The 20 Most Frequent Poker Mistakes

We've compiled a list of the most common blunders we've seen on poker tables, ranging from passive checking to overvaluing your hand.

Playing poker is an extremely difficult game, and with all of the numerous variables, it's easy to make a lot of blunders when playing. Limiting the quantity of mistakes you make in comparison to your opponents is an important part of becoming a good professional poker player. We'll go over the most common poker mistakes and how to avoid them when you play.

1. CALLING/CHECKING WITHOUT PLANNING

When playing poker, you should have a fixed strategy that you can change based on the information you receive, and each hand is an example of this. You should have a plan for each hand you play depending on the cards that are dealt and how your opponents will react.

Many players will take the check/call line without thinking about what they'll do on the turn or river. Being forced to construct a strategy on the fly disadvantages you because this game is too hard to create completely thought-out strategies in 20-30 seconds.

Think about what you're going to do next before taking any action; it will help you play much better.

2. OVERPRICING A MIDDLE-RANGE HAND

Knowing where your hand is inside your range is a difficult ability to master, and many players make the error of undervaluing their hand. When you start over-valuing (and overbet) your medium-strength cards, you'll notice that your value bets are too frequently called by better hands, and you can't locate enough bluffs to balance your range.

Betting the fourth pair and below for value, for example, is frequently too thin of a value bet depending on how the action has gone on previous streets and will typically only be called by superior hands. In these cases, it's advisable to take your showdown value or check to your opponent, and perhaps bluff-catch if we believe they're bluffing sufficiently.

3. INABILITY TO PRACTICE

In this game, standing motionless means falling behind. Some players are continuously working on new methods, and new software is being created to assist you in understanding ideal strategies and how to incorporate them into your game.

A common characteristic of winning players is that they believe they have the game "figured out," or at least enough figured out to beat the games they're playing. What they don't consider is that the other participants in the game may be working harder than they are, and that their idleness may cost them their advantage.

4. LOSS OF CONTROL OVER ONE'S EMOTIONS

Because poker is such a mental game, the ability to maintain emotional stability is crucial. It's pointless to put in hours of work off the table if you can't implement it while you're on the table. Tilt is the most common problem that people encounter. In essence, losing one or two huge hands might push some people over the brink, causing them to make decisions based on their emotions. Furthermore, going on tilt is a dead giveaway at a poker table, even online.

This will cost you a lot of money in the long term since tilting will introduce additional leaks into your game in an attempt to "get it back right immediately" on top of any leaks you currently have.

5. CONSTANT BLINDS DEFENSE

Even though you are getting a high price for defending hands in the blinds when compared to other positions, this does not imply you should go crazy and defend everything. Many players will convince themselves to call a lot of trashy hands while they are in the blinds because they believe the discount is worth it.

However, because you're out of position, it's extremely tough to win the pot without the betting lead, and if you're calling a wide range of hands, you'll be forced to check/fold frequently. Instead of calling a bunch of terrible cards, try folding them or widening your 3betting range to increase your chances of winning the pot before the flop.

6. APPLYING THE SAME STRATEGY TO BOTH HANDS

Many hands are'mixed tactics' when it comes to optimal poker strategies. This means that you can't always play a hand the same way in order to obtain the maximum EV. If you look at a solver, you'll notice that a lot of top-pair hands are sometimes checked, sometimes bet small, and sometimes bet large.

If you always play in the same manner with particular hands, you not only don't get the best EV out of your hand, but you also become much easier to read. Players that pay attention will note that you always bet with your top pair and always check with your second pair, and they will react accordingly.

7. IGNORE YOUR COMPETITORS

When you play live poker, one of the most important sources of knowledge is the person sitting directly across from you. Many players are inexperienced at hiding tells, which can be easily detected by an alert player. Picking up on these tells can gain you a lot of money in the long run since you can call bluffs you would not have called based on your hand or make hero folds if your opponent shows strength.

Before acting on your tells, make sure you have a good read on them. Tells are not universal and might signify different things depending on the player. You might as well flip a coin if you're just guessing what their cues mean!

8. PLANNING TO BET OUT OF POSITION

Playing out of position is extremely difficult in poker and is where many people lose the majority of their money. Being unable to see what your opponent is doing before making a decision is a significant disadvantage, thus playing out of position should not be taken lightly.

This means you should have a strategy in place for when you're playing out of position, whether you're checking or betting, because the turn and river cards can radically alter how you play the hand. Knowing what you're going to do ahead of time will make things easier on later streets because you won't have to devise solutions on the fly.

9. FAILURE TO COMPUTE THE OUTS

Not knowing how many outs you need to make in your hand, and thus how much equity you have in your hand, is a significant mistake that will cost you a lot of money chasing draws at erroneous pricing. In Texas Hold'em, each card that enhances your hand provides you with 2% equity.

Knowing how much equity you have, you may look at the call price you're being laid to see if the call is +EV. If it isn't, you can fold knowing you made the correct move; if it is, you can call to try to enhance your hand. Calling too frequently when you don't have the best pricing will end up costing you money in the long run.

10. PLAYING MORE BETS THAN YOU CAN AFFORD

You should never gamble with more money than you can afford to lose. This is not only personally irresponsible, but it will also have a significant impact on how you play your game. You're more likely to lose if you sit at a table knowing you can't afford to lose the money in front of you.

Because you will be too afraid to take the aggressive measures required to win at poker, you will play more passively, waiting for the nuts before putting any money in. However, the nuts don't come up frequently enough to make this a feasible strategy, and passive poker is generally losing poker, so the more passive you play to save money, the more likely you'll lose it.

