01 Aug 2024 bad beats discipline mental game mindset tilt Do you often lose money in poker? Blame your latest $1,000 downswing on anything but yourself? Are you being destroyed by everyone in the first hour of play? Well, it's probably not just bad luck. In this article, you'll learn about 13 reasons why most people have lost, are losing, and will always lose in poker. The article is more for beginners, but it will be useful for players of any limits to refresh their memory on what should not be allowed. Reason #1: You play too many hands The biggest and most fundamental mistake many ineffective, especially beginner, poker players make is that they play too many hands: Weak aces, kings, and the rest of the broadways, especially their unsuited versions, A lot of suited connectors with 2 gaps, As well as a lot of suited garbage like T4s All of these hands, even when introduced into the game under ideal conditions - open-raise - lead even experienced players to many difficult situations on the flop, then on the turn, and then on the river, where it is often a question of playing for the full stack. Systematically hitting tough spots leads to the fact that careless poker players constantly lose chips on folds with a questionable hand on the turn-river, often getting dominated, or, God forbid, calling for the whole stack with far from 1 nuts (as is obvious to them). Poker requires serious discipline and the ability to be patient and wait to be successful. This is the only way you can hit the most profitable spots as often as possible, which is where you make the most profit. For hot-tempered and impatient people, poker is not a good environment for making money. In the long run, they will only be able to get emotions here, but pay for it with money and time spent. Although sitting and letting the grass grow is a very boring activity, your wallet will thank you if you choose the best spots. Each hand begins with a preflop, and a competent choice of a spot to enter the game begins with choosing a hand for the situation. This task is greatly facilitated by preflop charts, of which there are many on the Internet today. Thanks to them, today preflop is almost completely solved for 99% of situations. Just by hanging printouts of the most common action ranges on the wall: Open raises by positions, Cold calls on BB vs positions, And 3-bets by positions, You will be way ahead of the field. And against amateurs who come to have fun and bring you 80+% profit, you will be a mile ahead of. Even if you don't analyze your opponents' habits at all and play primitively according to the charts like a robot, this will already cut off many minus and near-zero situations from your game, which waste not only time, but also such a resource as concentration. It is important to maintain concentration in order to better monetize hitting +EV spots and/or more successfully outplay opponents, playing with profit what would otherwise be played in zero and in the negative. Spending energy and attention to unprofitable situations will only make your game even more unprofitable because you spend resources where the return is zero or negative. You understand everything perfectly well. Reason #2: You chase too many draws If you have a habit of chasing every draw, especially non-nuts, and even not close to the odds, then you play like a fish. The same goes for the desire to get a pair to your Ax and double floats in order to outplay your opponent. The idea itself in theory does not sound bad, but in practice you will be bet too often and too big with an increasingly tight range, which your hand is likely to lose to. And the longer you do not fold, the more money you put into the pot with a questionable hand against a strong range. And then, more often than not, you lose this pot either by getting dominated or by the notorious fold to the relentless aggression. If you chase your draws with calls, then it will be advantageous to have the following conditions of the hand: Your draw tends to become the strongest hand on nailing its out, and not the second or worse, The pot odds + implied odds are sufficient for a call, Your opponents will rarely squeeze you out with their bets. If you like to chase weak draws, and especially in multi-pots, where going to showdown happens much more often than in heads-up-pots, then those «nuts» that your draw hands may become will often be not the best hands. This will lead to huge losses - it would be better if you did not bring these hands into the hand at all. This requires very little: understanding the pot odds and an approximate assessment of your opponents' willingness to pay + a little discipline. Learn the basic rule for your own good: Play tighter and give up questionable hands more easily. And if you continue to chase draws at all costs, then your opponents will more often start to load you with increased bets, continuing with which, your losses will increase even more in relation to what was outlined above. Reason #3: You are a Calling Station The previous reason is closely related to the current one. In poker, calling is often the most -EV action of the three possible, and often even folding is more profitable. In situations where you are bet/raised with narrow ranges, persistently calling opponents will systematically take away your money. And folding will save it. Making a call when you clearly feel that you are beaten and watching how your opponent, predictably, shows the best hand is one of the most disgusting feelings in a poker hand. It does not matter how small the opponent bets - you should fold this hand if you think that you are definitely beaten. I deliberately repeat these obvious things: calling in situations where everything indicates that your hand has almost no chance of winning will save you tons of money that you will not have to win back for free later. Reason #4: Lots of limps and double calls postflop A limp is when you simply call the size of the big blind, rather than raise, when everyone has folded to you and it's your turn. Since both a limp and a call are passive actions, they clearly signal to your opponents that you most often have a weak hand. This means that you can be squeezed out with 2-3 bets, especially big ones. Passive actions (calling and checking) in poker are the key to a losing game, since this way you have only one way to win the hand - to have the best combination at the