Whether you feel confident or you’re just pretending to fool the competition, there are some poker mistakes from which none of us are immune. Avoiding these mistakes can mean the difference between a good day at the tables and a frustrating day of banging your mouse against the wall.
Keep reading so you can recognize and avoid common poker mistakes.
Call Instead Of Raise
When you call when you should raise it can cost you the pot and maybe a few subsequent pots. If you’re holding the best hand and you’re confident of it, illustrate that confidence to your opponents by making them pay to see the next card and the card after that.
This mistake can easily backfire against a more aggressive player who will force you to raise to stay in the hand or fold out of fear.
Playing The Flop Passively
If you have 2 powerful cards in your hand, then don’t wait to see how your opponents react. Beat them to the punch and act aggressively on the flop. Your goal here is to make any unsure players pay to stay in the hand. This will give you a major advantage as the hand progresses.
Play the flop passively and you just might find yourself as the player paying too much in hopes of making a winnable hand.
Playing Too Many Hands
This is a very common poker mistake among online players and if you’re one of them it will cost a pretty penny by the end of the day. If you’re a player who has never seen 2 cards worth folding then pay attention; the odds are not in your favor of winning all or even most hands.
Playing too many hands will do two things: first it will make it difficult for you to pay attention to poker strategy and it will cost you a lot of unnecessary blinds and raises.
Ignoring Odds
Without odds poker is about as strategic as pin the tail on the donkey. Players who ignore the odds are setting themselves up for a big loss by staying in a hand they can’t win or folding a hand they’ve already been pot committed to. Doing either of those means you’re doing one thing; giving your money away to another player.
Before you sit down again, get familiar with pot odds and knowing when you’re pot committed.
Being Aggressive With Any High Cards
This is probably one of the biggest poker mistakes around, made often by newcomers. Just because you have 2 face cards doesn’t mean you have a hand that can win. You should know the odds of getting a straight or a pair or the elusive quads before you start betting and raising.
Yes an Ace is a good card, but remember that there are only a few cards that help you win big with an Ace. And if you don’t take into account how the others are betting you’ll really find yourself in a bind, by betting as though the cards you need are in the deck rather than in your opponent’s hand.
Monkey See-Monkey Do
When you play heads up poker you have just one opponent which should make it easier to play them. However one of the most costly poker mistakes you can make is to mimic what your opponent is doing. This lulls you into a false sense of security until each pot is ripped from your hands.
Don’t raise just because your opponent does; do it when you feel that it will provide you a strategic advantage. When you just follow the other player you start to ignore important strategy choices than can cost you a game or tournament.
Remember these poker mistakes the next time you sit down and avoid them at all costs. If you don’t, prepare for a frustrating day at the poker table.