Before you can even think about winning money at the tables, you have to stop losing it first! It may seem silly, but not losing money is actually a very difficult level to reach. Even a cultured and trained player can lose money. Here are some of the fastest ways to lose a lot of money fast. Avoid them!
invincible aces
Get pair of aces great. They are a hand worth raising and re-raising before the flop. But once those three flop cards are revealed, the story is different. A single pair of aces is not a particularly strong hand if there is a chance of a flush or a straight. Even two pairs of anything will beat that pair of aces. Many people appear blind to the flop and assume their aces will win no matter what.
Blind betting and raising with aces is a quick way to deplete a stack. Any opponent with a strong hand will simply call the river and then make a move. The player with aces will probably call just to see his hand beat. Once the invincible ace is defeated, people often become enraged, claiming how unlucky they are. Sometimes they will scold the other player for making stupid calls. In either case, the aces lost and made a big dent in the player’s chip stack.
Pasi has pair of aces and high preflop. The original raiser, Henry, called. The flop is Q♦ T♠ J♠. Henry makes a pot-sized bet and Pasi raises. Henry quickly goes all in, Pasi calls and calls. Now, Henry may not have made the best moves, but he would certainly be consistent with a pair of queens, tens, jacks, or ace-king, all of which would beat Pasi.
monster blindness
New players are particularly susceptible to getting overly excited about having a monster hand on the flop. In particular, the fastball seems to get them into trouble. Getting a straight made is a delight, and often blinds the player to higher straights and flushes on the board. Such a player may even see those results and dismiss them as unlikely possibilities. Of course, stats play a minor role when the other player calmly calls big bets.
The first mistake is something known as the idiotic end of a straight line. A player with T9 who sees the JQK flop often doesn’t realize that AT would beat him. Worse yet, the river hits the ten and now anyone with just one ace has a higher straight. This tends not to influence the player’s intention to give the money away from him.
Just as common is colorblindness on the flop. Let’s say the cards on the flop are of the same suit, like J♠ Q♠ K♠. It’s quite possible that someone has a flush, or at least a flush draw. Even if someone doesn’t have the flush right now, an aggressive player could turn this pot into a very expensive pot. The reckless straight holder may even play slow in this scenario, or make small bets, further encouraging an opponent to stick around to complete their draw.
Pasi has bet before the flop with A♠ K♠ and has a caller. The flop is J♦ T♦ Q♦. Pasi plays slow and passes. Henry bets half the pot and Pasi calls. The turn comes 2♦ and Pasi checks again, delighted to see Henry make another half-pot sized bet. The river brings a white and Pasi finally bets. Henry isn’t sure, he doesn’t think Pais is blushing, but he isn’t sure. He calls and his 7♦ is enough to win the pot.
Chasing a dime with a dollar A flush draw is certainly a respectable drawing hand to have on the flop. However, it is just that: a drawing hand. No actual hands have been made yet, which means more cards must be drawn. Incomplete hands imply risk and therefore loss. Chasing a hand is fine, but only if the pot odds are acceptable. Going with negative expectations guarantees long-term losses.
A proud holder of a flush draw will probably think he has a good chance of making his hand on the turn or river. First of all, they are simply wrong. Second, very good is not really a viable strategic term. Your chance to complete the draw on the turn is only 19%, 20% on the flop. Those are not good odds. Only paying a small bet can be justified.
Pasi has a flush draw on the turn and Henry bets $50 into a $100 pot. Pasi foolishly makes the call. Here she has a negative expected value. She will make her flush only 20% of the time, out of $200 this is only $40 which is $10 less than the amount needed to match. She hasn’t even considered that Henry may also have a flush draw.
But there are two cards left, so the probability of making a flush on the turn or river is actually 35%. True, but those odds still can’t justify sizable calls, and to truly understand the expected value here, you need to venture into the territory of implied pot odds. A player can only use the two-card opportunity with careful consideration, as each additional card will cost more money. When in doubt, only one card chance should be used.
Playing Too Many Hands Many players come to the game having seen a bit of it on television. On TV it seems like people are playing every hand, no one gets a walk and the hands almost always go to showdown. Add in the occasional 2♠ 7♦ win and you get a very skewed perception of the game. So Mr. Excited arrives. He sits at a table and tries to replicate the television experience.
Lo and behold, hand after hand they take your money. He’ll yell a foul, call the system rigged, and talk about how unbelievably lucky the other guy is having. Even when he is smart enough to fold bad hands on the flop, his stack is still depleted by all the betting and pre-flop betting. Of course, he will sometimes get lucky and hit a huge jackpot. This will only encourage him to continue his bad habits.
Certain starting hands are more likely to win and, more importantly, easier to play on other streets. This is simply a fact. Being very selective is a point that is repeated in practically all poker books, and the selection criteria are very tight. The vast majority of hands simply need to be thrown away.
Pasi is excited to receive two face cards: K♠ J♦. There is a 5BB raise before him and a call. Thinking his figures are good, he calls. This may come as a surprise to Pasi, but this card combination isn’t even listed as playable in most beginner strategy books (for a variety of reasons we won’t go into here). Even against that bet, it’s not a great hand. With that person he calls, this hand suddenly has a negative expectation.
Assuming the other guy is bluffing From pre-flop to the turn, the betting has been aggressive and now the river comes. The guy at the other end of the table now shoves his whole stack. Our new player thinks this is one last bluff attempt and calls back. The cards appear and the guy at the other end of the table wins the pot.
In one of Dan Harrington’s books, he mentions that the chance that an opponent is lying is at least 10%. New players often get this backwards, thinking that bluffing is the key to the game and that your opponent is only telling the truth 10% of the time. They don’t realize that they have set up that all-in move on the river themselves. Your opponent makes an honest bet on the flop and raises. Another bet on the turn and this time a call. That player now has every reason to believe that if he goes all-in, he will be called.
The new guy not only misread the river, he thought betting the turn and the flop were bluffs as well. This is not reasonable. A player who bluffs on the flop, turn and river is likely to lose spectacularly on many occasions. Sure, it can work sometimes, but it’s so costly when it fails that it’s just not a winning strategy.
Pasi called Henry’s pre-flop raise with A♠ J♦. The flop comes 3♦ 7♥ 8♠ and Henry bets half the pot. Pasi figures Henry missed the flop and calls. It’s the turn J♠. Henry now makes a pot-sized bet and Pasi happily calls, thinking that Henry may have caught the jack, but Pasi’s ace kicker will be good. The river comes T♦. This time, Henry makes a bet for two pots and rightly wonders if Pasi is crazy. Pasi mistakenly interprets this as a bluff for a straight, while correctly pointing out that Henry’s earlier bets would not be justified with J9. Pasi calls and sees Henry flip pocket kings.