Beginners Hold'em Poker – Common Mistakes

1. Playing too many hands - this is the biggest killer. To play a lot of hands you need a huge stack or better yet, gameplay that backs it up, such as very good reads and aggression. Trying to play a simple ABC style of poker combined with too loose a pre flop strategy is a recipe for disaster. Keep it reliably tight most of the time preflop, until you have more experience.

2. Not thinking enough - Its all too easy to go onto auto pilot occasionally. But take the time to think about each decision you make. Consider carefully what each action is designed to do, and also what you will do faced with different decisions from your opponents. Also, if you do not think enough about your moves, they will be very easy to read.

3. Overvaluing your hand - Yes we know 44 is a coin flip with AK. And yes this guy could easily have AK when he pushed all his chips in. But he could also have any other pair. So most of the time we have a coin flip, some of the time we're massively behind, and once in a blue moon he has 22 or 33. Gamble if you have to, but most of the time there's plenty of time to find a better spot. Aces with a bad kickers are also easy to overvalue - you've been waiting for ages for an ace, and finally you pick up A8 - but if you manage to hit top pair with the 8, or an an ace, you can easily lose more chips to an overpair or better ace.

4. Ignoring position - Position is vital in hold'em, both pre and post flop. Hands change value depending on where you are deal them, and blindly playing your hand with no concern for position is a sure way to get yourself in trouble. Hands that are definitely playable on the button or in the cutoff may be completely awful if you're 1st to act.

5. Over or under defending blinds - Most players do one or the other, either letting their blinds go easily, or holding onto them for dear life. In the blinds you're often finishing the action preflop, so you have an opportunity to get in a pot knowing there will not be another raise by a player after you. But this does not mean you should go playing any old rubbish just because you've got a BB in the pot. With low blinds, they're not often worth stealing, so you can accumulate most offerings are from good hands.

The blinds are also the worst place to play from after the flop, as you're always out of position. If it's a heads up or 3 way pot, you really want the best hand pre flop, but if it's a multiway pot a speculative hand can be worth much more, with far more people to pay you off if you hit something massive. Look for value, if you're getting into a pot worth 10 times what you have to call, and it's not a significant amount, then your actual cards should not matter.

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Source by Ric Wild