This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
It's easier than ever to learn poker these days, but fish are STILL making these 5 dreadful mistakes.
Even with so much information about improving your game, a lot of amateur poker players keep making the same, predictable mistakes again and again.
And it’s often not that they don’t know any better. It’s just the fact that making mistakes is sometimes more fun than playing “the right way”.
There’s nothing wrong with playing poker for fun, of course.
But if you want to achieve great results in this game, you absolutely need to dispense with these “fun” mistakes.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 5 truly awful mistakes a lot of recreational players are guilty of.
If you see anyone at your table doing these, you should mark them as a fish right away!
Let’s get right into it.
Dreadful Poker Mistake #1: Open Limping
Open limping is one of the telltale signs of recreational poker players.
It’s basically announcing to the whole table: “I’m a huge fish, please take all my money!”
To open-limp means to just call the big blind instead of open-raising when you’re the first player to enter the pot.
If you’re the first player to enter the pot, you should always do so with an open-raise.
The standard open-raise is 3 big blinds.
So if you’re playing NL10, for example (i.e. cash game with a $10 buyin), you should open-raise to 30 cents.
Here are a few key reasons why you should avoid open-limping altogether:
a) you can’t win the pot preflop if you open-limp
When you open-limp, you’re giving the players in the blinds absolutely no reason to fold their hand, so you can’t win the pot outright preflop.
When you open-raise, on the other hand, sometimes you can take down the pot right away if everybody else folds.
This means that sometimes you don’t even have to have a particularly strong hand to win the pot preflop.
Check out my ultimate blind stealing cheat sheet to learn how to pick up easy money preflop.
b) you’re inviting multiway pots
A multiway pot is a pot with more than 2 players involved.
When you limp in, you’re inviting other players to limp behind you, which can often lead to multiway pots.
The more players involved in the pot, the harder it is for you to win the hand, because every additional player will have some chunk of equity against you.
Your hand equity simply refers to the percentage chance of winning the pot if your hand goes to showdown.
Let’s take pocket Aces as an example, the strongest starting hand in no-limit hold’em.
Against one random hand, pocket Aces have a whopping 85% equity.
But if you’re up against 3 players with random hands, your hand equity falls down to only 64%!
And if your opponents hold some playable hands instead of random junk, your equity drops even more dramatically.
So when some players complain about constantly getting their Aces cracked, one of the reasons may be the fact that they’re inviting too many multiway pots by not playing aggressively enough preflop.
c) you’re failing to build up the pot
In no-limit hold’em, most of the money you’ll make will come from your strong value hands where your opponent has a weaker hand that’s willing to pay you off.
And your best bet is to build up the pot with these strong hands as quickly as possible.
The bigger the pot you build up preflop, the easier it is to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
By open-limping instead of open-raising, you’re not building up the pot as much as you could, which means leaving money at the table.
d) you run the risk of getting raised yourself
A lot of beginner poker players open-limp because they want to see a cheap flop, but this often ends up backfiring.
If you open-limp, another player can raise you, which means you won’t be able to see a cheap flop you’re hoping for.
It’s usually a lot cheaper (and more profitable) to just open-raise yourself.
e) you’re playing without the initiative
If you are the preflop aggressor, you have the opportunity to continue with the aggression in the form of a continuation bet (or c-bet for short).
A c-bet is a bet made by the previous street’s aggressor. For example, if you open-raise preflop, you have the opportunity to make a c-bet on the flop.
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should make a c-bet on most flops, regardless of whether or not you actually connected with the board.
When you open-limp, on the other hand, you can’t c-bet the flop, which will make it harder for you to win the hand.
Unlike open-limping, limping behind can sometimes be a viable strategy.
To limp behind means to limp in after other player or players have already limped into the pot.
For example, if you have some sort of a speculative hand that prefers to see a cheap flop, like a suited connector or a small pocket pair.
Alternatively, you can also raise against the open-limper and try to play a heads-up pot against them post flop.