11. FAILURE TO USE THE POKER HUD

HUDs are an extremely useful tool while playing online poker because they track your opponents' metrics and provide insight into how they play. Some sites do not allow HUDs, but if you do, you will be at a significant disadvantage if you do not utilize one.

When playing online poker versus live poker, it is far more difficult to keep track of how others are playing. This is due to the fact that hands are coming at you faster, you may be playing multiple tables and are unable to focus on how specific players are playing, or you may be playing zoom and are unable to see the outcomes of hands when you fold. These issues are solved by using a HUD.

12. PLAYING WITH A LIMITED RANGE

The presence of blinds and antes is the fundamental reason why playing an overly tight approach does not succeed. These required bets force you to throw money in without glancing at your cards, and if you don't win enough pots, you'll run out of money. Top-tier hands just do not come around frequently enough for you to be able to play them completely, and you will be badly impacted by the blinds/antes.

Because there are a lot of players still to act behind you, it's reasonable to play tight ranges from early positions, but the closer you come to the button, the looser you should play. Raising a larger range with fewer individuals left to act increases your chances of winning the blinds and antes before the flop.

13. EXERCISE WITH A WIDE RANGE

Playing too broad of a range, on the other hand, will get you into difficulty, but this time from other players rather than the blinds and antes. If your ranges are too broad, you'll be vulnerable to 3bets from your opponent, forcing you to either overfold or defend a big range that will have to fold a majority of the flop.

Even if your opponents don't 3bet you, having to play a large range postflop is difficult since it's simple to start over-bluffing if you don't know how your overall range interacts with the board. This gives your opponents the opportunity to respond by calling you down more frequently and winning with the best hand.

14. PERMANENT BLUFFING

While bluffing is an important component of poker, it is not a wise strategy to bluff every hand. We bluff in poker to get our opponents to call us down while we're value betting, since if we didn't bluff, our opponents would have no motive to call.

However, if we are always bluffing, our bluffs will much outweigh our value cards in terms of combos, and our opponents will make a lot of money calling us down-money that we will lose! Using concepts like blockers to moderate your bluffing frequencies will prevent you from over-bluffing and will save you money in the long run.

15. ESTABLISHING PREDICTABLE BET SIZE

An alert opponent will be able to heavily abuse you if you always bet the same hand values for the same sizings. For example, if you constantly bet your draws at a modest sizing to limit the amount you lose when you miss, and your top pair at a large sizing to maximize value, an opponent will only put money in when they have you beat.

In every situation, you should have both strong and weak hands for each sizing you use. Any observant regular will pick you apart if you separate your sizings dependent on your hand strength.

16. DRAWING ON THE WORST BOARD

While drawing straights and flushes might win you a lot of money if they hit, there are also situations where drawing to and producing those cards can cost you a lot of money. For example, drawing very weak flushes while the hand is multiway can be risky because some of your opponents' possible cards are better flush draws, which can cost you if you both hit.

Drawing to the bottom of a straight draw is another example. Straight over straight isn't as uncommon as you may think, and there's a reason why the low ends of straight draws are referred to as the 'dummy end' - particularly on four straight boards.

17. COMPENSATION FOR LOSSES

Chasing your losses when gambling is never a wise idea. If you ever feel like you're pursuing something, it suggests you're in a high emotional state and won't be making the best selections. This is problematic in any kind of gambling, but especially in poker, where your edge is based on your ability to make reasoned decisions.

When you become very emotionally concerned in the money you've lost, it's a warning that you should take a vacation. You should wait until you are entirely relaxed before deciding whether or not you want to continue playing. If you're thinking of quitting, it's typically a good idea to put it off for another day.

18. SLOWPLAYING WITH STRONG HANDS

This is something that a lot of new gamers do. They recognize how strong their hands are and they're terrified to wager in case their opponents fold. They fail to establish a pot against the range of hands that would call a bet, ensuring that they win the smallest amount from their opponents.

This isn't to imply you should never play your cards slowly, but being hesitant to wager them for value in case your opponent folds will cost you a lot of money. There will be many hands that your opponent will call but not bet on, and when you have a strong hand, you want to be generating value from those hands.

19. RUNNING INTO AN OPPOSITION'S BLUFF

When playing poker, especially live poker, it's easy to get sucked into an ego war with another player if you're frequently losing hands to them. In poker, you may be dealt the losing hand against another player numerous times in a succession. When this occurs, it is critical not to make it about your ego and begin actively playing back at them in an attempt to turn the tide.

If you play a decent, solid approach, you will eventually start to win against whoever is now causing you trouble. Changing your strategy to play against them more frequently in an attempt to beat them will only play into their hands and cost you money in the long run.

20. FAILURE TO LEARN FROM PRIOR POKER MISTAKES

Poker is an odd game in that you can make the proper decision over and over and still not win, and you can make the incorrect decision over and over and still win. This is due to the variation in poker, and if you're on the losing end, it can have an effect on your confidence.

However, many players would attribute every loss to chance and never acknowledge to making a mistake. This is risky because if you don't assess your play to discover whether you're making mistakes, there's no way to fix them and improve - and if you don't improve, you'll eventually lose.

You should continually be looking for flaws in your play and rectifying them where you discover them.

Because poker is such a complex game, you can expect to make mistakes - and that's just fine! Nobody is flawless! The key thing is to acknowledge mistakes and do your best to remedy them. Hopefully, this list has given you some ideas for future projects.