Ruff Poker Blog
Learn Train Dominate Poker

Poker tournaments have two very distinct stages: Fast and Slow. These stages are the periods of time where players are either desperate to stay alive with little to no margin for error; or have a deep-stack that has the capability of playing a few pots. Since these two stages are basically polar opposites, knowing how [...]

While many news outlets have jumped the gun and announced that The International Poker Federation has been approved by the International Mind Sports Association, the president of the IPF, Anthony Holden, is letting everyone know that nothing is finalized -in fact the application process is in its initial stage-and Holden has called these findings “premature”.
Holden [...]

One of the mantras of a winning poker player has always been, “It’s not how many pots you win; it’s how much money you win” and a recent study performed by Cornell University has the data to back up what many winning poker players have known all along: Players who win a lot of pots, [...]

Daniel Negreanu recently wrote an entry for his blog where he explains the differences between winning poker players of today and of years past. It’s a very interesting read, and Negreanu definitely has lived in both worlds which gives him the chops to comment on the subject, and while I agree with almost everything he [...]

Word has leaked out that Full Tilt Poker doesn’t want its sponsored pros competing in any tournaments solely sponsored by their competitors, although Full Tilt has since come out and denied this. This had me thinking of why this would be a really bad decision on the part of Full Tilt Poker, and why it [...]

In a sense poker players are like a corporation. Like a corporation, poker players must always be cognizant of the bottom line: Every decision has to improve your bottom line or it’s a bad decision. Just like a business feelings have very little place at a poker table, because your feelings will often hurt your [...]

One of great aspects of poker is that it offers no competitive advantage to men over women: Even a sport like pool favors males since height allows you to reach more shots comfortably and even strength matters on breaks. But, since poker is purely an intellectual pursuit why are their proportionately more males than females [...]

In an earlier article I discussed the five criteria I use as determinates to rank Online Poker sites. The five criterions are: rakeback, player pool, competition, deposit bonus and promotions, and software performance.

Before I get into the details of this article let me point out that this is just an observation on my part, and the likelihood of what I outline actually taking place are about as good as winning the World Series of Poker Main Event.
There has been a lot of talk, and even quite a [...]

What started with an all out ban on data-mining techniques by the MicroGaming Poker Network is turning into an all out poker zeitgeist, in what seems to be an effort to bring Online Poker back to its roots; where skill and hard work win the day.
The latest poker rooms to join the movement are Chili [...]