Pro Tips To Avoid These Common Mistakes As A New Poker Player

When you are a beginner, poker doesn’t seem like a difficult game. It only takes a few minutes to learn the basic poker game rules and determine which handful of hands is the strongest. That’s the simple part. But it can take a lifetime to master your playing style fully and transform poker into a reliable way to make money. There is no such thing as flawless poker play. There is still room for growth, no matter how successful you become! Some aspects of your game need extra attention, and addressing them will help you maximise your profits. Here are some common mistakes you can avoid while playing poker:

Mistake #1: Playing Too Many Hands Before The Flop (Playing Loose)

When the cards aren’t falling your way, you might think it has become a boring game. It’s irritating when you get a string of lousy hole cards, mainly if you’re playing live. If you let your frustrations and boredom get the best of you, you’ll probably start playing too many hands before the flop, which is one of the “safe” ways to start losing money. Even when you’ve been dealt trash hands for two hours straight, stay disciplined and stick to proper starting hand ranges. This makes you a wise poker player. Playing too many hands pre-flop would almost always put you in a problematic post-flop position with poor holdings, resulting in significant losses that could have been avoided by simply returning your cards to the dealer as instructed.

Mistake #2: Being Very Quick To Act And Not Giving Enough Thought To The Situation

This is a problem that affects both new and seasoned players. In reality, players who spend a lot of time playing these cash games tend to go on autopilot and make decisions without giving themselves enough time to think, which can lead to costly mistakes. The majority of the time, these errors could have been avoided with a few extra seconds of thought. One way to prevent this is to teach yourself to respond slowly and carefully when it is your turn. Often take a few moments to consider all of the available information. When playing live, consider your opponent’s behaviour, location, sizing, and even verbal cues.

Mistake #3: Playing It Too Tight

This one is the opposite of the first rule, we know, but it is important not to play it too tight. Players who are attempting to “tighten the screws” on their game often over-adjust and play too tight as a result. Although tightening up is an effective way to play against loose players, it is not without drawbacks. If you play too tightly, you’ll be very easy to beat. When facing aggression, an opponent will fold all but their strongest hands against a tight player. No one likes doing a ‘nit’ action. If you play too cautiously, you’ll miss out on more marginal but profitable spots. Tight players often say that they only want to avoid difficult post-flop decisions, but they really want to avoid losing money.

Mistake #4: Overestimating Speculative And Medium-strength Hands

The “value of your hand” is a relative thing depending on the type of opposition and action you’re up against. Small flushes facing a wide rise in the river, second pairs, top pairs with weak kickers, and other holdings, on the other hand, are not as strong. If you are new to poker games online, you will likely place too much confidence on these hands, treating them as if they were a sure win. When these hands are overplayed, they become bluffs, which is a problem. These lines will persuade an adversary to fold a more substantial hand, but when they look you up, they’ll almost always have a better hand. So it is essential to play your cards precisely according to their strength.

Mistake #5: Failing To Table-select And Search For Good Games

If you are a beginner, you can afford to play any game you like for a while, but if you want to approach this seriously, you should look for the best games and best situations to make profits. Spending time selecting tables online or waiting for a seat in an excellent live game on poker sites in India can be annoying at times. You’d instead get right into the action, even if it means competing against other good players, some of whom are even better than you. If you want to make actual money out of this, sitting down in any game just to put in some hands is reckless and can also be quite costly in the long run.

Mistake #6: Getting Too Emotional While Playing

There’s no doubt that in India online poker is a highly emotional game. With all the bad beats, lucky strikes, busted and captured bluffs, a poker session can be an emotional rollercoaster. You should not, however, allow your emotions to take over and begin to influence your decisions. The term “tilt” refers to allowing some feeling to take over. Some players aren’t aware that tilt can manifest itself in various ways and isn’t only triggered by bad beats. You can also go haywire if you get too hot, throw caution to the wind, and start playing way too loose. The most important thing to note is that if you begin doing something at the table that you rationally realise you shouldn’t be doing, it’s time to stop and think. Stopping the session rather than continuing to play and making bad decisions is often the better option.

Now that you have read and understood what mistakes can cost you money in online poker, you are ready to make it big. Just remember the above rules and always keep your head in the game. Happy Poker!