five years and then the Roberts will play even more including some WPT tournaments. In the meantime, they plan on keeping their recent success going, and continue working on their game with Fearless River sessions.

As Lisa notes: “There’s always more to learn.”

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. He also writes feature stories and tournament coverage for WPT.com. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions. For story assignments, email [email protected].

Whether you are a tournament or cash game player, looking to advance your move arsenal, or ready to master the game, attending a Fearless River Live Strategy Workshop is the quickest and most effective way to expand your No-Limit Hold’em game plan and get you on a path to success.

If you are ready for better results at the tables it’s time for you to take action and get a proven winning game plan to help get you there.

Hey, maybe you’ll be our next success story just like Scott and Lisa 😉.

Questions? Contact the Support Team (888) 600-5593 or [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.