Mistakes playing poker

Mistakes playing poker - Slow Play

Most beginners go though a phase of slow playing a little too much. To slow play a hand is to feign weakness on a hand, call instead of raise, check instead of bet. The idea being that by slow playing you keep a number of players in the game as long as possible and home that maybe one of them will start betting heavily believing your hand is weak.

The idea seems great and you can certainly see professionals use this technique on TV. The only problem is that too many players over use this concept.

Let's say you're playing Holdem, you hold pocket Aces and the flop comes A 4 5. So you have just flopped a nice set of Aces, a great position to be in. Instead of playing with the confidence of having the best hand you check on the flop.

Everyone around the table checks. The turn is a King, someone makes a minimum bet and everyone folds except you, you call. The river is a Deuce, and your opponent bets again and you call. When you and your opponent show your cards you show your trip Aces.

Your opponent turns over a King Three. Turns out he had a pair of Kings on the turn, so bet it, and then caught a miracle card on the river and made a straight (A 2 3 4 5). So you lose. If you had bet on the flop you may have taken the pot down right then instead of giving money away to your opponent.

There are several problems with slow playing. One is that your opponent might also be slow playing. Two is that you are giving free or cheap cards to an opponent who is on a draw.

In the above example it was cheap enough for your opponent to play his relatively weak second pair hand just to see what happened on the river. So the opponent won all the blinds, the bets and the additional bets that you gave him when you called the turn and river.

In one of the great facts about Holdem is it is possible to know that your hand is unbeatable based on looking at the board cards. If there are no pairs on the board you can rule out four of a kind and even a full house as just one example.

You might hold the best hand (the nuts) and be slow playing a player who thinks they too hold the best hand. If he starts to slow play you while you are slow playing him it’s going to be a very weak pot that you win.

This Slow Play mistake is part of the problem phase that many beginners go though when they play all their strong hands weakly and all their weak hands strongly. Most decent poker players can see right through this strategy. It is simply not sophisticated enough to fool good players. As with most tricks in poker, use the slow play very sparingly and it may give you some good results. Over use it at your peril.


Mistakes playing poker - Playing Suited Hands

We all remember a great win we had with an Ace high flush. It's a nice hand, someone who is smug because they have an Ace high straight or a nice set of Kings are blown out of the water by a flush. If you are chasing that feeling with a J 4 of spades you are wasting your money and your time. The chances of flopping two spades is around 8-1.

Then you still need to find another spade whilst all the time fighting the possibility of a better flush or the board pairing and someone getting a full house. This is especially true in Omaha where the chances of your being beaten is greater because of the additional hole cards. If you play hands just because they are suited you're going to be a loser in the long term.


Mistakes playing poker - Protecting Your Blinds

Some books tell you to do it, some players might tell you to do it. DON'T DO IT! Think of blinds as an entry fee for playing the game, an ante if you will. Consider that every time the button comes around to you you are going to be once in the big blind and once in the small blind, it is just the nature of the game.

If everyone at the table folds while you are in the blinds and the man on the button raises your blind what exactly are you trying to protect? A few cents, maybe a few dollars? Once you start protecting your blinds by reraising or staying in a hand you have no business to be in you are opening yourself up for defeat.

If you flow a top pair with a weak kicker or a draw you find an excuse to throw even more money at the pot. It's a bad play, protecting your blinds is NEVER a reason to stay in a hand.


Mistakes playing poker - Playing A Good Starting Hand When You Miss The Flop

Good starting hands are always nice, after an hour playing with hands like J 6 offsuit or a pair of fives it is wonderful to look down and see a suited AK. So you proudly bet out with big slick and the flop comes J 9 2. Guess what? You missed the flop. You have nothing. Lay it down now!

So you refuse to lay it down. You keep in the hand looking for a Queen Ten to make you a straight or maybe an Ace or King to give you top pair. The problem is your opponent has Ace Nine or Ace Deuce. You are chasing a hand, he already has one. The odds are against you, you are gambling. Play like this all the time and you are fighting the odds. Learn to play craps.


Mistakes playing poker - Bluffing A Weak Player

If you try to bluff a weak player, you are a weak player. The problem with weak players is they don't like to lay down their hands. They lack the knowledge and ability to know when the odds are really bad, they just keep chasing that winning hand, and sometimes they might get it. Even if you do bluff a weak player once, this will turn them into calling stations.

They are never going to get caught out like that again. Remember the article about calling too much? This is a beginner mistake, so while you lay the sneakyest bluff you can, the beginner totally misses it and just keeps calling with his low pair.

While good players play their opponents and not the cards, while good players know when to holdem and foldem, bad players do not. Bad players see a mediocre hand and think all about the miracle cards that could turn their hands supernova. They are not thinking about your subtle and brilliant play, the way you just bet enough to turn the pot odds against them. You think they can calculate pot odds? Ha!

This is why bluffing is a common mistake in online poker. There are so many bad players out there who call too much. If a weak player is still in the hand be careful with that bluff.