I was thinking about mistakes that most poker players make and everyone makes different mistakes at times. Even I find myself making some of these mistakes.

Which of these mistakes do you think are made the most?

Playing too many hands
Betting wrong amount (I do this sometimes)
Playing position wrong
Being too predictable
Focusing too much on the cards
Not knowing the outs or odds

Or are there some other mistakes not listed that are more prevalent in poker?

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~PokerDawg~
Poker Blog

You nailed it.

Playing too many hands.

Odds, betting amounts, and position are extremley impotant, but if you are playing too many hands then you can cancel out any possible edge you have when taking advantage of these other aspects. Sure it is all relative, you should be playing a lot of hands in position and sure you could pick up a lot of pots by betting crazy large amounts, but eventually you will just get caught to much to make your odds plays count and your reads matter. If you play too many hands you are simply setting yourself up to fail way too often, cancelling out any other small edges you may gain from position and knowing your odds.

I've mentioned it in other threads also, but their are two major leaks or mistakes that if fixed can turn most losing players into at least break even players.

1. Playing too many hands.
2. Game Selection (choose a game with players that don't play as good as you, playing limits within your bankroll, etc)

Obviously, there are a ton of other mistakes players make, but they are minor compared to playing too many hands and game selction.


Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I have to agree...playing too many hands is a major problem. Even though I'm still a fish according to poker tracking software, I have finally maintained a positive $/hr figure (above the zero mark) for the past few months by playing fewer and higher quality hands. I think when I figure out how to better pick the good games, (i.e., soft games), I will begin to see some upward trending in my figures. I find myself placing in the money more often in SnG's as well by utilizing my position and better hand selection to my benefit.

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ertrauma


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As my father always said, "Son, choose your sword wisely for some day you may find you must fall on it".

My biggest mistake is that I don't have patience....if i'm not in a good mood I play to agressive and for many times I have callers with strong hands than mines!

Agree with the posters above, far too many hands... I'll add another thought though.

Not only does the average player select too many starting hands they call with them too often.... now, calling has its place as part of a balanced strategy... but as a 'default' action it is a serious leak - especially when combined with raising only with strong hands and folding missed flops.

Cheers, Mark

Learning how to play in different positions has probably helped my game more than anything else. When I started playing I would play AK the same whether on the button or UTG.

Also, I've learned that when you are going to play a hand out of position, i.e. from the blinds, you need to get as much information about your opponent's hand as possible. You will be acting without information for the rest of the hand, so the time to get information is preflop. Best way to do this is reraise. If he raised before the flop with a medium-strong hand to take down the blinds, he'll either fold or call and be cautious with his future bets since you've declared that you have a strong holding. If he reraises, you know he's probably got it. In this way you can force your opponent to define his hand preflop so that this can inform your postflop play. Of course, if you can't justify raising with your hand, it's probably not worth playing OOP.

In this context I'm speaking about situations when I have a relatively strong holding. I personally very rarely "resteal" with weak hands as I don't feel that my reading abilities are good enough to make this a profitable play. I hope to do this more as my experience increases.

I would say going broke with hands like pocket Aces. Begginers get so excited about actually getting pocket aces that they ignore the fact that there is something on board that can beet them.
I also think overplaying Ace-King is another big mistake.

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Kickboyswoop

It looks like "Playing too many hands" is the obvious.

I also notice some poker players tend to think they need to bluff at every pot they don't have a hand or they are overly aggressive. On the flip-side some are not aggressive enough and let others roll over them.

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~PokerDawg~
Poker Blog

Total agreement with you, Kickboy...I went belly up with AA so many times early on...now I can better read the board and have on occasion find it necessary to fold not only AA, but KK and QQ as well...

As far as AK is concerned, I refer you to a paraphrased quote from the old man, Doyle Brunson..."AK is nice, but it is, after all, ONLY a drawing hand". I say this to myself every time I pull AK, and find that it helps me to keep the remainder of the hand in perspective.

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ertrauma


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As my father always said, "Son, choose your sword wisely for some day you may find you must fall on it".