showdown. That is, by and large, you rely only on the equity of your hand. The catch is that your equity is raw and is only relevant if you both open cards right this second. If your opponent is putting pressure on you with bets, then with some frequency you will throw away your hand (usually very often), which at the moment could well have been the highest. So, it is not only the raw equity of the hand that is important, but also how you realize it under opponent's attack. And it is this realized equity that you should rely on. Simple example You defended with a call preflop on the BB with 22 against an opener from EP. The flop Q83r is very dry and safe. At the moment, you have 4th pair, which beats all of your opponent's unmade hands, but not a single made one. At the moment, you have 33.9% raw equity. But more than half the deck will be objectively bad cards, and even when low cards like 7x-4x come, you won't feel more comfortable calling. This is just the turn. And then there is the river card to come. In addition, the example shows one of the safest flops. If the flop had A, K, J, or any obvious draw, your starting equity would be around 15-20%, and the chances of winning by just calling would tend to 0. Question: How many bets (and what kind) are you willing to call OOP against an early position range, having only 4th pair, when any card out of the remaining 45 can give your opponent a better combination? The same goes for playing hands with 1 high card out of position. A hand like K♥️3♥️ on a T♣️T♣️9♦️ flop is also hopeless end that shouldn't be played against someone who will often bet twice or more and who doesn't like to fold. Although it may have ~60% raw equity at the moment. Disadvantages of playing with a call Calling does not help you gain control over the hand Calling puts you in the most troublesome situations compared to betting and folding Calling does not help you determine the strength of your opponent's range, who tends to bet often and more than once Calling does not carry any fold equity with which you could knock out your opponent/s and take the pot right away, even if it is a small pot And many other disadvantages Successful poker is aggressive poker, in which you have control over the hand through fold equity to take pots, as well as an understanding of how and how much you can value bet. Or even get a free card. And all this control over the hand is gained through active moves: bets and raises. Situations where limping and calling can be profitable are quite rare exceptions, so you should not focus on them. This will be a game only against very specific opponents, whose ranges are full of bluffs. However, even here, a call does not reduce the chance that an aggressive opponent will outdraw you and show a better hand at showdown, taking your entire stack. It's up to you to decide. As an eye-opening exercise, I would recommend that you play the next few sessions without calling at all on the postflop OOP and in free positions on the preflop (especially if you are OOP). Most likely, your graph will acquire a much smoother and steeper character, and it will be easier for you to play. Although it will not bring as much emotion as it was when playing with an abundance of calls, you should strive to play the entire situation in the hand as a whole, and not just one of the elements - your hand. Reason #5: Placing the blind out of turn and out of position Remember: this is done by either very impatient players or outright fish. This is a very bad habit that will lead to you spending double+ to enter the hand. This is especially true in live poker with a huge rake (and often no cap), but it is also important for online. Placing the blind out of turn will most often result in you losing it because: As a rule, you will not always have position, Most hands are garbage, and being out of position will only make them even more difficult to play, If you limp, then 3 times out of 4 you will get an isolation raise behind your back and fold this extra blind. So in general, this is a very negative situation that you should not get into at all. One exception: sometimes it is acceptable to place this blind if you know for sure that you will end up in position on a good fish. Cash game poker is one session that lasts a lifetime. Obviously, you want to have as few losing streaks and unnecessary losses of money as possible. And posting a blind out of turn, and out of position, means paying double tax on the game. Reason #6: Buying-in with less than 100bb stack Whenever you see a player with less than a full stack, you can already label him as a possible fish. A less than full stack greatly limits the actions. Texas Hold'em at 100bb is a full-fledged game, where a deep stack provides a full palette of actions both postflop and preflop. Such room for maneuver on all 3 rounds of betting postflop helps to realize all your strategic (and psychological!) potential: The ability to place multiple large bets and (check) raises both as a bluff and for value, The ability to win the maximum amount of money from your opponent, not just 20-40 bb, The ability to often outplay your opponent preflop, without risking your entire stack and without paying excessive rake, The ability to effectively bluff and outplay your opponents: both without bringing them to showdown and with a full value bet, The ability to pull off clever and equally dangerous-looking lines of play that are unavailable with a shorter stack, And a number of other possibilities... The larger the effective stack (often determined by your own), the less often you can bring it to showdown and go All-In, that is, the less often you get into situations where too much begins to be determined by chance. Thus, 100+ bb cash is a much less variance game than a cash game with a medium or short stack strategy. And more on that later. An exception to the rule: a regular playing with a medium (MSS) or short stack (SSS) strategy. But, firstly, today they are a very small percentage of the field. Secondly, they quickly retrain from «presumably fish» to normal players because their other behavior is typical of regular players. And thirdly, they buy in with a stack ending in "0": 20 bb, 30 bb, 40 bb, 50 bb, 60 bb, 70 bb, 80 bb. As the stack gets bigger, they will either leave the table to double up again with a short stack (often at another table), or their strategy will become