Column

Strategy Corner

Educational hand breakdowns and concept pieces, mined from the Triton archive.

Retired 5d ago. Auto-paused: mean composite 0.0 vs baseline 2.3 after 23 articles

Satellite ICM: When a $260 Buy-In Buys a $10,000 Decision

Eight players remain in WSOP Event #438's Turbo Mega Satellite, and the binary payout structure flips everything you think you know about shoving ranges.

5d ago · 4 min read

Why the $3K Freezeout Final Table Plays Like a Different Game

Every player at WSOP Event #79 bought in exactly once, and that single fact rewires optimal strategy for all nine survivors.

7d ago · 4 min read

Why You Should Shove Light When 6 of 9 Win Seats

The $150 Turbo Mega Satellite final table at the 2026 WSOP is a masterclass in why satellite ICM demands wider ranges, not tighter ones.

8d ago · 3 min read

Mystery Bounty Math Hits Different in PLO

Event #65's $3K PLO Mystery Bounty demands a tighter framework than its NLH cousins — here's the math behind why.

10d ago · 3 min read

How 8-Game Mixed Punishes Every Player's Worst Game

Viktor Blom's WSOP Event #74 final table is a masterclass in why mixed-game specialists leak, and what you can do about it.

10d ago · 3 min read

Which Flight Should You Play in Event #71's $1,600 Mystery Bounty?

Four Day 1 flights, a $2M guarantee, and one turbo graveyard session — the flight you pick changes your EV more than your opening range does.

12d ago · 3 min read

Why the $135 Landmark Mega Sat Is the Best Deal at the WSOP

The ICM math of winner-take-seat satellites rewards patience over skill, and the $135 daily at the Horseshoe is where that edge is widest.

13d ago · 3 min read

Tag Team Poker's Only Rule: Fold What Your Partner Can't Explain

WSOP Event #66 is at its final table — and the teams still standing are the ones who agreed on what to throw away, not what to play.

15d ago · 4 min read

Your Stack Changes Value Every Orbit in a Mixed Game

The $25K High Roller PLO/NLH Mixed at the 2026 WSOP is down to 16 players, and the format creates a stack-management puzzle that single-game tournaments never ask you to solve.

16d ago · 3 min read

The Second-Draw Mistake Killing Half the Field in WSOP Event #58

Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw rewards patience and math over instinct, and most NLH converts get the second draw catastrophically wrong.

19d ago · 4 min read

Why Mizrachi's 415K Stack Is a Weapon in Razz and a Liability in Stud Hi-Lo

The H.O.R.S.E. rotation creates chip-leader dynamics that don't exist in any other tournament format, and the $10K Championship final table is the perfect case study.

20d ago · 4 min read

The Stud Rounds Are Where Mixed-Game Final Tables Are Won

Eli Elezra and Mike Gorodinsky both busted WSOP Event #52 before the final seven, and the stud variants are the reason most hold'em players bleed out in Nine Game Mixed.

21d ago · 3 min read

PLO Mystery Bounty Math: Why Your Hold'em Instincts Will Burn You

The Wynn's two PLO bounty events demand a different calculus — here's the framework most players will get wrong.

23d ago · 3 min read

The $25K Fantasy Price Curve Has a Kink at $22

ODB's isotonic curve reveals the exact draft price where spending more stops returning proportional points, and the season's biggest winners all exploited it.

23d ago · 3 min read

The Wynn $10,400 Has a Hidden Structural Edge — If You Adjust

Deep stacks, slow blinds, and a $10 million guarantee create a tournament where standard WSOP $10K strategy bleeds chips before the first break.

25d ago · 4 min read

Why You Snap-Call A-Jo in the $10K Super Turbo Bounty

Event #44's bounty-plus-turbo structure turns standard push/fold math inside out — here's exactly how much, and one rule to carry with you.

26d ago · 4 min read

The Second-Biggest Stack Trap at PLO Final Tables

WSOP Event #35's chip distribution creates a textbook ICM squeeze on the player you'd least expect.

27d ago · 3 min read

The DCPS $1,100 NLH Guarantee Math: Where's the Overlay?

A $500,000 guarantee on a $1,100 buy-in is aggressive — here's the field size that breaks it, and how the numbers compare to WSOP $1K events running the same week.

28d ago · 3 min read

$1,430 or $3,175: The EV Math on Tomorrow's Dueling Guarantees

Two NLH tournaments fire at the same time on June 12 with a combined $7 million guaranteed — and the guarantee-to-buy-in ratio clearly favors one over the other.

Jun 11 · 3 min read

The EV Case for Playing Both DCPS Seniors Events

Two age-restricted tournaments with a combined $2.5 million in guarantees fire over the next nine days, and the math favors showing up.

Jun 10 · 3 min read

The PLO Rounds Are Where Stacks Go to Die in Mixed Events

WSOP Event #28 is down to 35 players, and the carnage between 66 and 35 offers a free lesson in how to survive the format switch.

Jun 9 · 4 min read

$1,600 NLH Satellite Math: When to Buy In Directly vs. Win Your Way In

WSOP Event #26 has a $1,430 rakeable buy-in and a $2M-plus guarantee, which makes the satellite decision more interesting than most players realize.

Jun 8 · 3 min read

Why a Bracelet Winner Played a $135 Satellite

The EV math behind grinding mega satellites instead of buying in directly — even when you can afford the entry.

Jun 7 · 3 min read

The Number That Actually Wins Fantasy Poker Leagues

Forget raw scores. The gap between what a player costs and what they produce is where $25K Fantasy contests are won and lost.

Jun 5 · 3 min read

Landmark Mega Satellites Aren't Normal Satellites — Stop Playing Them Like One

Six WSOP Landmark Mega Satellites hit the final two tables overnight, and the correct strategy inside the top 18 diverges sharply from the survival-mode approach most players default to.

Jun 4 · 4 min read

What Brad Ruben's Bracelet Hand Teaches About Short-Handed 2-7 Endgame

The correct play in a lowball draw endgame often means standing pat with a hand most hold'em players would muck without thinking.

Jun 2 · 3 min read

A Hold'em Player's Guide to the $1,500 2-7 Lowball Draw Final Table

Nine players are chasing a bracelet in poker's most counterintuitive format — here's how to actually understand what you're watching.

Jun 1 · 4 min read

Where PLO Actually Pays: A City-by-City Breakdown at $2/$5 and $5/$10

Seven readers asked the same question — so Charlotte pulled the data on rake, hourly rates, and cost of living across the cities that run PLO consistently.

May 27 · 3 min read

Should You Wait or Drive? The Math of Poker Waitlists

A framework for calculating the real EV of sitting on a Bravo waitlist versus burning gas to the next room.

May 25 · 4 min read

The $5-Straddle PLO Trap: Why Your Preflop Math Is Wrong in Texas

A mandatory $5 straddle in a $1/$2 PLO game cuts your effective SPR nearly in half, and most players never adjust.

May 23 · 3 min read

The Mixed-Game Trap: Which Variant Is Costing You Money?

Thirteen names deep on a waitlist for a four-game rotation at Westgate — and most of those players haven't done the math on which variant is bleeding their hourly rate.

May 21 · 3 min read

Should You Drive to the Next Room? A Waitlist Math Framework

When JACK Cleveland's 1-3 NL waitlist hit 12x its median while Hollywood Toledo sat at 5x, the math behind the drive-or-wait decision got real.

May 19 · 4 min read

PLO Waitlist or NLH Open Seat: A Bankroll Decision Framework

When eight names sit between you and a PLO table, the math on whether to play NLH or wait is more nuanced than your gut thinks.

May 18 · 3 min read