Gross mistakes in poker. The most common mistakes in poker. Learn how to plan your game postflop
Poker is becoming more and more popular every year. Online rooms have become especially popular. As the popularity of poker grows, so does the number of inexperienced players who believe that it is only through luck that they will be able to become profitable. As a result, it turns out the opposite - beginners, not even knowing the reasons for their defeats, grumble at the deception of the system or the vicissitudes of fortune.
Of course, bad beats were, are and will be. But 90% of all beginner failures are due to a number of typical mistakes that beginners make at the start of their poker career.
Starting Hand Value
Often players don't even know what hands they can start with. There are about 150 sets of hands in Texas Hold'em, and only 15 give high chances of winning. In other cases, it is better not to risk, but to fold. The best choice would be AA, KK, here you can also add QQ, KQ (suited) and JJ.
With experience, you will begin to understand that folding hands at the start is worth 80% of the time.
All-in errors
This is fraught not only with unexpected consequences, but also with obvious neglect from other players. Beginners can go all-in with the first available hand, showing their frivolous attitude to the game.
On the other hand, beginners can go all-in with a strong hand at the start. But this hand is good only in their opinion. The player raises to three or four blinds, he does not get a pair, but raises further after the flop. An experienced opponent copies raises with his pair and wins with a minimal margin.
Yet again, newbie poker mistakes with all-in stem from a misunderstanding of the value of starting hands - do not take risks, especially at the start of a poker career.
The game is not limited
You have to play within your means and experience. If you are new to poker, use the free rooms. If, for example, 100 dollars, you should not jump to limits of 5 and 10. Limits of 1 or 3 dollars will be optimal - and this must be taken into account, even if there were no bad beats and you are inspired by luck.
Look for tables within your means. The ability to lose the entire bankroll in one room is not a very good idea. Poker is not only a game, but also an opportunity to earn money!
Break into cash games
Nothing new here: a player from the start in online poker starts with . This does not bode well. A beginner is nervous in an unusual environment, and besides, he does not understand the peculiarities of cash games at all. He misses a few hands, and then immediately breaks into the game. Cash rooms are not the place to aggressively steal blinds. Beginners are caught on this, because of banal ignorance.
Blinds don't increase in cash games. Keep this in mind and don't be aggressive in cash games. Calmness will lead to victory.
tilt
Loss of self-control is not only a scourge of new players. Experienced poker players are no less familiar with tilt. But for beginners, this is a more dangerous phenomenon. A typical situation: you lose most of the stack and go all-in preflop. The blinds are low though. The risk does not justify the possible gain. All-in in such situations shows only one thing: the player cannot cope with his own tilt. The end result is a loss.
There are many ways to maintain self-control, choose the best one for yourself. Carefully study risky situations so that you know how to behave in such cases.
copying
Do not repeat the actions of other players. When you lose, you might think that the reason for this or that defeat was "one's own game." This is a fairly common misconception among players. Then the beginners begin to copy the actions of their opponents, believing that it will definitely not get worse. But here a key factor plays a role: they have different starting hands and blinds, so the opponents act according to the situation, and you mindlessly repeat.
You can repeat the action of opponents, but not spontaneously and not at the table. Look in advance how each player does, because it also depends on the specific case and on the specific opponent. Ask more experienced friends for their opinion on why some do it this way and others do it differently.
Balance of wins and losses
Any player can easily lose because of bad beats, no matter how experienced he is. But here a very important point arises: are you ready to exchange several winning days with a good win for one day, where, due to a prolonged losing session, you will lose everything acquired in the previous period of time? Many will say no, of course not. But in practice, it turns out that in terms of time, losing games in poker for beginners turn out to be longer than winning ones.
There is always an explanation. Players often do not want to lose even the slightest bit big score and exit the game. But if she does not go, the desire to recoup overshadows common sense. The game drags on, and more often ends with a zero bankroll. This is the main reason for the negative balance in general, even if the player wins half the days, say, in a month. In time, losing sessions turn out to be longer.