typical of a player who played with a deep stack initially. But the shorter the stack, the less maneuverability and space you have to outplay your opponents, and the more often you have to play for your entire incomplete stack, increasingly exposing yourself to chance. Thus, the game acquires a simpler, but very broken character with an abundance of long and prolonged downstreaks. Here everyone decides for themselves. But, as a rule, a player with an incomplete stack will most often turn out to be a full-fledged fish, and not a specific regular And the last point of this point There is such an observation that a fish who bought, say, $7.10 at the NL10 limit, most often has this entire bankroll. Therefore, hurry to take it before you are beaten. Fish may not re-enter this table until he deposits again. Reason #7: Playing too boldly or, on the contrary, too timidly Beginners often fall into two extremes: recklessness or cowardice. Let's start with the first one. If you want to play cards today, then it's better to go to something other than poker. Poker is not suitable for those who lack patience. Many enter hands with a bunch of garbage hands, then continue to call, or even go All-In with some incomprehensible hand in a situation that only assumes that you will see some very strong combination. And then they sit in complete bewilderment - what happened and why they systematically lose money in poker. And they even convince others that everything here is decided by chance and only the lucky one wins. Useful video: Watch this if you ever felt Lost in poker Such players can only be advised to start treating past experience as an expensive lesson and from now on to treat poker as a game of skill. They should thoroughly review what they did, since it systematically led to a loss and start practicing their game in various situations, starting with the basics: how and with what to enter a hand. All this is completely obvious, but, as they say, things are still there. The other extreme in poker is to be afraid of everything. Although being a maniac is the most negative «style» of play, being an outright coward in poker is not a positive behavior either. If you are afraid of playing big pots without a very strong hand with which you feel completely safe, then I have to disappoint you: poker is not for you either. You will often fold ready and simply promising hands out of fear that the opponent's combination is probably already ahead, or he will beat you later. This will only worsen your mental attitude at the moment, and the game in the current session, and the global performance. Caution is not a synonym for paranoia and obsessive fear. As long as you are a nit and your nuts see fold after fold, you have little prospect of moving up in limits. After all, later both the fish will be more greedy and cautious, and the regulars will be more attentive and bold in attack. This means you will be knocked out of a lot of small and medium pots very often, and your value hands in big pots will not get anywhere near enough payout to cover your fold losses in other spots. Your red line will be falling at 45°, and your blue line will barely rise above zero. You will not see any profit with this kind of play. If you want to make a profit in poker, you will have to overcome your main fears, widen your ranges a little, and play more boldly. A tight-aggressive style of play (TAG) should help you solve this problem. Reason #8: You are not playing within your bankroll The goal of poker is to earn money, not to gain respect and fame from others. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with playing within your means and hedging your bets against the risk of losing all your money. This goal is facilitated not only by competent and disciplined bankroll management (BRM), but also by playing only in positive conditions. Such conditions are those where you have a tangible advantage over your opponents: Opponents play clearly worse than you in general, You play in position against them, You are mentally prepared. The last point means that you are ready to do with your hands what is required by the strategy - physically press buttons and adjust bet sizes, and not just limit yourself to thoughts about what move would be optimal here. Now some words about the bankroll Poker is a game with a huge variance, and all sorts of unpleasant things can happen here in a short sample. Even playing in very sweet games, you may well be unlucky serially: for days and weeks. Therefore, following the BRM will allow you not to risk a significant portion of your money in the account even having an edge over your opponents. If you risk a significant portion of your balance in the poker room, then several unsuccessful hands can take away your last. Poker professionals are able to play a lot and recover time after time, because their bankrolls can withstand long and deep drawdowns with a large reserve. And these people themselves can feel relatively safe even during strong downstreaks. Reason #9: You're Bluffing Too Much We've all seen durrrr and Isildur's reckless bluffing in the past, when they were good at it. It's very inspiring, both for the player who's bluffing his entire stack, and for the thousands of less sophisticated players around the globe. You may well be one of them. Then you'll be drawn to do the same thing over and over again. But those top players were playing at the top limits - against other strong players close to them in skill. And between them, such play could often bring positive results. However, at the lower limits, the players are completely different. The reality of the micro and low limits is that you don't need to be a skilled bluffer to have a good win rate - the bulk of your profit comes from simple, straightforward value bets. - No matter how primitive and undeserving of calls from worse hands they may seem to you. Several successful bluffs with the entire 100 or even 200+ bb stack cause such strong emotions (dopamine) that they can fix in you a strong habit - to strive to bluff like that again and again. Then you will prefer to win by bluffing - and big bluffs - bluffing when it is unnecessary and with something that is not suitable for it. You can start playing a solid share of medium and even medium-strong hands as if there are no other ways to win the hand. Most likely, you are not a master of bluffing, and then, having