Poker Math Coach Open Poker Math Coach

The course

Learn the game, then learn its math

Two tracks. Foundations teaches poker from the first deal and is free from start to finish. The Mathematics of Poker turns every decision into numbers. Each lesson explains one idea, lets you play with it, checks that it stuck and sends you to the drill or table that trains it.

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Free · 39 lessons Foundations

Eight short modules: how a hand works, hand rankings, counting cards and odds, position and starting hands, betting with a purpose, play after the flop and the tools a regular uses. Every lesson is free, and the exam at the end earns a certificate.

Module 1 How a hand of Hold'em works

Play a hand from the deal to the showdown without help: the seats, the blinds, the four betting rounds, your options and who wins the pot.

  1. The table, the button and the blinds
  2. Dealing and the four betting rounds
  3. Your options: fold, check, call, bet, raise
  4. Showdown: who wins the pot
  5. Split pots, all-ins and side pots
  6. No-limit, pot-limit and limit; cash games and tournaments

Module 2 Hand rankings

Name the best five-card hand on any board in a few seconds, kickers and ties included.

  1. The ten hand ranks and how often they happen
  2. Kickers and the best five cards
  3. Playing the board
  4. Finding the nuts on any board
  5. Speed round: rank it

Module 3 Counting cards and odds

Turn cards into numbers: the deck, starting hands, combinations, odds and percentages.

  1. A deck in numbers: 52 cards, 1,326 starting hands
  2. Odds against and percentages
  3. How often you are dealt a pair, aces or a suited hand
  4. Combinations of one hand: 6, 4 and 12
  5. What the flop brings: sets, flush draws and pairs
  6. At least once: the complement rule

Module 4 Position and starting hands

Why the seat you play from matters, and which hands make money from it.

  1. Positions at 6-max and 9-max tables
  2. Why acting last wins money
  3. Groups of starting hands
  4. Domination: why A9 loses to AK
  5. Pocket pairs and set mining
  6. Suited connectors and broadway cards

Module 5 Betting with a purpose

Give every bet a reason: value or bluff, a size that fits, and the right action for the hand.

  1. Why we bet: value and bluffs
  2. Bet sizes as a share of the pot
  3. Fold, call or raise: choosing the action

Module 6 After the flop

Read the board, tell made hands from draws, count your outs and plan the turn and river.

  1. Made hands and draws
  2. Board textures: dry, wet, paired, monotone
  3. Counting outs: clean and tainted
  4. Free cards and protection
  5. Planning the turn and river

Module 7 The player's toolkit

Measure results, manage a bankroll, handle swings, read hand histories and stats, and study like a regular.

  1. Stacks in big blinds, results in bb/100
  2. Bankroll rules: buy-ins, moving up and moving down
  3. Tilt and the Mind tab
  4. Reading a hand history
  5. Player stats: VPIP, PFR and 3-bet
  6. How to study: a weekly routine

Module 8 Foundations capstone

A full hand from the deal to the showdown, then the exam and your certificate.

  1. Boss hand: a full hand from the deal to the showdown
  2. Foundations exam

25 lessons The Mathematics of Poker

Twenty-five lessons in five parts, following the path of Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman's book The Mathematics of Poker: from expected value and variance, through reading and exploiting opponents, to game theory, bankroll risk and tournaments. Each lesson explains one idea, lets you play with it, checks that it stuck, and sends you to the drill or table that trains it.

Part 1 Basics

Decisions under risk: expected value, why results swing, and how to update beliefs with evidence.

  1. Expected value: the currency of decisions
  2. Variance: why results lie in the short run
  3. Bayes' theorem: updating what you believe

Part 2 Exploitive play

Prices, hand reading and data: find the play that earns the most against the opponent in front of you.

  1. Pot odds and implied odds
  2. Reading hands as distributions
  3. The tells are in the data
  4. Playing accurately with the cards face up
  5. Your hand against a distribution
  6. Adaptive play: exploiting a distribution

Part 3 Optimal play

Game theory from toy games: indifference, bluffing ratios, bet sizing and strategies that cannot be exploited.

  1. Facing the nemesis: game theory
  2. Half-street games and the bluffing ratio Pro
  3. Heads-up with high blinds: jam or fold Pro
  4. Poker made simple: the AKQ game Pro
  5. You don't have to guess: no-limit bet sizing Pro
  6. Full-street games: when the opponent can bet too Pro
  7. The [0,1] game: continuous hands Pro
  8. The road to poker: several streets Pro
  9. Drawing out: hands that change Pro
  10. A case study: game theory at the table Pro

Part 4 Risk

Bankrolls: the chance of going broke, how much to risk, and how swaps and backing change it.

  1. Staying in action: risk of ruin
  2. Growing bankrolls: the Kelly criterion Pro
  3. Poker finance: swaps and backing Pro

Part 5 Tournaments and more

Why tournament chips are not cash, how pots change with more players, and putting every tool together.

  1. Tournaments: chips aren't cash
  2. Three's a crowd: multiplayer pots Pro
  3. Putting it all together Pro

The Foundations lessons are original: every explanation, example and figure is our own. The lessons are original explanations of the ideas in The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman (ConJelCo, 2006), arranged by its chapters, with Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo (D&B Poker, 2019) as a second reference. This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors or the publishers; read the books for the full derivations.

Glossary of poker terms

Free poker calculators

Free calculators and charts for the numbers behind every call. They run in your browser and show how each result is computed.