Leaving the game too little to keep a small score is also not an option. But it's not as deadly as trying to stay to win back. Tilt and zealous striving will not bring anything good, there will be many mistakes - and most likely it will not work to win.
Bluff
Bluffing should be done carefully. And this is a long way to go. A new player, whether he likes it or not, is always visible to experienced players. And it is unlikely that, with bad starting hands, for example, it will be possible to successfully bluff. You will be easily bitten. The ability to bluff will come with experience, this also applies to facial expressions with gestures, and knowledge of situations where such a risk is justified.
Don't think that bluffs are much harder to spot in online poker rooms. The experience of your opponents will always put pressure on you if, instead of studying your defeats and the actions of other players, you bluff and take unnecessary risks.
Alcohol
It is clear that this thing has nothing to do with poker as a game. After all, the game turns into something cheeky, meaningless, and certainly not an opportunity to earn money if you drink alcohol during it.
Nothing strange but negative effect when playing poker, in addition to alcohol, friends also provide. When people close to you stand nearby and distract, even cheering and cheering for you, it makes it difficult to concentrate and leads to errors in poker.
Rest!
Concentration is a serious thing. And if it was mentioned above that you need to stop losing sessions more often in time, then you need to understand that rest is important after any game. Fatigue can turn even a series of victories into a dull ending.
Don't hesitate to take a break. sit in online room from your apartment - go out into the yard, breathe fresh air. Balcony? Drink something non-alcoholic? All this good options. Tone and concentration are just as important in poker as experience and luck.
Any possibilities
When playing online, it is important to consider any useful points. This is especially true for beginners. For example, in some rooms it is possible to play with colored decks, where each suit has its own color. This promotes concentration and helps to make timely decisions.
Coping with your laziness, envy, impatience, curbing the excess desire for excitement is the most important moment good game to poker. It is better to do all this from the very beginning, and not wait for the mythical arrival along with experience. It is following the simple tips written above that helps you grow from a green beginner to experienced player to poker.
If poker is your long-term plan, you need to invest a lot of time learning strategy and other aspects of the game. A mistake in this game leads to defeat and a decrease in the bankroll. Today we'll take a look at the most typical mistakes in poker, which do not allow beginners to relax and enjoy the game.
Playing a large number of hands
When playing hands, there should be no extremes. Breaking this rule is the most common mistake in poker. It is most important. Have patience analyze the cards and choose the most suitable moment otherwise just waste your money.
Poker may seem like a newbie boring game if he has to fold all the time. As a result, he starts calling every preflop to add action. Of course, there is no good reason in the form of a strong hand for this. The main thing is the opportunity to play at least on the flop. And the more this opportunity is used without reinforcement, the poorer his stack becomes, because on the flop it turns out that there is nothing to offer besides, say, a pair of deuces. Regular fold and lost chips on the call.
Hand Odds Mistake
The error is closely related to the previous point. It is enough for a beginner to hit a pocket ace or some small pair to assure himself that with this hand he will certainly win the pot. 3-3 will definitely beat 2-2 for value, and then suddenly something else will turn up. Yes, ace great map, the main kicker, but when in company with him, for example, 5 or 6 of any suit goes, this is a hand of practically nothing.
Understanding the value of a hand should be a red line from preflop to river(if they arrived). We made two pair after the fifth card came to the board, great, but while you were collecting this combination, it did not become more valuable than a set and other variations in increments. It still stands third from the end after the highest card and a pair. The chances of success are negligible if you dig into your own cards and do not accompany every decision with at least superficial estimates of the hand layout in the current hand.
Frequent blind defense
Another typical mistake in poker. It's not uncommon for beginner poker players to feel compelled to fight for the pot pre-flop just because they've made a blind bet in the small or big blind and their chips need to be wagered. Betting and calling raises with marginal hands, and even in the blinds, is outright poker suicide. Of course, very rarely, but there are situations when professionals play such a scenario, but in order to make it to a happy ending, you need to be a true Texas Hold'em genius.
