Why good players lose

As our beloved game gains momentum in popularity, there are more Hold'em players who have read some books, studied the game and disciplined themselves to try to learn how to play better. But still, many of them are playing break-even or even losing poker. What is the reason? In this article, we'll take a look at some of the common mistakes that mid-range players often make and try to understand why good players seem to play poorly.

Mistake #1: Cold call after a preflop raise with a weak hand

It is almost never a good idea to keep calling a raise before the flop (i.e. calling a raise or two bets at once). The only exceptions are cases where there are likely to be many players fighting for the pot (at least six, or at least five, and you have a fairly large hand), and your hand is just playing well in games with a lot of players. If you've read any poker books, you've probably learned by now that cold calling with hands like AT or JT offsuit is tantamount to suicide in the game. But at the same time, players who know this happily support raising with suited QJ or KT when they expect three or four players to turn up the trade before the flop.

Sure, suited cards are a big advantage, but still, it doesn't outweigh the difficulties these hands face in small-sided games against hands that are typically preflop raise.

A simple rule of thumb: Whenever you’re unsure of calling or folding before the flop, fold. If you decide to take the risk with the smallest hand, at least make sure you flop with at least five more players. If one day it turns out that this strategy is wrong, then it will not be so wrong and much, and if, following it, you continue to play only if there are convincing reasons for this, then you will save yourself a headache more than once.

Error #2: Ignore pot size

You are on the button, you are holding 8-9, four players limping in front of you. The small blind folds, the big blind raises, and everyone calls. The flop comes K-7-5... The big blind bets, the next player raises it, and another one calls. What should you do?

If you are one of the mediocre players, you would say for sure: pass. But think again. At the moment there are 17 small bets in the pot, it will cost you two more to maintain the bet. Therefore, your chances are 8: 5: 1. Of course, this is not enough to guarantee a call, but now your potential chances are huge, and if you are lucky on the turn, you will be able to draw at least two bets from two opponents, and then force them to call your bet after the river ( Note that this flop is unlikely to make any obvious combinations, which means that most likely the first raiser and cold caller are playing hands with which they will have to call the bet on the river). Again, you can, if you successfully buy on the turn, drag you into a raise war with a set on hand. Having saved at this moment, of course, you will not miss a huge chance, but repeating such ridiculous mistakes over and over again, you will really lose a lot. In a loose game with a lot of players, you won't make a lot of money by dragging top pair through the whole game, so you have to come up with another way to win. Playing with unfinished combinations is one such way. Naturally, you only need to do this when the pot is large enough to recoup everything that you lost before if you win. But to fold such a hand, arguing that you do not intend to pay two big bets for an incomplete combination, is simply lazy to play.

Mistake #3: Letting Short-Term Results Fool Your Head

You see it all the time on the forums. The new player studies a couple of books, signs up at the poker room and begins to crush his opponents, earning three big bets per hour over the next month. Then his luck comes to an end and he starts to lose heavily. In one session, he loses 10 big bets. Then 20. Then again 10. Wins 15 in the next and decides that he is again on the crest of the wave, but loses this confidence as soon as he loses 45 big bets in the next session. In a panic, on every forum he can find, he leaves messages, begging the veterans to explain what he is doing wrong.

This is all great, except for one thing: in all likelihood, he did everything right. It's just that his initial results were too good, but now he is just returning to reality. By sticking to his plan, slowly introducing new techniques and tactics, he would most likely win in the end all the time. But instead, he loses his head from his failures, decides that "the game is not worth a dime," and does one of two things: he finally loses his bankroll, playing like the last donkey, or just immediately gives up.

Any veteran can tell the scary story of the long black streak he went through. If you are going to play poker, you should know that there are very often moments of short-term luck in the game. And if you are clearly aware of this, then you have already passed a significant part of the thorny path.