When you raise against an open-limp, this is known as the isolation raise (or iso-raise for short).
As the name suggests, the goal of an iso-raise is to isolate the open-limper and play a heads up pot against them (ideally when playing in position).
Check out my recent video for the 7 common amateur mistakes that keep poker players stuck.
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Dreadful Poker Mistake #2: Donk Betting
Donk betting is also one of the telltale signs of recreational poker players.
Unlike open-limping, donk betting can be a viable strategy at times.
But when somebody donk bets, it’s usually a sign of a weaker player, especially at the lower stakes.
To donk bet means to bet out of position into the previous street’s aggressor.
By donk betting, you’re preventing your opponent from making a standard c-bet against you.
This may sound like a good idea in theory, but it’s usually a mistake for a few reasons.
First of all, when you donk bet, you’re betting into a theoretically stronger range.
When you call preflop, your range is capped, meaning there’s an upper limit of potentially strong combos you can hold.
If you call preflop, you’re unlikely to hold strong combos like pocket Aces, pocket Kings, Ace-King and so on.
That’s because you would likely raise (aka 3-bet) those hands instead of calling.
On the other hand, your opponent could still hold these strong hands, because their preflop range is uncapped, and therefore theoretically stronger than your calling range.
For example:
Let’s say you call preflop with a certain hand and you see the following flop:
A♦J♣2♥
Donk betting here would be a mistake, because this board connects better with your opponent’s uncapped range than your capped calling range.
They theoretically have more strong Ax hands in their range, like AK, AQ and so on.
They could also have other strong combos like pocket Aces, pocket Jacks, Ace-Jack, King-Queen and so on.
So even if you have a strong hand on this flop, it’s probably better to let your opponent make a standard c-bet.
If you donk bet, you’re likely only going to get action by stronger hands, and you will fold out all the hands that you were actually ahead of.
This brings us to another reason why you should avoid donk betting.
Donk betting allows your opponent to play perfectly against you.
If you check and allow your opponent to c-bet, they could try to bluff you if they missed the flop completely.
If you donk bet, they will just fold out all their bluffs, so you won’t win any money that way.
Some beginner poker players donk bet because they want to see “where they stand in the hand”.
In other words, they donk bet to gain information about their opponent’s hand strength.
This is also faulty reasoning that doesn’t make much sense.
When you donk bet, you’re betting out with an informational disadvantage, so you’re giving your opponent information, instead of the other way around.
Also, suppose you donk bet and your opponent calls you. What information does that give you exactly?
They could have some sort of a mediocre or a drawing hand, or they could have the stone cold nuts that they’re slowplaying.
They could also have absolutely nothing, but still call you with the intention of bluffing you out of the hand on future streets.
Either way, you’re none the wiser, but you’ve committed more money into the pot anyway.
In poker, there are 2 main reasons to put money into the pot.
You can either bet for value or bet as a bluff.
When you bet for value, you’re hoping to get called by weaker hands. When you bluff, you’re trying to get stronger hands than yours to fold.
Donk betting is not particularly effective whether you’re value betting or bluffing.
If your opponent has a strong, but weaker hand than yours, why not allow them to make a c-bet and then go for a check-raise?
This way, you’re capturing more money in the middle than you would with a donk bet.
Donk betting as a bluff is even worse because
a) you’re betting out with an informational disadvantage
b) you’re betting into a stronger range, which makes your bluffing less believable.
For these reasons, check-calling or check-raising is usually a lot more effective than donk betting.
Check-raising in particular is a very strong play that can only be done when playing out of position.
Check-raising is a great way to offset the positional disadvantage and take the initiative away from your opponent.
Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt 7♦7♣ in the SB (small blind). Villain open-raises to 2.5 BB from UTG (under the gun). You call.
Pot: 6 BB
Flop: A♥J♣7♥
You: ???
You should check-raise.
You should check-raise.
