The biggest mistake that players here make

Poker Strategy
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I looked at the stack sizes behind and this may have been a poor example to use because the pot had gotten so big preflop. Take the same situation where the pot is only 500 chips and the guy with the nuts shoves 2000 at it.

Early, late or whatever, the level of play has dropped off a cliff - and that cliff was already below sea-level. Have to find some entertaining games somewhere because the 25K SnG’s are so bad they make me lose the will to live some nights. Limp across the finish line on 1 more weekly board and then I’m free - lost over 1500 points in average over last 6 games from card-deadness and the absolute inability to find it interesting on any level.

ADDED: I broke my own cardinal rule when I started looking at leaderboards. Got to get ack to having fun rather than giving a whoot about those things. Easy bonus chips if you run just average and can play anywhere close to ABC poker but flipping boring as sin. For money, these are the fields you want to see but for entertainment, not so much. 1 more game and I’m free to go back to fun. Done - sucked out on repeatedly yet again. What a coincidence that the run of incredible bad luck started when I began to question the RNG here. I’m sure that’s just another random thing that goes on here - LMAO.

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167

Biggest mistake #96: Thinking flushes are the nuts on paired boards
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/445879713

Even at the highest stakes, this very basic idea doesn’t seem to have sunk in with everyone. Of course K6s isn’t exactly the hand you want to start with … Probably several of the biggest mistakes combined in this hand but it was only 95 million chips so … I doubt he was turning his hand into a bluff so this had to be a value bet.

168

So, here’s a funny one: Players thinking that draws are “nothing”. I was scolded for leading out “with nothing” when I had a gutshot and flush draw. I happened to make the flush and was paid off by this wizard of poker, who then proceeded to let me know how bad I am at this game. LMAO. Let me get this straight, 1st you check the flop and then you call me twice on turn and river and I’m bad? Not fold, not raise because you have a made hand but just call? When I politely tell him not to be grumpy because I had more equity in the pot than the amount I bet on the turn, he again tells me DRAWWWs are nothing. If you don’t understand this very basic idea, you need to learn it because its about as basic in poker as it gets.
https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/446427184

Mistakes #97 and 98: Not understanding what equity is and making comments that reveal your deep and sincere ignorance. Better to remain quiet and let people wonder.

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170

@Comicguy Meant to reply to your comment, not the entire thread. Simply with: “Double like.”

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171

The biggest mistake players here make is NOT playing too many hands, but going all in preflop time and again. I will go so far as to say that the best hand you can possibly be dealt, pocket aces, NEVER warrants going all in when you have a pile of chips. The reason is that a nothing hand can hit it big, from a straight, to a full house or even four of a kind.

Example: I was in the big blind and was dealt 10,3. So I simply called and the flop was 10, 10, 3. I slow played and made a bundle.

Example: One googan kept going all in for thousands of chips preflop. So when he did it again, I was dealt Ace 7 off suit and decided I’d call his bluff. Googan #2 on the other side of the table called all in and they showed 3,4 and 8,4 respectively. I paired my ace and cleared them both from the table. You’re welcome.

Example: I had a great hand and ended up Kings full. Bet big and wasn’t bluffing. Beaten by four deuces, but the icing on the cake was that another guy also had Kings full. I think the board had two kings and two tens and we both had a king each.

Then I folded 6, 8 of diamonds with moderate size bets coming around and my hand ended up straight flush, except I had already folded. Except for that. Only lost out on 20,000 chips or so.

Moral of the story: If you have been dealt power cards, lay low, don’t bet thousands until you have some more information. Other people know how to play this game, some at least as good as you. Know what I mean Vern? But skill aside, cards do all the talkin’. You can play brilliantly and be beaten by the same hand with a better kicker.

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This couldn’t happen. 2 Kings and 2 Tens in the community cards only leaves room for 1 more card so quad 2’s are impossible

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173

If you can get it all in preflop with pocket aces and get called, you should make that bet every time. Yes, sometimes you lose. But the majority of the time you will win and the wins will add up to be much more than the losses.

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174

In the long run, there are only two ways to win at poker. Either you convince other players to fold off their equity, or over-commit it. Everything else is just variance - you’ll win some, or lose some, but over time that will even out.

In any given hand, sure, the cards will do the talking. That’s variance. If you want to build and maintain a bankroll, you’ll need to consistently make +EV plays.

If your opponents let you see free cards with T3 in the big blind and you flop a boat, that’s good fortune. They should have raised preflop to get you to fold off that equity.

Lay low with power cards? You’re making the same mistake that your opponents did on the T3 hand. Raise it up. Force them to fold off their equity, or to pay you more (in the long run) than they stand to win.

Or, y’know, don’t, and make posts in the forum about how your aces always get cracked, and that the site is rigged.

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175

Well, no, I was beaten by four deuces. I remember that distinctly, and I had Kings full.
So they were full of two not tens. Crucify me. Both words begin with “t” and I’m gettin’ old.

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Thank you very kindly. We could be great friends.

