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Common and costly mistakes made by new No-limit Hold'em players
As a poker
coach, I see my newer students making the same type of mistakes.
Here are my candidates for the most common and costly mistakes made
by the people who approach me for lessons.
1.
Calling preflop raises with inadequate values
A hold'em
player who raises the pot is saying he has a premium hand.
Typically, that is a pair of aces through jacks, A-K, or A-Q. The
other players have been given a cue to avoid certain hand types,
because they are in grave danger of being dominated by the raiser's
hand. Domination means having an opponent's card tied up, so if he
pairs that card, the dominating hand will have either a bigger
kicker or a set. The hands you want to avoid are big cards that will
likely be where the raiser lives, but not as big as the ones he
holds. The two worst hands with which to call raises are A-J and
K-Q. Note that being suited does help give you a better chance of
getting out of a trap, but you don't want to be in a trap to start
with. Hands like K-Q suited and A-J suited are good hands in
unraised pots, but are to be avoided in raised pots in which the
raiser is expected to have a premium hand.
2.
Building drawing hands in early position
In no-limit
hold'em, a drawing hand will play much better when it has good
position. Of course, any hand plays better when in position, but at
least a good hand like a set can live with acting first. A drawing
hand, particularly a flush draw (where it is obvious whether the
flush comes in or not), will play much better with position. Look at
what happens on the flop when you have to act first. If you bet the
hand and get called, your opponent can see if the flush hits on the
turn. You may well not make any more money with the hand if it does.
Most of the time, the flush does not come. (You had nine outs in 47
cards on the flop, so you were a 38-to-9 underdog.) If the flush
doesn't come on the turn, you have two options, both bad. You can
make a large bet with only one card to come, or you can check. At
this point, one thing is certain. You will be wishing that you had
good position instead of bad position.
3.
Underbetting premium hands
I recently
wrote an entire Card Player column on this subject. Many
players have a bad policy of betting a larger amount on their bluffs
or mediocre hands than they do on their good hands. Before I took up
no-limit play, I had the idea that the bigger the bet, the better
your hand was. Aside from the fact that any system of this nature
would be easy to play against (because of transparency), I found
that many players actually depart from it by 180 degrees. They bet a
large amount when they don't want to get called, and a small amount
when they do. The result is, they may win a little something on
their good hands, but lose a lot when someone takes advantage of the
cheap price and draws out. For most situations, you are better off
betting the same amount regardless of your hand strength - and that
amount should not be peanut-size.
4.
Not betting decisively enough on the turn after betting the flop
The turn is
the place where the big players really shine, compared to the weak
players. The weakie when holding a moderate hand is afraid to check,
for fear the pot will now be taken away from him. And he is afraid
to make a substantial wager because his hand is not that strong. The
result is, he bets again, but just a wimpy amount. This usually is
the worst of the three choices. The result is that the hand
continues - and he has all the same problems at the river that he
just faced. Since he did not bet enough to run out an opposing
drawing hand, he still has little idea of what sort of animal he
faces, despite the fact that it is the last betting round and the
pot is now pretty big. It is no wonder that he often makes a very
bad decision, either folding a winner or paying off big time to a
hand he could have run out of the pot. The good player knows he must
make some sort of commitment on the turn. Maybe he will check; maybe
he will make a big bet. If that choice is to bet big, he usually
will have gained enough info to make a good decision at the river -
if he still faces an opponent.
5.
Failing to realize when the opponent has a strong hand
At some point
in the hand, after the opponent has passed a testing bet, you should
give him credit for having a strong hand. If you have been following
my exhortations, you will have made a bet somewhere along the line
that put the opponent to the test. When he passes it, act
accordingly. Lots of players think each bet that they fail to raise
ensures that they will be presented with another bet on the next
round. In other words, they trap. At some point, you need to back
off. Do not be afraid to check. If your opponent then makes a bet,
he has you beat. If for some reason he does not have the strong hand
he was supposed to be holding, he had extended himself with his call
and may well check it back.
6.
Putting an opponent on a particular hand when having insufficient
evidence
Maybe my
students are trying to give me the impression that they are astute
at putting an opponent on a hand, because they often give me a
betting sequence preflop and on the flop, and then say, "I put him
on (a particular hand)." Very seldom do you know what an opponent
has on the flop with any degree of assurance. You simply have not
received enough information to do this. Yet, I often see players
acting as if there was only one possible hand for an opponent to
have. This false assurance will cause you to act precipitously,
instead of catering to the various possibilities. Be flexible in
your thinking.
7.
Playing too tight when the table is shorthanded
I often see
this error made by a solid player who has most of his experience at
a full table. When you are down to three or four players in a
tournament event, the blinds are sky-high and come around every few
deals. You must play many more hands than normal, and reduce your
criteria for raising and reraising. Yes, you must gamble, but that
is what tournament poker is about. You no longer can stay in the
game by folding all but your premium hands. Get aggressive.
Remove these
seven sins from your play and you will see a dramatic improvement in
your no-limit hold'em results.
Bob
Ciaffone has authored four poker books: Middle Limit Holdem Poker,
Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem
Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available
for poker lessons: E-mail thecoach@chartermi.net. His website is
www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's
Rules of Poker, for free. Ciaffone is the cardroom director for
ChecknRaisePoker.com.
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