Attempt to return the chips
Imagine that you inserted a bill into a vending machine with drinks, and it turned out to be faulty. Accepted the bill, did not drop the drink. The situation is unpleasant, but you will not try to load one bill after another in order to return the first one or at least get your drink. The only sure way is to stop.
It's the same with poker: the more you invest in a mechanism that will definitely not work for you at a particular moment, the more you lose. This error is typical for all trading rounds and this is its main problem. $2 for a call on the flop, $4 for a call on the turn, and on the river sadness, fold and minus $6, provided that the mistake from the previous point was not made.
Too much bluff
Bluffing is a great technique, very elegant and profitable, but it should never turn into paranoia. Nothing in poker should be paranoid. It is clear that in the process of learning the nuances of poker, no technique always works smoothly, everyone has gone through it, but you need to use your own internal brakes.
Bluff is an element of your unified gaming strategy. Every strategy has a purpose. No, in this case, “taking the pot” or “just winning” is not the goal, but abstract nonsense. The goal might be to play a straight draw against an opponent who is likely to have a high set or, for example, to dilute the general line of behavior with new elements. That is, at game situation there are some features and prerequisites for bluffing, but it will not be repeated often.
Bluffing with or without, firstly, will not bring the desired profit, and secondly, it will deprive not only the lion's share of the stack, but also elementary respect. You will simply be used as a "pump" for the bank.
Another Mistake in Poker: Predictability
From beginners, the question is often heard: “What does it mean not to be predictable if everyone advises the same thing about what to do in a particular situation?”. A very controversial opinion. How to avoid this mistake in poker? Poker is played with people, and any game with people is a water ball that can take on millions of unique shapes depending on external conditions, but at the same time remains water in the form of a ball.
Change the size of bets on individual streets, vary the range of hands for aggressive actions, change the sequence of actions - by and large, there are few options, the main thing is to be able to understand what and how to sculpt from them in a particular case. Only constant practice can teach this.
Even professionals in absolutely all areas make mistakes, and the more difficult the niche they have chosen, the more likely it is to make mistakes.
Poker is one of the areas that requires a person to have a lot of information and certain skills, but even studying them is not a 100% guarantee that there will be no mistakes.
Considering that the game of poker is accompanied by deposits of Money, it is necessary to try to reduce the percentage of their occurrence.
To start correcting mistakes, you first need to identify them, because some players simply do not notice how they allow mistakes in poker.
Now let's look at those that are more common than others:
one . Taking definite decision When playing poker, you will need to take into account the position you are in. From how many opponents will make a move after you, as well as depending on their strategy, a lot can change.
A prime example of such a mistake is checking the flop, which can win on a draw.
2. Many players raise their bets before the flop, and you don't have to enter this hand at all. Before calling a high bet, evaluate the likelihood that your hand will give you a win. I would like to point out that this is the common mistake in poker.
3 . The third mistake is the manifestation of curiosity. When a player makes a large bet, it can be very interesting what kind of hand he has, so a call is made. It is strictly forbidden to equalize the bet, and this can only be done when there is a potential for winning.
four . If you ask every experienced player what cards in your hand never fold? Then you will definitely get the answer - none. Even if you have two aces or kings in your hand, this does not mean that you will be the winner.
The ability to throw off cards in time and assess the environment is a definite help in achieving victory. The mistake of many players is not wanting to fold such a hand, even after the open board and the obvious possibility of a strong combination of opponents.
5 . When you get a strong hand, you have the opportunity to win, but you need to take into account the likelihood of opponents having a stronger hand.
In the practice of my game, there was a case when I made a raise to half of my stack, after which my opponent went all-in and increased the bet by 3 times. On the one hand, I was sorry to fold, losing my bet, and on the other hand, I could lose even more.
In this situation, I made the mistake of not estimating the likelihood that a straight could be formed, and as it turned out, it was my opponent who had it.
6. Quite a lot of people play poker, and each of them has an individual approach to gameplay. In some cases, it is better not to try to "read" opponents if it is very difficult, it is much easier to just move to another table.
7. The psychological component is no less important for the players than professional gaming skills to poker. The state of tilt can manifest itself at any time, from overwork or a few losses.
In recent years, the popularity of poker has spread like a cloud of an atomic explosion. This led to the fact that poker rooms began to flock to crowds of inexperienced players who, as a rule, play for long hours and do not notice that they are repeating the same mistakes all this time. Professional players have already passed this stage and are happy to take advantage of the missteps of beginners. This article provides useful tips to help a small fish grow into a shark overnight.
Starting hands
Most often, beginners make mistakes with the choice of starting hands. From what starting hand you can get involved in the game and not regret it? If a player doesn't have the faintest idea of what kind of starters to play with in a given variation of poker, they will call even in obviously losing position. So learn the values of the different categories of hands! In various poker rooms you can find special sections that have a list of hands according to their value.
All-in with the first hand
At many poker tables, it is not uncommon to see players who prefer to go all-in with the first hand that comes across. You should not try to have fun in this way, because by such behavior you send a signal to your opponents that poker for you is a game only for luck. Even when playing online, you must follow the elementary rules of etiquette!
Not those limits
Beginners need to know what limits fit their bankroll. If you have a $100 bankroll, you should stick to the $1 and $3 limits. You should not try to immediately jump to $5 and $10 limits, where you risk losing your own deposit in the blink of an eye.
Always try to find the most suitable table for yourself so that poker can bring not only pleasure, but also profit. There is no point in playing high roller tables if you don't have enough money for them. Those who want to gain experience in the game can take part in freerolls!
Patience
Every undertaking is a challenge. All players start the same way, and all players make the same mistakes. Therefore, try not to lose patience and try to control your own emotions. Every player experiences streaks of bad luck from time to time. Even professionals can't always win. But the strength of the latter lies in the fact that they can painlessly overcome the "black" period and not lose concentration.
Beginners usually completely lose their temper if the day turned out to be unsuccessful, and they forget everything they have learned before. This is a fairly common mistake of inexperienced players - to play on emotions.
Repetition of the opponent's actions
Some beginners don't even understand why they play badly. They think, “What am I doing wrong? I play just like everyone else." Do not repeat the actions of opponents on the table, because you do not know why they act one way or another.
Rely on your own experience and understanding of the situation in the game, only in this case you can become a successful poker player.
Too long and frequent play
Fatigue has only a negative effect on the game. If you play poker for too long (whether online or offline), you risk losing focus without even noticing it.
Professional players are always in control of their forces and know what to successful game it's important to take breaks. If you are tired, stop playing. Human eyes are not designed to constantly stare at a computer monitor.
Take a walk (at least around the room), look out the window, drink a glass of juice - concentration will improve along with the level of your game.
Alcohol and poker
Poker and alcohol are incompatible things. The pros know this and don't drink alcohol while playing. Under the influence of alcohol, the player loses concentration and plays worse and worse. It's like driving a car: alcohol dulls your attention and you get tired quickly.
Bluff
Beginners too often make too obvious actions and bluff. You need to be able to bluff in order to confuse opponents. Inexperienced players bluff too often and end up losing. Bluffing is easier online because your opponents can't read your hand gestures, but it still needs to be used carefully and only in special situations. Bluffing is one of the many tricks that a poker player should be able to use.
Suit colors
In many poker rooms, it is possible to play decks in which each suit has its own color, for example, diamonds are blue, clubs are green. This makes it much easier to recognize a potential flash and make decisions faster.
Use the tips above and you will immediately feel how your game has improved. Good luck at the tables!
Already gave you a lot useful tips. By this point, you should already have enough experience and playing practice. Before we get to the professional level of this course, let's take a quick look at the classic mistakes that players at this level make.
Here are nine major mistakes that lead to difficulties in the game, and therefore to big losses:
No. 1. Blind Defense Obsession
Many players are very protective of their blinds. They let their ego decide for them. Others believe that by posting a blind, they have already invested a lot and do not want to waste this money just like that. Defending the blind with weak cards is detrimental to your bankroll. If you show discipline and throw off bad cards, then you will remain only in the black. First, you'll save your chips, and second, you'll get blind stealers to do this more often, but when you do have a really good card, you can surprise them by luring them into a trap.
