1: Not memorizing preflop charts.
YES you need to actually MEMORIZE preflop charts. I hear it all the time “I have a good general idea of what to do preflop.” Unfortunately that is not good enough in today’s poker. The game has gotten tougher and all players have gotten better. Everyone and their mothers have “a general idea of what to do preflop”. Luckily there are a TON of tools that make it much easier to memorize your preflop spots.
2: Donk leading.
Just don’t donk. Technically there are certain situations and textures where you donk but they are VERY rare. Yes as stated there are a few spots where it is technically correct but even so the EV (expected value) edge they give you is small AND donk leading in the wrong spot can cost you a ton of EV. Learning the textures, stack depths, and ranges where you should be donking is one of the last things to learn and honestly if you just NEVER donk you can still be an absolute crusher. One note HU (heads up) is different.
3: Not double barreling enough in relation to how often they c-bet.
Weak players c-bet and then just shut down. If you c-bet most of the time you should be double barreling on turn. It is not 100% double barrel but most of the time when you c-bet you should be double barreling. Especially these days when so many people c-bet at almost 100%frequency (this is wrong and you should not be c-betting 100%) but given that meta people are over calling c-bets because, well, they can with the over c-bets. With that information then it should be obvious why you need to double barrel. When people over call c-bets they are showing up with air a large percentage of the time.
4: Not adjusting ranges based on rake structure.
Your range changes based on rake and if there are antes. The higher the rake the tighter you must play. This is one of the quickest ways to tell if someone is a crusher. Every player that wins with a high win rate is always going to find out what the rake is AND adjust their ranges accordingly. For example, in a high rake no ante environment like live cash you should be taking a 3 bet or fold approach to preflop. There are a few reasons for this. Number one is that if you take down the pot preflop there’s no rake aka “no flop, no drop”. Another reason is the higher the rake the higher the percentage of pots you need to win in relation to the pots you play because more money is being taken out of each pot. How do you win a higher percentage of pots? You play hands with higher equity aka you play tighter. On the flip side the lower the rake and the higher the antes the looser you can play because less money is being taken out of the pots and in the case of antes there is more dead money to fight over. A great example of this is Coin Poker. All their games have antes.
5: Not understanding how to use blockers and unblockers.
You should not be bluffing because you have a feeling your opponent is weak. You need to be bluffing/value betting/making plays based on your removal against villains range. You will hear it often at the poker table “blockers don’t matter” or “I have been playing poker since the 90s and let me tell you I have never thought about blockers” these statements are made by FISH do not fall into that trap. Do not play on “feeling” play based on logic. Period.
6: Playing too passively.
It’s simple; aggressive poker is winning poker. That said it should not be blind aggression. You must use blockers/ranges/strategy to apply pressure at the right times. The reason passive poker is so bad is that you are putting money in the pot then just letting that money get taken from you or you get min value because you check a nutted hand to “trap” STOP doing that. If you have a strong hand BUILD THE POT. If you should be applying pressure because you have a range or equity advantage DO IT.
7: Overvaluing top pair and over pairs.
At the end of the day one pair is not that strong of a hand. You must be able to fold over pairs. You see this all the time with low stakes players. Let’s go through an example. Let’s say you open UTG with KK and the SB calls. Flop comes 457. SB checks. On this board you should be checking back because SB has all the straights and sets. Your range is capped. The best you can have on this board is AA. That said a ton of players will bet. So let’s say you continue with a half pot bet. SB raised to 10bb you call. Turn comes T. SB leads for 24bb. You call. River comes a J. SB jams. You call and see the bad news and lose to a set or straight. You will hear people with KK there say “nothing I could do, just a cooler” NO THAT IS NOT A COOLER. You messed up. You should have checked. If you bet and get check raised YOU 100% should fold.
8: Not understanding range and equity advantages on different boards.
This is big and too much to type. Firstly, range and equity advantages are NOT the same. You must understand how different boards interact with your range vs villain range. As with the example from the previous point. In the hand where it was UTG vs SB and the flop comes 457 that is a board where UTG has the range advantage aka they have a stronger range however SB has the equity advantage because their range hits that board FAR harder. If however the same UTG vs SB and the board was AK5 that is a board where UTG has the range advantage AND the equity advantage.
9: Underestimating how valuable position is.
Position is INCREDIBLY important. Start playing more hands as IPP and less hands OPP. This is because it is very hard to play aggressively out of potion in poker. Again, aggressive poker is winning poker.
10: Too concerned with profit in any given session.
Results in any given session/day/week/month are irrelevant. Make profitable plays and forget about results. Pros do not care about “booking the win” this is because we understand it’s all just one long session and as long as you make the best possible plays you will be a long term winner. We don’t care about preserving our stack. If we are playing 8 hours for the day and we are on our last hand of the day and we get into a spot where the best play is to 2x pot over bet jam as a bluff that’s what we do even if we get called and lose all our profit for the day. Makes us book a loss instead of a win. It does not matter that’s the play we make because we understand long term that it was a +EV play.
11: Hero call far too often.
Hero calling feels great when you are right but the vast majority of the time you will be wrong. Just stop hero calling unless you have a ton of data on a player and can make that exploitative play. But really unless you are truly at a high level just do not hero call. If you stop hero calling you will be amazed how your win rate increases.
12: Underestimating variance.
Variance is crazy. Variance can last up to 100,000 hands. That will take 4,000 hours of live play. Reason for that is on average you will see 25 hands/hour of live play. 4,000 x 25 = 100,00 Let that sink in a full time job is 2080hr/year. So if you play 40 hours a week variance can last TWO YEARS. If you play 20 hours a week variance can last 4 years. If you play 10 hours a week variance can last 8 years. This is why the best crushers in the world play online. Online you see on average 75 hands/hour PER TABLE. That’s a huge one, online you can play multiple tables. Many pros myself included see 100,000 hands a week. We play 10+ tables at a time.