We are always trying to become better players, learning about particular hands and spots whilst at the table, but sometimes just taking a tiny step back and looking at our approach in general to the game can shine the light on the true strengths or weakness in our own personal poker game.
In this post, we look at some of the biggest leaks that even solid poker players have in their game.
Jumping in Tough Games
Whether it’s online or at the local casino, we’ve all done it, we sit down and at some point have thought, I’m not sure how soft this game is.
There’s a general rule that is known from possibly the best poker movie ever made “Rounders” and it goes like this
“If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half-hour at the table, then you are the sucker”
Even though this is just a quote from a movie, it’s actually a very good point, we want to play in games where we sit down and notice huge mistakes from our opponents, typically we want to be in games where we have one or two players that are just on tilt or playing way too loose because winning money from people like this is going to be easier than if everyone is playing solid.
Our tip is don’t be scared to change table, even if you lose a little money and have that thought of “when I win my money back I’ll leave” just pull the trigger and make the move, too many times I’ve lost buy-in after buy-in whilst running bad, but all against good players when I should have just been looking for an easy game.
Start paying full attention to players
Live poker especially, but online games too, there is a tonne of information floating around. For instance, recently I played against a player that would just move all-in with any decent holding on a flop, including hands like second pair.
Later a hand came up where I flopped a decent top pair and the player moved all-in for twice a pot-sized bet. If this was a normal player they would probably be pretty strong here and nearly always have my hand in bad shape, but because I had paid attention to hand earlier where I wasn’t involved I had the information needed to make this easy call. Sure enough, my opponent had just second pair, again!
Finding things like this out in hands that don’t involve you can be huge parts of the puzzle that you will need later on for a hand that does concern you, so wise up, put down the Instagram and keep an eye on your opponents’ tendencies both online and live and your win rate will definitely increase.
Being too nitty pre-flop
This one really strikes home for me, I used to think I was a pretty solid player, but I was so tight pre-flop, I would basically only look to 3-Bet with QQ+ even with hands like AKo and JJ I would take multi-way flops where I have less equity and don’t have the betting lead.
This is a huge leak! We need to get aggressive with our good hands as well as mix in some bluffs to keep our opponents guessing, mix in some suited connector 3-bets and spice up your game a little, you will get tonnes more action in the long run.
Good 3-betting and even cold 4-betting bluffs include hands with good removal and good post-flop playability in case you get called, so look to use hands like A2s-A5s.
Stop giving the rocky nit at the Table action
A nit is that player that sits in the corner and wakes up once every 40 minutes to play a hand and you better believe it’s going to be a monster!
We’ve all done it, sat there and saw a decent hand but the tightest player at the table has raised the action and then we end up flopping a decent amount of equity and continuing for at least one bet or maybe more.
Just stop doing this! When the tightest player at the table gives action we will want to have a super tight range to counter this, we can look to set mine with any pocket pair because it’s likely they will have a hand big enough to pay us off if we hit our hand but other than this we will not want to give them any action.
There are just going to be certain players in games that aren’t bluffing! and I mean EVER! This is a huge hole in their game, but we want to know exactly who these nits are so that we don’t pay them off in pots.
Look for players that check back when they miss boards with their high card hands and only bet when they have a good holding and look to strike on the times they are weak but muck with ease when they give action.
This is a big tip that will help you win money because basically only good players will bluff, especially on later streets like the River, so if some tight player is betting the River on you and you have a tough choice, lean towards folding because the chances they are making a move are super slim by this point.
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