No. 2. Little fold
For example, you often limp into the game and always call someone's raise after that. Or here's another case. There was a raise, you called, and after you there was another increase and you again call. Such a game will not lead to good. If you have cards in your hands with which you certainly want to enter the draw, you can do this with a raise. Otherwise just pass and wait desired card. Patience and discipline must always be present at the poker table, along with aggression, in order to achieve the necessary profit.
Number 3. Almost on tilt
We all know that a situation can develop at the table that will annoy you. Very often this happens with aggressive and emotional players. Some players think it's hard to piss them off, but that's not the case. There is such a thing as semi-tilt, which means that the player is not yet on tilt and is in complete control of his game, but is on the verge. To prevent this danger from happening to you, you must always control your game and monitor your emotional state. Your goal is to always be on the alert and not succumb to provocations from other players.
#4 Imaginary Game Syndrome
The phrase "Fancy Play Syndrome" or FPS was first coined by poker writer Mike Caro many years ago. But it is relevant even today. A classic example of an FPS is a big loss in a hand where you had a monster on the flop, but by your wrong actions you gave your opponent great chances to hit the nuts on later streets. This usually happens when you misjudge your opponent.
No. 5. Playing small pairs from early position
Once you see a small pair, you often overplay it, hoping to hit a set or even a car. There are several problems with these pairs in early position. How often will you collect a set? We will not give an answer on purpose, because you should know this if you read the previous lessons. Forgot? Then you should go back and study this issue again. Here it is also worth noting that we mean the game at a full table. If you are playing one on one, then pocket pair either way, it's a good starting hand.
No. 6. Table Selection
Many of you have probably heard the phrase - "If in the first ten minutes of the game you could not determine who the fish is here, then this fish is you"! But really, how to do it? You have to watch your opponents and understand who makes mistakes and who doesn't. Luckily, you can do this before you even sit down. game table. Have you heard the story about the ninth best hold'em player? His only mistake was that he always played with eight the best players in the world. Don't fall into the trap. The poker school recommends studying your opponents in order to assess their level and choose the most profitable game for you.
No. 7. Reluctance to go to the next level
Beginners who want to become great poker players always focus on good starting cards, they play a small number of hands and work on their discipline. They are good newbies but we need to move on. To move forward on new level and to become a higher-class player, and then a professional, it is necessary not only to read books. Poker is a game of chance, so you don't need good cards to win, you just need better cards than your opponent. Sometimes even just multiplying the bet a few times is enough to force your opponent to fold good cards. The key point of a profitable opportunity is good position. From a good position, you can steal the blinds or play this or that hand wisely.
No. 8. Failure to fold a losing hand
A simple example can be given here. Let's say you flop two pair, but the flop is suited, and the turn comes another card of the same suit. The opponent makes it clear by his actions that he has a flush and tries to get a lot of chips from you. What if the theoretical straight closed on the turn? How many outs do you have for a full house? Is it worth paying a lot to try to catch him? This is a common mistake made by beginners. It is better to wait for a more reliable situation and win a big pot.
No. 9. Math and odds
Once you have decided to play poker well and are firmly convinced that you want to earn money with it, then you need to significantly increase your mathematical training. Most of the players on given level know the standard odds of incomplete combinations such as straights and flushes, if you don't know this, then take note that you need to learn it. Go back to the pot odds lesson and read it over again until you understand everything it says. Knowing this lesson will be very useful for a successful poker game.
What will be the next step?
If you can honestly say that none of these mistakes apply to you, then I wouldn't want to play against you at the poker table. Everyone makes mistakes, and you should always remember this in order to improve your game. If you recognize yourself in these examples, then this is an occasion to think and concentrate on a certain aspect of the game. Also, before you decide to move on to the next level of the course, we would recommend that you take some time to brush up on everything you have learned. Run your eyes over all the lessons in this course again. If you still have questions, you can always ask them to our trainers during lectures and broadcasts on our website.
From now on, we begin to study the game at a professional level, and we will start by studying
