I’ve been playing poker for a long time online. I love it. There’s very few thrills in life that are more exciting than beating someone with a flush when they thought they had you with a straight, or when you get lucky with AA to the point that you end up with a nice full house thanks to the flop alone.
However, if you’re going to be a poker newbie, you can’t rush in. There’s a lot of “rushes” that newbies get themselves into, and I wanted to personally cover a few of them.
1. Too Much Limping
The process of limping is all about calling. You have a good hand, like JJ, but you just call rather than actually raising. If you have a high pocket pair, it’s best to raise pre flop, and then raise again once the flop comes down. This gives people the image that you’re really trying to portray — you mean business. There’s no other way to honestly say it. You mean business, and you’re going to claim that pot. If someone thinks that they’re going to beat you to that pot, they’re mistaken. That’s just the way it has to be honestly.
2. Projecting Insecurity
If you’re insecure in terms of how you play poker, it’s going to show eventually. Players are better off trying to hide when they don’t have the type of hand that they really want. It would be in your best interest to make sure that you aren’t trying to look tougher than what you really are, but you aren’t just running out of pots because you think that it’s going to make everyone feel more like you’re playing the right way. If you know that you have a good hand, go in with it. Bet well. Don’t bail out at the last minute. That will get you the image of someone that’s too insecure to really play poker. You just have to make sure that you start thinking about the type of poker that you’re ultimately trying to play.
3. Not Knowing Your Hand Strength
Hand strength is everything within the world of poker. Quick quiz: which hand is better, the Q-10 or the K-J? Well, in this case, the KJ is better. But what about when you’re dealing with a 10-7 suited (hearts) against a 2-3 unsuited? You would still want to keep the 10-7 in case of a flush draw. Be very careful to watch to see who is actually betting rather than just jumping in. That would be absolutely ridiculous.
4. Giving Too Much Away To See Turn and River
Don’t feed the pot when you don’t have anything to really show for yourself. Sure, you might hope for that last card to make a straight or that last card to make a flush…but is it worth it? If you’re a poker newbie, you need to study up on pot odds, implied odds, and reverse implied odds. Yes, that can be a lot of theory to remember going into a poker game, but it can also save you a lot of chips in the long run. We want to make money in poker perpetually, and that means that we need to be aware of the long term game. That’s all there is to it, really.
5. Not Folding Enough
There’s nothing wrong with folding when you know that you have no way of actually making a successful hand with what you have to work with. The mistake that newbies make is that they think that a magical card on the river is going to turn their crap hand into a great hand. That’s a good way to lose a lot of money in poker. What you must do from here is try to rise above that type of thing and really make sure that you’re going to be able to get the type of service that you really need. It’s going to be up to you to figure this type of thing out rather than just thinking that you don’t have anything else that needs to be done. It’s really going to be up to you when you really think about it. Why stay in a hand that doesn’t help you make money? Making money is the name of the game in poker. And if you can’t make money, then you are better off not flushing chips away just because you’re waiting on the river. Do you know what seasoned poker people call newbies that chase the last card on the board?
River rats. Yes, it’s true. And that’s the last thing that you want to be known as. You don’t want to be pinned as someone that’s a bingo player or a river rat. You are better than that, and you can play a lot better poker game over time. After all, it’s really the long term poker game that we chase, right. We want to make sure that we’re going to be able to handle this type of thing the right way. And folding is honorable compared to rushing in without any clue of whether you even have a chance. You might win some hands on luck alone, but that’s no way to build a poker career. Remember that even if you’re playing for a hobby, you’re still being watched. People are still tracking your player data. They want to see what type of player you really are. If you get a bad rep, you’re going to have plenty of people trying to take your chips. That would just be the wrong move to make.
There’s a lot more mistakes than this — are there any other mistakes that you’ve noticed other players making? It’s okay to be a little critical as long as you’re willing to accept criticism in return. A lot of people really aren’t, and it ends up making their lives a lot harder than what they honestly could be. You just need to make sure that you have things under control. You have to make sure that you’re watching out for the little things as you play. And you’re going to need to play a lot more hands than you think in order to get really good. Some people are natural born poker players, but they still need to play many hands in order to really be aware of how much it takes to get really good in poker.
Our bonus tip? Don’t jump into high stakes until you’re ready. You will realize when your stakes are currently too easy. Go up one level slowly. You don’t go from $1/$2 to $100/$200 overnight. Yeah, there are some big players that really like those stakes. You’re not going to be ready for that just yet. Yes, the money is amazing when you win — but the losses are way more than you can afford as a newbie. Don’t get yourself caught up in the stakes. Get caught up in the strategy. There is plenty of action to be had at the $1/$2 level!
Overall, all we can tell you is that it’s time to go out and play. You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to have trouble, but it will definitely be worth all of the headaches in the long run. You will definitely see that over time. Good luck!