Common Mistakes of the Intermediate Player

Players will make many mistakes whether they are new to the game of poker or advanced. Some mistakes are easier to correct than others are and some mistakes can have a drastic effect on how well you perform when you are at the table. It is important to understand that no one plays perfectly all the time but limiting your mistakes and correcting them when you recognize what they are is the most important thing a player can do to improve their game. As such, below are a number of common mistakes that can be easily corrected which will have an immense impact on your performance at the table.

Mistake #1: Playing your hand without consideration of your opponents’ holdings

When you are playing poker, you do not need to have an amazing hand but merely the best hand relative to the hands of your opponents are holding. You can win a pot with a ten high if your opponents are not holding anything better. One major mistake that players get into is that they only look at the strength of what they are holding and they never factor in what their opponents might have in their hand. It is important to remember that poker is not played in a vacuum but it is played at a table with other players. Thinking about what your opponents are holding, looking at how they are playing and trying to understand what they might have, and acting according to the information they give you will take you a long way toward improving your play and going from playing a game with yourself to playing a game with your opponents.
Mistake #2: Being Predictable

Being predictable is a bigger problem for players who choose to play no-limit or pot-limit than it is for players who play limit. In limit, most actions are mathematically based since there is no variation in your ability to bet. In no-limit, however, falling into a pattern can be deadly. Even for players playing at a lower stakes table, there will be decent players that are sitting across from you. If you do not mix up your play, it will be quite simple for these players to recognize your playing patterns and be able to use this knowledge to their advantage. By switching up how you play your hands, this will keep your opponents on their toes and they will not be able to pinpoint what you are doing and they will have more trouble determining what you are holding in your hand.
Mistake #3: Playing at higher stakes to overcome bad beats

So many players fall into the trap of player at higher stakes because they get irritated with bad beats that happen to them when they are playing at a lower limit. They think that because they are playing at a higher limit with better players, there will be less people playing erratically and poorly. While, this is true that there will be less erratic behavior, the problem is that the erratic behavior that sometimes results in a bad beat also results in a much higher expected value over the long term because mathematically, statistics is on the side of correct play. Sure, the guy might have kept seven deuce off suit when you raised big pre-flop with pocket kings and he flops a full house but even though he got lucky, that doesn’t mean it was good or that that will happen with regularity.
You should look at those mistakes and realize that because your opponents are that bad, it is going to mean more money going into your stack over the long term which is the only approach to take when playing poker to win. It doesn’t matter if you win one big hand on any given night but whether, over 1,000 hands or 100,000 hands you are winning regularly because that one hand just won’t matter. If you cannot regularly beat the players you are playing with because of “bad luck” then playing with better players is only going to make it worse. The fact is that the bad luck may be most noticeable to you, but if you are not winning over the long term, you aren’t losing because of bad luck you are losing because you are not good enough. Instead of complaining about luck and bad beats, focus on your mistakes and improving your play.

Mistake #4: Playing too many tables

Playing too many tables can be a problem that many people will run into when they first start moving to add additional tables. Playing at multiple tables can be great because it will increase the amount of hands and the amount of money that you can make at any given time without having to increase the stakes. Typically when playing online poker, people start with one table and then when they can beat one table consistently they will add more tables at the same stakes until they can beat a bunch and then increase the stakes. For many, they will go from one table and then start trying to play five or six or seven tables and they will lose their edge on the game. For this reason it is important to slowly add tables to your play as you feel comfortable. I recommend never adding more than one table and playing at least a few thousand hands at each table before you add another one. It is better to make money at two tables than to be over-stretched and lose money at six tables.
As long as you have enough time to make good decisions at each table, you should be able to manage that number of tables. If things start to get a little overwhelming, you should play one less table and then work your way back up. It is also usually better to start with one table at the beginning of the session and build up to more tables over a half an hour or so to build up your comfort and to familiarize yourself with the tables.

Mistake #5: Not tracking statistics

Information is power when you are playing poker and one of the most important statistics that you should be tracking is how you are playing. If you can only guess at how you are playing and what your returns are, then you are going to have a hard time pinpointing where you need to improve and what you need to change in your play in order to get there. Each player has a game and stakes that they play best at and being able to look at empirical data to understand where they play best is vital to making the most money when playing poker. In fact, even what poker room you are playing at can have an effect on how your performance is.
Being able to keep accurate hand statistics will help you to focus on games where you are performing the best and thus make the most money possible. For example, if you are making $11 per hour per table playing $1/$2 limit hold’em but you are making $15 an hour playing at a $.50/$1 no-limit table, obviously it is more profitable to play at the no-limit table than it is to play at the limit table. The only way that you can know which game is going to make you the most money is having accurate play history statistics and P&L information. There are a number of different websites that can track your play statistics some of which are free and some are not but a popular free choice is Check Your Bets.

Mistake #6: Playing too many different types of games

Many players who are starting to play more poker also start to play a larger variety of games. This can be great to add some flavor to your sessions and it is good to familiarize yourself with more games. With that said, many players start to play too many different games and do not spend enough time focusing on one. This results in mediocrity in many games instead of being very good in one. Focusing on just one game and excelling in that game before spending time playing other games will result in better performance. The majority of the money that you make when playing poker only starts to come when you are very skillful so sticking to the one you like best and play best will result in the most money.
Addressing each of these problems in your game will help to take your play to the next level and improve your returns as well.

Posted by Joel on Jul 10 2010. Filed under Poker Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry