Beginner’s Guide: Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

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When you’re just starting out in poker, it’s easy to fall into common traps that can quickly drain your chips and confidence. In this guide, we’ll highlight the most frequent mistakes new players make and provide simple strategies to help you avoid them and improve your game.

Alright, so today we’re hammering the fundamentals. This is not going to be an article that focuses on advanced plays. However, that doesn’t mean this article isn’t necessary.

All of us are capable of playing bad, myself included. Poker is a lot like driving. When we first take lessons with an instructor when we’re younger, we make sure to follow all the rules of the road religiously so we can get our driver’s license. However, as time goes on and we get more comfortable, bad habits can start to creep in because we’re getting a little too relaxed.

If you’re a little more experienced, use this article as an opportunity to double check everything is right in your game. If you find that something might be off, look into it further.

Seeing Too Many Flops

It happens. We get tired of being dealt nothing, and we want to take matters into our own hands. Maybe if we just saw the flop, it would turn out that we have something.

Let’s admit that folding is boring. We don’t go to the cardroom to watch other people play poker. We go to the cardroom so we, ourselves, can play poker. Folding preflop is like going to an amusement park to wait in the lines. Calling preflop is like getting to go on the rides. It’s exciting.

However, the fastest way to beat pretty much any poker game you ever play in is with solid aggressive play. If you wait for a solid hand and bet it hard, you’ll still win in most games, because people hate folding when they flop something, even if that something is mediocre.

When you enter a pot, you should be raising or three-betting. If you’re constantly calling or limping to see the flop, ask yourself why that is. Are you chasing losses? Are you in it for the thrill? Are you trying to win the most pots or are you trying to win the most money?

Calling Too Many River Bets

This is another unforced error that even experienced players commit, but new players do this extensively.

I’ve taught poker players how to play every morning for decades. I can tell you that it’s difficult to get people to fold enough preflop. It’s also hard to get people to value bet enough. However, sometimes it feels almost impossible to get people to bluff enough.

Getting people to fold is difficult because they always want to see flops. People have a hard time value betting enough because they’re worried about being raised. But people seem to have a phobia when it comes to big bluffs. I also used to struggle with this fear when I first started playing.

Why do people struggle to bluff enough? The stupidest most people have ever felt at a poker table was when their bluff got called. They felt extremely embarrassed when it happened in a bigger pot. They don’t want to feel that feeling ever again. No one wants to feel dumb on their day off.

If you ever have a bluff catcher on the river and an unremarkable regular or basic recreational player bets into you, give serious thought to folding. It’s unlikely they’re bluffing enough. Players who learn to bluff enough tend to move up in the limits fairly quickly, so if they’re playing lower stakes, it’s more likely they haven’t learned this tactic yet.

Raising To Find Out Where They’re At

You don’t see experienced players do this much, but you see beginners do this all the time.

Someone raises from early position. The beginner calls out of the big blind with 7-7. The board comes 10-5-2 rainbow. The beginner checks to the early position raiser. The early position raiser continuation bets.

You see many beginners raise here because they want to find out if their 7-7 is good or not. Do you have the ten?

However, this bet doesn’t accomplish anything if you think about it. It will likely get inferior hands like ace high to fold and it will get better pairs to call. Since we’re not bluffing out any better hand or getting any inferior hand to call, the bet has no purpose.

What the beginner should do is just call and go ahead and call the turn too. Most people don’t triple barrel enough. They’ll let a lot of high cards give them more bluff bets.

Limping In Early Position

This is another leak you see mostly beginners make, but interestingly you’ll see some people who have been playing for decades do the same play.

You’re in early position in a tournament. Everyone has around 40 big blinds at the table. You get dealt 2-2 or 3-3 or some mediocre suited connector. What do you do?

Well, your implied odds stink because the stacks are shorter. You also have to get through a lot of players if you raise from this early position. What you should do most of the time is just fold.

However, newer players won’t do this. What if they would have hit the flop! They will feel awful!

You’re not going to hit the flop that often with these hands, and there’s a great chance someone has a better hand behind you when there are this many players left to act. You likely won’t even get to see the flop, because what’s going to happen most of the time is you will open and someone will reraise, and now you won’t be getting great implied odds.

“What if I just limp in? Maybe I can see the flop for cheap?”

No. It’s likely someone behind you was dealt something solid. They will raise to isolate. You won’t be getting the right price to call with your mediocre hand. Just fold now and save yourself the chips.

Calling Too Many Reraises

If you are constantly raising and calling reraises, do you know what’s happening?

You’re likely raising with anything you want to see the flop with. Everyone at the table has figured out you’re raising too much. They’re three-betting you so they can isolate your bad range and get you to themselves.

If you want to stop this process, open a more disciplined range preflop. If someone is three-betting you large and you think they are a more solid player, don’t be afraid to just fold preflop. Playing out of position with a capped mediocre range in a three-bet pot is one of the worst spots you can be in.

Conclusion

Avoiding beginner pitfalls like seeing too many flops, calling too many river bets, and raising just to “find out where you’re at” will dramatically improve your poker game. By refining your strategy, especially avoiding limping in early position and calling too many reraises, you’ll build a stronger foundation and make more profitable decisions in the long run. ♠

Learn how to play A-K when it misses the flop!

Alexander Fitzgerald is a professional poker player and bestselling author who currently lives in Denver, Colorado. He is a WPT and EPT final tablist, and has WCOOP and SCOOP wins online. His most recent win was the $250,000 Guaranteed on ACR Poker. He currently enjoys blasting bums away in Ignition tournaments while he listens to death metal. Free training packages of his are provided to new newsletter subscribers who sign up at PokerHeadRush.com