A show about live poker · $1/$3 to $2/$5

The game is decided
between the cards.

Not the hands you're dealt — the reads, the leaks, and the people across the table. Between the Cards breaks down the decisions that move real money in live cash games: why the $60 river bet from the quiet guy means something different than the same bet from the maniac, and what to do about it.

Watch the latest episode Get the Friday briefing

New breakdowns weekly Free on YouTube No solver-speak

Live engine

Opponent-specific Same hand, different villain — different action.

Dollars, not % Sized to the actual pot, at the actual stake.

At a glance

Villain types

$1/$2 — $5/$10

Live cash stakes

4 streets

Pre · Flop · Turn · River

$ not %

Recommendations in dollars

Inside the engine

Everything a strong live player does in their head — made explicit.

RangeIQ is not a GTO solver. It's an exploit engine: you tell it who you're playing against, it tells you what to do — and why.

9 villain types, not a single GTO model.

Real opponents are not solvers. Pick who you're up against — Nit, TAG, LAG, Calling Station, Maniac, Reg, and more — and the engine adjusts every recommendation to their actual tendencies.

Nit TAG LAG Calling Station Maniac Reg Whale Spewy LAG Tight Passive

Dollars, not percentages.

Solver outputs need translation. RangeIQ sizes every action to your actual stake — so the answer is the bet, not the abstraction.

Pot$95

Effective$1,240

Bet$65

Stake-aware.

$1/$2 isn't $5/$10. Pool tendencies, sizing norms, and stack depth all change — the engine knows.

$1/$2

$2/$5

$5/$10

Street by street.

Pre, flop, turn, river. Each street narrows the range; each recommendation reflects that narrowing.

Pre Flop Turn River

IQ Reasoning.

Every recommendation explains itself — so you learn the structure, not just the answer.

→ Calling Stations call ~62% to 1/2-pot but fold ~71% to overbets on dry boards. Bet small for value, polarize on bluffs.

Alex Mercer

Host · AI presenter

Who's behind the show

An AI host. Human homework. Checkable math.

Yes — Alex is AI, and we'd rather tell you up front than have you find out in a comment section. Here's the honest division of labor: the hands, the reads, and the frameworks come from a human editorial team that plays the same $1/$3 and $2/$5 games you do, and every number Alex says on air is verified against the RangeIQ engine before it ships. Alex is the delivery. The work is real. Judge the show the way you'd judge a fold: on the reasoning.

"Don't take my word for anything. Take the math's." — Alex Mercer, host

Browse episodes Open the engine

Latest from the show.

All episodes →

9 min · March 2026

5 Hands Beginners Should Stop Playing (And What to Do Instead)

Suited connectors out of position. Small pairs against three-bets. Ace-rag from the cutoff. Each one feels like a play; each one is a slow leak. Alex maps them — and the structural reason they keep losing — to a fixable pattern.

Watch the breakdown →

Variance

Variance Is Not Your Enemy — The Math That Actually Pays You

2 min · May 2026

The Read

Why “I Put Him on Ace-King” Is Costing You Every Session

4 min · March 2026

The Seat

The Real Reason You’re Losing at Poker (It’s Not Your Cards)

2 min · March 2026

The show lives on YouTube.

Hand breakdowns, player types, and the leaks quietly taxing your Friday night — new episodes every week, free. Subscribe and the next one finds you before your next session does.

Subscribe on YouTube

How it works

Three inputs. One recommendation.

No setup, no spreadsheet. Open the engine, set the spot, get the answer.

Pick the opponent type.

Who's across from you? The Calling Station who never folds, the Nit who only bets value, the LAG repping every board. The exploit changes by opponent type.

Set the spot.

Stake, position, board, pot. The engine takes the same context a strong live player would log mentally — and turns it into a price.

Read the answer.

Bet $65, fold, check-raise to $180. With the reasoning underneath, in dollars, sized to the actual pot. Now go execute it.

How we check our work

Every number on the show comes out of the same engine.

Full disclosure: the team behind Between the Cards also builds RangeIQ — a study tool for live cash players. When Alex says "bet $26 into $40 against a calling station," that line was priced by the engine before it aired. The show teaches the frameworks, free, forever. If you ever want to drill them yourself — same hand, different opponent, see what changes — the engine is where we'd send you.

See the engine behind the show Or watch an episode first

Free tier, browser-based, study tool only — the show never paywalls an answer