0–3 minutes: choose
Choose one uncertain decision. Write the position, street, pot, bet and assumptions needed to answer it. Use the river example below if you need a starting point.
Study routine
A 20-minute poker routine: practise, correct and revisit
Use paper or a notes app. Twenty minutes is a suggested allocation, not a promise of mastery. Finish with your attempted answer, a correction, a changed-input attempt, and a date to revisit the question.
One decision. Twenty focused minutes.
3–7 minutes: commit
Write your answer and reasoning before checking. Record which part you are unsure about.
7–11 minutes: correct
Read the explanation. Identify the specific step you missed or confirmed. Rewrite that step in your own words.
11–16 minutes: vary
Change one input. Try the half-pot variation without copying the first answer; explain what changes and why.
16–20 minutes: retrieve and schedule
Hide the explanation and restate the reasoning. Note what remains unclear and choose a date for another attempt.
Worked study note: correct a bluffing mistake
On the river, the pot is 100. You consider bluffing 100 with a hand that never wins at showdown. Assume your opponent folds 40% and otherwise calls; no raises, rake or further betting. Checking has EV 0.
First attempt
“They fold quite often, so a pot-sized bluff must be profitable.” Write this claim down before checking the calculation.
Reveal the explanation
A bluff of 100 to win 100 needs folds more than 100 / (100 + 100) = 50% of the time to profit. At 40%, EV = 0.40 × 100 − 0.60 × 100 = −20. Checking is better under these assumptions.
Change one input
Now bet 50 instead, keeping the assumed fold probability at 40%.
Check the variation
The threshold becomes 50 / (100 + 50) ≈ 33.33%. EV = 0.40 × 100 − 0.60 × 50 = +10. The smaller bluff is profitable in this model. In a real hand, a different size may change how often the opponent folds.
What to record and revisit
Record the pot, bet, assumed fold probability, first answer and correction. Tomorrow, hide the solution and derive both thresholds again. Explain why keeping the fold probability fixed is an assumption, not evidence.
Original teaching examples with supplied assumptions. No signup, saved answers or personalized assessment; these are not predictions about real opponents.
Practise the reasoning, one decision at a time
Work through three free exercises: bluff-to-value ratios, the price of a call and counting a supplied range. Reveal the explanation, then change one input.
Try the three free poker exercisesYour notes
- Decision and assumptions
- My answer and why
- Correction or confirmed reasoning
- Changed input and new answer
- What I will revisit, and when
Keep building after the lesson
A completed lesson is a starting point for practice. Membership gives you a place to revisit difficult decisions and check your understanding over time.
Return to difficult decisions
Use available corrections and review activities to work on ideas you have not yet explained reliably.
Practise with less help
Move from guided examples to supported independent attempts. Reading an answer and producing one are different.
Revisit later
Attempt available delayed reviews and supported variations. Check what you can recall after the first session.
Read your learning evidence
Distinguish practice with help, independent attempts and successful later revisits; these are learning signals, not a win-rate forecast.
Full Academy
What your membership includes
Free Starter
First Hand, four starter lessons, saved progress and 15 authored decisions per UTC day. Finish a lesson session already started.
Start freeSeven days to explore
After verifying your email, complete First Hand and lesson 1.1, including a decision. If you have no active paid membership and have not used the preview, you can choose to unlock it once. No card required. The preview will not start automatically or renew itself, and never charges you.
The preview includes the curriculum, standard practice, personal-hand study and offline Coach. Paid-only personal-hand leak reports and targeted preflop drills are excluded. Saved learning remains after it ends.
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- Full curriculum, authored practice, explanations and saved progress from day one.
- Keep using the study tools, correcting mistakes and completing supported scheduled reviews while membership is active.
- Includes the current Decision Desk and Reset Lab editions and their supported changed-input revisits. New monthly editions are not promised.
- Personal-hand study and offline Coach are included. Personalised preflop reports and drills are in English, for supported PokerStars 6-max cash Hold’em opening decisions, up to 20 hands per batch; no postflop scoring.
- Application navigation in ten languages; some source material or advanced content may remain in English
No private coaching, live-play advice, unrestricted solver analysis or promised winnings.