Check-raising in this spot allows you to capture more money into the pot and get the pot growing faster than you would with donk betting.
Your opponent can call you with a number of weaker hands, like AK, AJ, KQ, KT, as well as a number of flush draws.
Alternatively, you can also go for a check-call line and slowplay your monster hand.
This is particularly effective if your opponent is very aggressive and likely to keep barreling on future streets.
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Dreadful Poker Mistake #3: Min Betting
Of all the dreadful poker mistakes on the list, this one may be the worst offender.
Min betting (i.e. betting the minimum amount into the pot) usually happens in online cash games, but you can sometimes encounter it in live games as well.
Betting a minimum amount into a big pot makes zero mathematical or strategic sense.
For example, let’s say you’re playing NL10, the pot is $2, and you bet 10 cents.
As mentioned, there are 2 main reasons to put money into the pot.
You can either bet for value, or you can bet as a bluff.
If you’re value betting, why would you only bet the minimum amount?
If your opponent is willing to pay off more, min betting just means leaving money at the table.
If you’re betting as a bluff, nobody is ever going to fold to a min bet.
That’s because you’re giving your opponent an insanely good price on a call, which means they can call you down profitably with just about any two cards.
For example, if you bet 10 cents into a $2 pot, you’re giving your opponent 20:1 odds on a call.
This means they need less than 5% equity to break even on a call.
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Now, some players don’t min bet either for value or as a bluff, but use min bets as some sort of a blocker bet.
A blocker bet is a small bet made out of position with the intention of preventing your opponent from making a bigger bet themselves.
Blocker bets are used to see a cheap next card or get to a cheap showdown.
This makes sense if you have a drawing hand, or if you have a hand with showdown value that doesn’t want to face a huge river bet.
But if you want to use a blocker bet, it’s better to size it up to somewhere around 20% to 33% of the pot.
This bet size is big enough to deter your opponent from raising you, but it’s still small enough that you’re not risking more money than necessary.
Min bets are not really effective as blocker bets because there’s absolutely nothing stopping your opponent from making a big raise regardless.
Worse yet, they may (correctly) interpret your min bet as a sign of weakness, and make a big raise to push you off of your mediocre hand.
With that in mind, some players may intentionally use min bets to induce raises from their opponents.
This makes slightly more sense than using min bets as blocker bets, but the effectiveness of this strategy is dubious at best.
That’s because there’s nothing preventing your opponent from just calling your min bet and realizing their equity for close to nothing.
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Dreadful Poker Mistake #4: Calling Too Much Out of Position
As a general rule, calling is the last option you should consider preflop.
Ideally, you want to see most flops as the preflop aggressor.
This means open-raising or 3-betting most of your hands preflop.
When you are the preflop aggressor, you get to the flop with the initiative and the range advantage.
This means you can credibly represent a strong hand on the flop, regardless of whether or not you actually connected with the board.
If you connect with the flop, you can c-bet for value, i.e. bet with the intention of getting called by a lot of weaker hands.
For example, you open-raise preflop with Ace-King and the flop is: A♠8♦7♥
In a spot like this, you can get called by a number of weaker hands, like weaker Ax hands, 8x hands, as well as a number of straight draws like JT, T9, 65 and so on.
If you miss the flop, you can still make a c-bet on most flops and potentially get your opponent to fold.
When you c-bet the flop expecting your opponent to fold, this is known as the bluff c-bet, or a light c-bet.
The reason why you can still make a c-bet even though you missed the flop is the fact that your opponent is just as likely to have missed the flop as you did.
And since you have the range advantage, you can still bet and your opponent will usually be forced to fold.
If you throw out an occasional light c-bet, your opponent will always have to guess at your hand strength.
This means they will be forced to fold their hand, so you’re denying them their hand equity, or they will have to call you down with weaker parts of their range.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should c-bet 100% of the time.
If you miss the flop completely and the flop seems to connect well with your opponent’s range, it’s better to skip a c-bet and wait for a better spot.
