Avoiding mistakes in poker: Playing too many starting hands

January 31, 2008 by mrsmannings

Hello, I’m Mrs. Gussie Mannings, a professional poker player. In this blog I want to share some of the tips and advice, based on my own experience. Hope this information will be useful for you and let you improve your gambling skills.

 Don’t think the low-limit novice has a monopoly on bad play. There is plenty of it in the higher-limit games, even some by professional players. Time after time, I see people who should know better—often, people who do know better—making fundamental errors. Note that these types of errors are the ones that are the most detrimental to your bankroll. Here are what may be the three most frequent and damaging mistakes in poker.

Playing too many starting hands. This mistake is common to beginner and expert alike. It is also the most detrimental of all the poker mistakes. The most basic element of poker is betting that your hand is better than the other guy’s. The stronger starting hand wins more pots. If you play thirty percent of the hands dealt, and the opponents play half that many, you are going uphill. Sure, it is possible to gun your way out of trouble some of the time by betting until the opposition caves in. This does not mean that you should court trouble. In any form of absolute poker, there are plenty of ways to get into trouble and have to gun your way out even when playing first-rate hands. Ask any pot-limit hold’em player who ever raised on A-K suited and missed the flop. Why voluntarily get into trouble by playing second-rate hands? If you are losing at poker, it is almost surely because you are not properly applying the most important weapon in your poker arsenal—the fold.

You can find more about poker strategy in the poker blog.

Hello world!

January 30, 2008 by mrsmannings

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