Amateur Mistakes
Newcomers to the game of poker often fail to recognize its complexities. They learn the basic rules and poker online hand rankings, then only look at their cards and hope to get lucky. This type of thinking leads people to call when they should fold, and to miss obvious cues that more experienced, observant players recognize. New players often will defend their blinds when raised even when they are holding rags. This is foolish to do and will simply deplete your chips. When you are holding a raggy hand, like 7-10, and your blind bet is raised, recognize that your hand is already beat and is unlikely to complete to anything. Fold, and move on to the next hand.
New players often think any pocket pair is worth playing, and will enter or even raise a pot with pairs from 2-2 through sevens. The odds of completing to a set are only one in eight times, which is a long shot. When you are holding a small pair, the flop will most likely bring some over cards that complete a better hand for an opponent. Always calling with your small pair to the river will leak your chips away.
Another mistake new pokerplayers make is imitating the pros they see on TV, like Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen and Phil Helmuth. These players have years of experience at recognizing tells, and basically playing poker as mind game, where they are constantly thinking about what the other players are thinking about. This is a level of play beyond an amateur’s grasp. Newcomers to poker should stick to the fundamentals of sound play and stick with premium cards until they better understand the more subtle nuances of the game.