When you call preflop, on the other hand, you can’t c-bet the flop, which automatically puts you at a disadvantage.
You’ll usually have to fold to your opponent’s c-bet instead of the other way around.
This is especially the case when you call out of position.
It’s very hard to play a hand profitably when you call out of position preflop, because
a) your opponent will have the initiative and the range advantage and
b) you will have a positional disadvantage that’s very hard to overcome.
You have the option of making a donk bet on the flop, but as we’ve already established, this is usually not the best play.
When you call preflop out of position, your opponent will be able to put a tremendous amount of pressure on you by barreling into you over multiple streets.
This means that it’s going to be hard to realize your equity, even if you have a decent hand.
For example, let’s say you flop a top pair with a decent kicker.
If your opponent bets over multiple streets, are you really going to be comfortable with calling them down all the way to showdown with only a top pair?
This problem is only exacerbated if you call preflop with a lot of marginal hands.
For example, if you call with hands that have bad kickers, you run the risk of your hand being dominated.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to a weak kicker.
A kicker is a card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain combination post flop, but can often determine the winner if both players have the same combination.
For example, if both players have a pair of Aces, the player with the better kicker wins the hand.
And since top pair is the most common combination you’re going to make in no-limit hold’em, kickers often play a crucial role in determining the winner of the hand.
The solution is to simply avoid playing marginal hands out of position in the first place.
In other words, you should be more selective with the hands you choose to play in the blinds.
When you’re playing in the blinds, you will ALWAYS play out of position post flop.
The only exception is when you’re playing in the big blind against the small blind.
For this reason, you will actually lose money when playing in the blinds, no matter how well you’re playing.
If you’re using a hand tracking software like PokerTracker 4, you can check these stats yourself.
So when playing in the blinds, your goal is not to win money, but try to lose as little as possible.
Then you try to make up for the losses by winning more money when you’re playing in position, namely the cutoff and the button (i.e. late table positions).
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should fold all but the strongest hands when playing in the blinds, because this leaves you vulnerable to getting exploited.
If your opponents figure out you’re not defending your blinds enough, they may try to steal your blinds at every opportunity.
But if you do decide to defend your blinds, you should still be aware that you’re going to be playing with a disadvantage throughout the hand.
So make sure to defend your blinds with hands that actually have decent playabilty post flop, and avoid playing mediocre hands that put you in a lot of awkward spots.
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Dreadful Poker Mistake #5: Slowplaying Strong Hands Preflop
Another common beginner poker mistake is slowplaying in the wrong spots.
To slowplay means to play your hand passively (i.e. check and call instead of betting and raising) in order to conceal your hand strength.
Ideally, slowplaying should induce your opponents to do all the betting and raising for you.
While slowplaying can be an effective strategy in certain spots, a lot of beginners make the mistake of slowplaying just for the sake of being deceptive.
Contrary to popular belief, winning poker is not all about outplaying and deceiving your opponents.
Rather, it’s about making sound, logical decisions in order to maximize the expected value (EV) of your plays.
This is why slowplaying big hands preflop is usually a mistake, especially at the lower stakes.
For example, some players may intentionally open-limp with pocket Aces in order to induce action from their opponents.
One popular sideline to this “strategy” is to jam all-in after they get raised.
This is obviously not the most conducive way to get value from pocket Aces or other premium pairs.
First of all, it’s painfully obvious, and it’s also unlikely you’re going to get action unless you’re playing against very bad players to begin with.
But if you’re playing against bad players, chances are that slowplaying big hands preflop is just going to lead to a lot of multiway pots.
This is obviously a disaster, because premium pocket pairs don’t perform well in mutlway pots.
That’s because they’re vulnerable to getting outdrawn, and every additional player involved in the pot has some chunk of equity against you.
So if you have a strong value hand preflop, your best bet is to just play it straightforwardly.
This means open-raising or 3-betting so you can build up the pot and ideally get to the flop against only one or two opponents.
