Common Beginners Mistakes in Poker
Making mistakes in poker is inevitable, especially for newer poker players. However, mistakes can become quite costly and it is important to be able to identify these mistakes and learn from them so players can become profitable at poker.
To aid those who are new and would like to become better poker players, we have outlined the top common beginning poker player mistakes that virtually all players make when first starting out that should be avoided at all costs. Avoiding these mistakes will make a night and day difference to a player's bankroll.
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Top Beginner Mistakes in Poker
Starting Hands - Playing Too Many Hands
One of the most common mistakes that newer players tend to make is not being selective enough when choosing their starting hands. In other words, they play way too much.
When first starting out, I played the most random hands. As long as it had a face card I was happy to see a flop and if I connected, watch out, I was ready to stack off.
As you can probably imagine, that is a sure fire way of going broke. And while hands such as J-5, 7-3, or 4-2 may be obvious 'muck' cards for most of us, sadly, many players still manage to find themselves seeing flops with this garbage.
Additionally, players also seem to be overly sentimental with hands that contain aces or kings such as A-4, A6, K-9 or K5 and play these hands as if they have plenty of value. But any hand that we have listed above has very little value, if any, and all share the same common disastrous event; they all tend to be dominated by a hand that has a better kicker.
It is all but too common to see players take their ace-6, shove their stack in and find out they are 2nd best to A-Q, A-K or a solid pocket pair. It happens often and many players burn up their bankroll before they even consider this leak in their game. Be sure not to be one of these players when starting out and you will find yourself way ahead of the pack
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Poor Bankroll Management
Another common mistake is practicing poor bankroll management. In fact, the way I handled things when I first started playing 'bankroll management' was a term I was not aware of. My line of thinking always resulted in playing in whatever I felt like at the moment or to chase losses. This of course resulted in me having to deposit tons of money.
Apparently, I am not alone here, as many players feel that their skills are too far superior to be stuck playing at $.01/$.02 no limit hold'em. They will deposit $20 and sit down at $.25/$.50 or $.50/$1 tables and think that everything is fine; that is, until their AA's are cracked by J-4os and their bankroll is depleted. As funny as that may sound, it happens believe me, and the last thing you want is to face a bad beat and be broke too.
To prevent this, it is a good idea for players to exercise bankroll management that allows players to face bad beats or 'variance' and not go entirely broke in the event that something happens. That way players can live another day.
Now, bankroll management guidelines vary a lot and will vary based on skill, stakes, games played and win rate. However, as a rule of thumb, players should have anywhere from 20 to 25 buy ins or 500 times the big blind for the stakes they wish to play in no limit cash games and anywhere from 50 to 100 buy-ins for sit n go's or tournaments. And as previously mentioned these numbers can be adjusted to suit your needs.
Just be sure to only play at stakes that suit your bankroll guidelines and move down when needed to ensure you always have enough to play your games
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Bluffing - Bluffing Too Much
Bluffing in poker is just like any other poker strategy. It is useful when used properly but when overused or used improperly, it can be costly to a player's stack.
The reason that many newer players bluff is simply that they do not follow our first tip of being selective in their starting hands and than find themselves on the flop without the first clue as to what to do. They do not want to fold since they invested money into the pot already so they bet. Well, just blindly betting without considering what their opponents may have as well as the board texture will definitely spell disaster for many players who try to bluff.
So in short, it is much better as a beginner to avoid bluffing almost altogether until they have a solid understanding of the dynamics of the game. Bluffing is a strategy and there are times where bluffing is warranted, but until a player knows when these times are, they are just better off not bothering with it.
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Betting - Poor Betting Techniques
Lately, I have noticed many players do not have a grasp on the simplest of betting techniques when they play poker. In many games, I will witness players betting 20 chips into a pot of 300 or a min bet of 50 into a pot of 1,000. When players do this, they do a number of things:
Provide everyone with the odds necessary to chase any hand they want.
Show everyone their lack of experience, thus becoming a target.
Do not get enough value out of their made hands if they have one and spend countless chips if they do not.
In some cases, players bet really small because they are afraid to scare players out of pot or to lure players into the pot when they have a hand. The problem with this is, is that when a player makes a bet like this they are not getting remotely close to the value that they should be getting for their hand and are only asking to be drawn out on.
Other times, players bet really small with a draw or hardly anything at all with some weird notion that a 20-chip bet into a pot where I committed 250 chips is going to scare me away. Even if I knew I was beat I would be correct in many cases to call, even with long shot draws such as gut-shot straight draws.
So before making a bet, players should definitely ask themselves what they hope to get out of it. Do they want to protect their hand? Or maybe they want to get value out of it. Having an understanding of what they want to get out of their bet should lead them to better betting decisions, which is generally more than 10% of the pot. As a general rule of thumb, all players should bet 3 to 4 times the big blind pre-flop and anywhere from 1/2 to the size of the pot post flop. If a player cannot make a bet of this size, they shouldn't be betting at all.
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Chasing Draws
It is often too tempting for players to let go of hands that can potentially turn into monsters such as gut-shot straight draws or backdoor flushes. However, to put this into perspective, all hands at one point or another can turn into monsters. But does that mean that chasing them will be profitable?
In most cases, no, chasing random hands will not only prove to not be profitable, it will prove to be draining to your stack. It is important for players to understand outs, odds and pot odds before really sitting down to play poker. Having an understanding of these concepts will keep players from chasing hands that will prove to be a negative expected value play over a period of time.
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Common Mistakes in Poker
While these are probably not all of the mistakes that are regularly made by new players in poker, they sure are the most common. Too many players neglect starting hands, betting techniques and bankroll management when first starting out and yet, they wonder why they are having such a hard time getting their poker career of the ground. By utilizing our tips above and getting a handle on the simplest of poker fundamentals, any player should be able to get a head start on the path to poker prosperity.
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