Best Poker Resources
- Learn the rules, positions and poker hands ranking. Naturally, this is the first step you want to take.
- Get 6-max Preflop Chart. The Mental Game: Why Poker Psychology Is So Important. Send me the article. Donkbetting techniques. Send me the article. Bankroll Management and Taking Shots. Send me the article. Get Free Hand2Note course. Find the best sites, and many more.
- Here is the complete schedule of daily poker tournaments in the Upstate NY area, including Erie, PA, Niagara, and Upstate NY. Click on any tournament for comprehensive information and details including buy-ins, admin fees, starting chips, blind structures, days run, and more.
- Best Online Poker Resources
- Best Poker Sets
- Best Poker Resources Reddit
- Best Poker Resources
- Best Gambling Resources
Upswing Poker Courses - use promo code 'bradowen' for $25 off all purchases over $99:Poker Lab: Lab: https://hf322.is. Outfits that offer poker training courses include the venerable Upswing Poker and Red Chip Poker. Individual instructors like Jonathan Little, Fedor Holz, and even Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey have also put together some excellent material that undoubtedly has the potential to improve your game.
My name is Sky Matsuhashi and I’m here to help you become the poker player you’ve always wanted to be. Can you imagine moving up in buy-ins and playing for bigger stakes, or bringing home some extra income every month?
I’ve dedicated my life to improving my poker game and I have a lot to teach you. I’m an educator at heart and I love helping others achieve their goals.
I’m not going to tell you that poker mastery is easy… far from it. It’s a tough game and will take dedication, hard work and tons of playing to get to where you want to be.
If you’re feeling like your skills are inadequate or you need to start with a solid foundation, this page will help you.
Starting an Online Poker Journey
You may be intimidated by playing online, or you’re ready and raring to begin an online journey. Either way, I created this humungous page with everything you need to know to start an enjoyable, profitable and rewarding online poker journey. On this page, you’ll learn:
- The benefits of playing online poker versus LIVE poker
- The 5 crucial steps to start your online journey with (site selection, bonuses, rakeback, etc.)
- The 3 critical pieces of poker software and how to get started with them
- How it’s possible to make $$$ everyday with online poker
- The simplest ways to study your online poker hands
- And so much more
Get Your Poker Study On
I’m all about studying in order to improve your skills, but if you’ve been out of school for a while (or never enjoyed it), starting a study routine can be tough. This video is going to help you study the smart and easy way with a simple 4-step process:
If you’re looking for more detailed study guidance, here’s Your Poker Strategy Guide for 2020.
For those relatively new to taking your poker journey seriously, episode #205: 5 Key Concepts for Poker Study Noobies will help you focus on the 5 key concepts every poker study beginner must nail down.
Progressively Build Foundational Poker Skills
This series of podcast episodes (along with the super helpful show notes pages) worked to help you progressively build your poker skills starting with preflop ranges, taking you through post-flop math and plays, hand reading then ultimately the mental game. This series inspired my 3rd book called Preflop Online Poker and my upcoming 4th book, Post-flop Online Poker.
Start with this episode, then work your way through the rest of the series as you study and put into action the skills I teach you. The show notes for episode 87 contains links to every episode in the series.
Best Online Poker Resources
Here’s my epic post about the most important skill in poker: Hand Reading. This post has 3 podcasts (#250, #251 and #252 below) and multiple videos all geared to turning you into an effective hand reader. All of the best players use their hand reading skills to maximize the effectiveness of their study time and their profitability when on-the-felt.
A critical topic I discuss almost all the time is exploiting your opponents. But, the first step to this is understanding the 4 basic player types. You’ve got to know what each is, the characteristics of each, indications that someone is one or the other, and their general approach to pre-flop and post-flop poker. With this episode I also made available a Poker Player Types PDF listing many ways to exploit each type.
Poker Resources
We can all use a hand with our studies and poker play, and there are many things I use daily to help me improve my game. I’ll continue to add anything here that I think you’ll find valuable and that will aid you in your poker development. These are the items that make my poker studies and poker play as simple yet efficient as possible. I recommend these to others time and time again.