If another player open-raises before you, you should raise them back (i.e. 3-bet) with your strong value hands.
Some players may object to this because they don’t want to “scare their opponent off”.
But this line of thinking also doesn’t make much sense if you think about it.
Sure, if you don’t 3-bet, your opponent won’t fold, but either way you cut it, you’re not building up the pot as much as you could.
Worse yet, you’re allowing them to see a cheap flop and potentially get lucky against you.
Even if they won’t call your 3-bet 100% of the time, it’s still more profitable to 3-bet than to fail to build up the pot.
Again, most of the money you win in this game will come from your strong value hands.
So your best bet is to build up the pot with these hands as quickly as possible.
Example Hand #2
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt K♥K♦ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 3 BB. Villain 3-bets to 10 BB on the BU (button).
You: ???
You should 4-bet to 25 BB.
In this spot, there’s absolutely no reason to slowplay by calling instead of raising.
In fact, calling here can lead to a lot of awkward post flop spots.
That’s because you’ll be playing the hand out of position, and the pot size will make it unclear whether or not you should play for stacks post flop.
Some players will object that their opponent will fold if they 4-bet, but why is that a bad thing?
You’ve won the pot, and you’ve denied your opponent their equity.
Better yet, you’ve played aggressively against them, which means they’ll have to think twice before 3-betting you again.
Another common objection is that you’re only going to get action by pocket Aces, but this is simply not true.
There are plenty of worse hands that will be happy to call here, like Queens, Jacks, Tens, Ace-King, Ace-Queen suited and so on.
But what do you do if your opponent 5-bet jams?
The answer is: you happily snap call, unless you happen to think your opponent’s range consists of pocket Aces and pocket Aces only.
In that case, you can make an extremely tight fold, but I’m still quite happy to stack off with pocket Kings.
That’s because it’s unfair to assume your opponent will stack off with pocket Aces exclusively.
And even if they do, it’s just a cooler, and there’s nothing much you can do about it anyway.
If the roles were reversed, the money is going into the pot either way, so it’s a wash.
Bottom line: when making certain actions, you always have to consider your opponent’s whole range, not just the hands that have you beat.
Just because a tiny part of your opponent’s range beats you, it doesn’t mean you should start employing inferior strategies to protect yourself against the worst case scenario.
5 Dreadful Poker Mistakes Fish Always Make - Summary
You don’t necessarily need to study advanced poker strategy all day in order to be a profitable long term winner in this game.
But to achieve decent results, you absolutely need to eliminate costly mistakes that are still all too common these days.
To sum up, here are 5 worst mistakes beginner poker players make.
If you see anyone on your table doing these, make a mental note of it right away.
1. Open limping
When you open-limp, you aren’t building up the pot with your strong hand, you’re playing without the initiative, and you’re inviting a lot of multiway pots, which makes it a lot harder to win the hand.
If you’re the first player to enter the pot, always do so with an open-raise to give yourself a better chance of winning the hand.
2. Donk betting
To donk bet means to bet into the previous street’s aggressor. While donk betting can be a viable strategy in some exceptional cases, you are usually better off check-calling or check-raising instead.
3. Min betting
Betting 10 cents into a $2 pot makes zero strategic or mathematical sense.
If you want to use a blocker bet to prevent your opponent from making a bigger bet themselves, size up your bet to somewhere around 20% to 33% of the pot.
4. Calling too much out of position
As a general rule, calling is the last option to consider preflop, especially when you’re playing out of position.
You want to get to most flops as the preflop aggressor, meaning you open-raise or 3-bet most of your hands.
If you do call preflop, make sure you’re not doing it with mediocre hands that can get you in trouble due to a weak kicker.
5. Slowplaying strong hands preflop
Slowplaying can be a viable strategy at times, but when you get a strong hand preflop, your best bet is to build up the pot with it as soon as possible.
The bigger the pot you build up preflop, the easier it is for you to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