won several large pots this way, you will bluff like that many more times. However, many hands won could easily have been won precisely because of gross mistakes by opponents, and not because the bluff was strategically justified and it was correct (and even the most profitable decision). That is, your bluff could well have been successful in a short sample, but negative in the long run. So, the more you repeat incorrect bluffs, the more money you will lose in the long run. It's not just one hand, but thousands of similar ones over time - a calmer, value-oriented game will often bring much greater profit. To check the +EV of your game, you should post your successful bluffs for analysis by experts and/or work with coaches. If they say that the bluff was not only profitable at the moment, but also profitable over time - then repeat it again and again. If you don't like the verdict, you will have to adjust your game. To fix this (it's clear about coaches), you will have to learn to determine favorable conditions for bluffing: Be in position on your target opponent, He should be prone to putting you on a strong hand, He should fold much more often than you want, Your actual hand's SDV should be as low as possible, The hand should have good blockers to the continuation range, And a number of other conditions. Otherwise, many attentive (or simply angry at you) opponents will soon start calling you down on some 3rd pair out of position on scary boards. Not only will this cost a lot of money right now, but it will also be discouraging and may be perceived by you as quite humiliating. And other opponents will see that you can be treated - and therefore should be treated this way. All of these factors can ruin your game not only at this particular table, but also for several sessions ahead. Reason #10: You tilt easily Being a little upset after a bad run of cards or a few lost pots is one thing, completely normal. But losing your head and completely forgetting how to play poker after the second cooler is completely unacceptable. There is no excuse for a player to start behaving like a psycho at the poker table, pushing around with garbage and opening up opponents with complete nonsense. Phil Hellmuth and Tony G have demonstrated that nothing human is alien to the celestials, but this does not mean that it will be profitable to systematically imitate them. If you feel that you are overwhelmed by negative emotions, then immediately take a break / walk / sleep and return to the game only with a sober head. This may be interesting for you: Phil Galfond: Top 5 signs it's time to quit your poker session Emotional decisions can cost you your entire bankroll! Reason #11: You have a habit of underbetting postflop An underbet is a bet that is significantly smaller than is usually seen in such spots. While LLinusLLove uses them effectively as part of his strategy at NL10k+, less skilled players, especially at micros, should not abuse them. Especially against regulars. Although a bet that is too small can be used to provoke an aggressive opponent to bluff, it still has more significant downsides. The main disadvantages of underbets: You practically do not collect value with hands for collecting value, and a medium-strength hand is often better to check, You generate practically no fold equity on your opponents - you will be called with 3-5-out garbage and often get «coolered». This is often done by older players who just want to dictate at least some action. But they don't achieve anything good by doing this, except that they squander their stacks at a minimum of one minbet per betting round. And after a few more minutes, their stack noticeably decreases. Reason #12: Big Ego Poker is a game where it is harmful to have an ego (a sense of self-importance). Therefore, you should not let it manifest itself once again and determine for your sober mind - how you should act and what it will lead to in the future. Ego will ruin your entire game. If you have problems accepting failures, defeats and losing even small pots, then this should be an alarm signal for you. You should work on this in parallel with improving your strategy, and even before technical skills. The best players calmly accepted that they cannot win every hand, and that sometimes they will lose as much as a whole stack because «the cards came that way». On an average and, especially, a short sample, luck in poker determines a lot. Accepting these poker axioms and being able to turn off your ego while playing poker will greatly help you play with a clear head and not go on tilt, when you would do complete nonsense and lose stack after stack. Reason #13: You Can't See the Big Picture Everything we do here is semi-random. We can always strive to reduce the impact of chance through knowledge and strategy, but there will always be a luck factor in poker. It is vital to have an understanding of the bigger picture. Each individual hand/session/month doesn't matter as much as the lessons you take from it and turn it into new opportunities to improve as a player. Bad poker players can't see beyond the moment. It is important for us to be able to see much further than our noses in order to successfully deal with the inevitable fluctuations in poker. If you want to become a good poker player, you must learn how to recognize and consistently beat players worse than you. Their lack of skill and experience should be used to your advantage. The most valuable thing you can do for your win rate is to strive to find the weakest players in the poker room or at the table you are playing at, and the profits will follow. Bad players tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, making them easy to spot. Once you've identified a player at the table as lacking skill and experience, be sure to focus on exploiting their tendencies and keep the pressure on until you have all their chips. After all, poker is a game where money is made from your opponents' mistakes. Conclusion Today's article was for beginners and micro-stakes poker players who are stuck at them, and therefore have some tendencies in thinking and behavior that bring them losses, which, in turn, take away most of their profit. There were many long-known truths and even obvious things here. However, since the players have tendencies that were described here, then there will be those to whom the article can be useful. That's all.