Best Poker Sets
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
Tracking Software Recommendation: PokerTracker 4
PokerTracker 4 is the premier poker tracking software on the market today. I’ve been using it since 2006 and it’s helped me to improve my game tremendously. With its awesome and easily adaptable HUD, I’m able to find multiple ways to exploit my opponent’s tendencies. Quick and easy hand history reviews with a great player and real-time stats make studying my plays and my opponents very effective. Click here to learn more.
Bonus for supporting me by purchasing PokerTracker 4 thru the link above:
Send me a screen shot or forward me your emailed purchase receipt and I’ll send you a full copy of my Smart HUD! All you have to do is import it, set it as your table default, then you’re off to the races. Forward your PT4 purchase confirmation to sky@smartpokerstudy.com.
Best Poker Resources Reddit
Range Analysis Software Recommendation: Flopzilla
Flopzilla is the most incredible range analysis software available. It’s designed to let you quickly and easily figure out how a range hits a board. Just enter a preflop range and a board and Flopzilla will work out for you how often that range hits hands like top pair, middle pair, a flush draw, a gutshot, etc. The interface is designed to be quick, easy to use and intuitive. This is the perfect software for analyzing hands and improving your hand reading skills.
Best Poker Resources
Screen Capture Software Recommendations: OBS
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Download and start streaming quickly and easily on Windows, Mac or Linux. This is the program the pros, Twitch streamers and I use to record for streams, training videos and for game tape.
Smart Poker Study Resources
I created each of these items to help me track my studies and improve my play.
This Poker Goals PDF gives you all the criteria you need to set SMART Poker Goals. Making better goals will lead to greater poker success.
This Break-even Math Cheat Sheet gives you all the break-even %’s for the different pre-flop plays you’re going to make. Know how often you need your opens, call and bets to work in order to be break-even.
Poker Quantifiables Tracking Sheet – A worksheet to help you keep track of important stats as your studies progress.
Range Review Tracker – A worksheet to help you track the ranging success in your poker studies.
30-Day Challenge Tracker – A tracker to help you incorporate positive poker habits in your life (or any other aspect of life for that matter).
This Leak Plugging PDF contains descriptions of the most common and painful leaks, ways to spot them, steps to fixing and tips on exploiting opponents with this same leak.
This 7 Steps to Poker Book Learning PDF shows you how to get the most from every poker book you read.
Best Gambling Resources
Please let me know if there is any other way I can help you improve your game! Just send me an email at sky@smartpokerstudy.com.
In a sense, the governor of the Empire State is helping it live up to its nickname.
The Cuomo administration said this week that it will look into allowing a casino upstate near the Seneca Nation’s casino in downtown Niagara Falls, says a report from The Buffalo News. The reason? The tribe is no longer giving Albany a cut of its gambling winnings.
The development could bode well for online poker, which the state has been eyeing for several years now as a relatively immediate tax revenue source.
The news of the tribe’s plans to halt the payments came earlier this year, and now the state is looking to put pressure on the tribe to continue forking over about $110 million annually. The tribe has paid about $1.5 billion to Albany since 2002. The tribe’s New York casinos are the Seneca Niagara Casino, Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino and Seneca Allegheny Casino.
The Seneca Nation said its compact with the state doesn’t say it needs to continue making the payments past 2016, which led to the most recent showdown with the state.
New York already allowed a commercial casino—the Del Lago Resort and Casino in Seneca County that opened in February—about 100 miles from the tribe’s Buffalo property.
That new casino was one of four Albany and state voters approved for struggling upstate regions, with three having opened their doors so far. The tribe’s compact granted the tribe casino gambling exclusivity in the region, so the threat to give a license for a Las Vegas-style casino right next door to the tribe’s most successful casino in the state would officially mark an end to that exclusivity. However, it would take several years of hurdles before a fifth commercial casino could begin construction, and it’s not clear if Niagara Falls could support another one.
This isn’t the first time the Senecas and state officials have argued over the compact. The tribe and the state had a dispute in 2013 over the new commercial casinos, but that was sorted out in part thanks to Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatening to allow a casino just 20 miles northwest of Buffalo. The state’s tribal gaming industry didn’t attempt to thwart the commercial casino referendum that the administration wanted to pass.
The compact is valid until 2023, but New York contends that it’s out the window if the revenue sharing payments don’t come in. The money goes to local communities.