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Everybody’s got their own game…some are loose, some are tight and the rest are in between… except for the idiots…everybody who has not been out drawn by a loose player … please raise your hand LOL

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178

Well, when I was new, I just got excited when I had a big hand, and bet it. Simple as that.

It did not take long for me to realize that making everyone fold when I had the nuts was a missed opportunity, though. Maybe I’m a bit faster on the uptake than the average RPP player – I’d like to think so.

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If I was to give advice to a Replay newbie, it would be to ignore 90% of the advice they read on these forums, ironically.

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I didn’t start to check out the forums until about 2 months of playing daily.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking all advice and considering it. If nothing else, it gives insight into how at least one person plays. No advice is worth anything until put into practice. You can try anything out for a few hands, or for longer if you want to, and see how it works. I think it makes me a better player to try different strategies and see how they actually feel. It’s often on a different level than just reading about it. So, I say try everything and see, and don’t comment on whether it’s good or not until you’ve tried it enough to be able to speak from firsthand experience.

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181

StarManMBA
I’m sure I replied to a post by RenaisanceMan as it states on the top of the post so I am unaware which hand/post you are referring to unless maybe you are replying on their behalf or multi-accounting

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As stated variously throughout this thread, people here play super loose and super weak - similar to microstakes “IRL”. Conventional wisdom is to go against the table grain, so, be a TAG. This I (mostly) do, though I blow it often enough for sure, esp since it’s tough to “level” unknown players (1).

All the mistakes can be boiled down to those basic principles. Folks limp w/ATC; they horribly overvalue hands like rag aces (pre flop), or top pair w/weak kicker (post). If they raise, they min raise (which took me some getting used to - it looks so weak to me I’m caught off-guard when they turn a hand like QQ).

I think it all stems from a lack of comprehension of odds, whether pot or implied odds(2), let alone fold equity or EV. This is evinced in (anti) patterns like limp, min bet, min bet, then PSB when the player thinks they’re “safe”. Folks even do this OOP :cry:

I stick to higher buy-in MTTs; the game gets a little more “real” when the blinds get big enough.

(1) per Sklansky, see Multiple-Level Thinking in Poker: At What Level Are You? | PokerNews
(2) I use https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tools/odds-calculator/texas-holdem

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I am sorry but your advice is just bad. In poker you can’t make generalizations. I can think of 100 scenarios where playing every hand and behaving like a maniac is actually the right play!

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Assuming this is directed at me… I’m sorry you feel that my advice, which is consistent with a half century of poker advice from Brunson’s “Super System” on, is “just bad”. Of course, I didn’t say being a “maniac” wasn’t ever appropriate, just that the typical, thoughtless “small ball” play here - limp every hand, bet $50 into a $1000 pot, etc - is straight-out wrong, and that the proper way to counter that sort of loose, weak play is to play tight and aggressive.

Furthermore, to say that “you can’t make generalizations” is patently incorrect. You can make factual generalizations about poker based on the underlying mathematics of the cards. That math leads directly to observations like limping with your Q7o in EP against me or someone like me is a (generally) bad idea, since my range, if I choose to open (I’ll almost certainly raise your limp, substantially), is much, much better. Let’s say I’m raising w/ATs or better. What does that look like?

oddsExample

I’ll quickly (as in right now, pre-flop) have you laying money against me at very bad odds - 2:1 in this case (bear in mind, this is assuming the bottom of my range). I’ll raise you aggressively (big raise) to make sure that you’re not getting pot odds that match your winning %. That’s what I mean by “tight” (giving me the better range) and “aggressive” (spoiling your pot odds).

I could go on with all the problems you face OOP post flop, but will stop there. This is a straightforward example of a simple generalization that is statistically true: playing average hands when you’re in early position against 9 other players is losing over time. It was literally the first post in the thread. Further generalizations based on player psychology lack that mathematical certitude, but are pretty well documented by far better poker players than me.

The OP’s point (175+ posts ago) was to walk before you run. Playing like a “maniac” is running. Very few people here understand the mathematical basics - if they did, they wouldn’t chase gutshots, limp J3 suited UTG, etc. So getting into fold equity, aggression vs position, and their impact on EV - the sort of concepts germaine to “maniacal” play - is like a kindergarten kid trying to write a PhD thesis. You may very well be that quality of player, but the vast majority here are not.

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185

I agree that sometimes playing like a maniac is right - particularly against players who will fold too much. However, what about if you’re playing against the population here that overall is very loose-passive and calls too much?

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There is no doubt some questionable advice on these forums; some of which is just plain bad, and I’m sure some of that bad advice has come from me.

I have often and will continue to say this: I am by all means a very novice beginner and a poor, learning poker player. However, after initial basic training, I have found that my game has been improving, and I credit a substantial amount of that to what I have received through players in these forums. By analyzing their advice and observing their play, you can discover who is giving you good advice and who is giving you not so good advice. There are players who frequent these forums from whom I have received a lot of really solid poker advice. Their long term success can also back it up.

Again, I am not disagreeing with you about their being bad advice on here, but I wouldn’t quite go as far to say to ignore 90% of the poker advice. It would also constitute going through it ALL, though, so a bit of a tough call perhaps! :slight_smile:

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