If you’re a beginner poker player, you know there are things you need to work on. Nobody turns expert over night but there appears to be some common mistakes among beginners that advanced players eradicate over time. Rather than leave you to it, we’re going to highlight these errors, so you don’t make them in future sessions. Read on to find out the top four things beginner poker players do.
Not using Guides
It baffles us that some beginners sit at a table with only a cursory understanding of how Texas Hold’em is played. Watching Casino Royale isn’t a way of learning poker. Instead, beginners should be using guides to familiarise themselves with the rules and gameplay. It doesn’t cost anything to download a free guide so there’s no reason not to use a poker cheat sheet to grasp the key concepts of Texas Hold’em.
Over-Betting Big Hands
You wait all session for a pair of aces or your flush then what do you do? Move all in? Overbetting and scaring people away is the most obvious of mistakes a beginner will do. They foolishly think they have a big hand so they must move all in to get maximum value. However, it completely disregards what your opponent may have. Sure, it may work occasionally but generally, a smaller bet relative to the pot size if more likely to get paid. Therefore, if you find yourself betting your hand for value, consider a bet of 75% of the pot and don’t just jam all in unless it’s a pot size bet or less. Most players can see through over-bets and won’t pay you off, even at micro stakes.
Chasing Down to the River
Beginners struggle with playing draws or low pairs. It’s not uncommon to see a beginner chase all the way to the river with an insight straight draw or just two big paint cards (even when the board is low). This shows a lack of awareness as most experts will muck earlier in the hand if they have nothing or very few outs. As such, we urge beginners to only chase big draws like flush draws or open-ended straight draws. With these draws you have at least 8 outs and a reasonable chance of winning. An easy way to calculate your pot odds is to work out the number of outs you have, multiply by 2 if one card is remaining or 4 if there are two cards e.g., a flush draw on the flop should have approximately 36% of hitting by the river.
No Game Selection
Another silly thing beginners do is sit in any old game, regardless of the toughness. If anything, beginner should be even more careful about the games they play. You can’t rely on a poker face alone to win in these games.That’s why we recommend you carefully select the games you sit in. Consider the opponents, the stakes, and the stats of opponents before playing. Most poker lobby’s have the view flop percentage and average pot size – these are indicators as to how juicy the game is. By playing in juicier games you will have a better chance of winning by adopting a solid style of play.
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