Want to Win More Poker? Stop Making These 4 BIG MISTAKES
There’s no denying the fact that poker is a tough game and that you’re going to make mistakes. That’s okay—even Poker Legends mess up from time to time. But if you can recognize the mistakes you’re making and start making fewer of them, you’re going to improve your win rate. This is especially true if you can make fewer mistakes than the opponents at your table.
1. Not defending your blinds often enough
When you’re the big blind and someone makes a small raise from late position, what do you do?
In most cases, you should call. If you’re getting amazing odds, you need to fight for it instead of just giving up. You don’t need a premium hand to make a profitable call. In fact, if you only need to put in a couple big blinds, you hardly need to win at all for it to be worth it. Just see a flop.
That means suited hands, connectors, and similar hands should be in your range. And don’t forget to 3-bet both your best hand and some marginal stuff like suited connectors!
2. Overplaying marginal made hands
When you flop a hand like top pair with a weak kicker, middle pair with a good kicker, or pocket queens on a flop with a king, you’ve got a marginal made hand.
Too many people want to protect these hands so they start making big bets. This leads to bloating the pot with hands that would rather play small-ball.
Instead, play passively and try to get to a showdown. Check behind on the turn. Use these hands as a bluff catcher instead of an aggressive strategy.
3. Hero calling too often on the river
Get rid of your ego. There’s no need to prove yourself right that they outdrew you or feel like “I just gotta pay to see it.”The truth is that, especially at low stakes and on the river, people just don’t bluff enough. You’ll win more if you fold against these tight ranges.
4. Not thinking in ranges
A lot of bad players only care about their two hole cards and the two hole cards that their opponent is holding. Stop putting your opponents on an exact hand, and stop thinking about only your own cards.
Instead, if you want to be difficult to play against, you have to be balanced. And that means thinking in ranges. Consider all the different combinations of hands that would make sense for both you and your opponents to be holding given the action. Then use that deductive process to sell a story.
Stop making these four big mistakes to win more chips at the poker table!
