Beginner Strategies
May 27 2008
If you want to become a good poker player, you’ve got to avoid making critical mistakes. Here are five profit-killing mistakes common to beginners that can be easily exorcised from your game.
1.
Don’t play too many hands. The No. 1 mistake for most losing poker players is that they play way too many hands. To be a winning poker player you’re going to have to fold more hands than you play. This takes patience and the skill to be extremely selective in the hands you play and the hands you throw into the muck from the start. The more hands you lose, the more hands you’re going to eventually have to win to get your money back. Every time you spend money on a hand you should have folded, you’re making it harder on yourself to get back to even or make any kind of a profit.
2.
Don’t use auto-play buttons. Auto-play buttons are those little checkboxes that allow you to select your play in advance before it’s your turn to act. Auto-play buttons should not be used for two reasons. First, before deciding what play to make you should always see what the players ahead of you have done. And second, auto-play buttons are a well-known form of online tells. For example, an auto-play check can be seen as a sign of weakness. Always avoid the auto-play buttons.
3.
Don’t show your cards. Poker is all about decision-making and you always make better decisions when you have more information. By showing your cards when you don’t have to, you’re essentially giving your opponent information that you should have kept secret. If you can leave your opponents guessing as to what cards you have, do it every time.
4.
Don’t play distracted. The advent of online poker has created something that was very rare in live casino games – the distracted poker player. You can pretty much do anything now while playing poker at the same time. If you want to play smart and win at poker, just play poker. Don’t check your email and listen to music or watch TV, because this will take you away from the game and cause you to miss valuable information.
5.
Don’t go nuts. If there’s one thing you want to avoid while playing poker, it’s going on tilt. Going on tilt is when you let your emotions get the best of you and allow them to influence your play. This is never good because it almost always causes you to make mistakes and costs you money. No matter what, bad beats are going to come and if they put you on tilt then things will just go from bad to worse.
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