Poker – Game plans that will make you lose.
Winning Poker Strategies, but there are some game plans that will cause you to lose. A few weeks ago I was sitting in Seat 8 and a player that I know fairly well was in Seat 9. I’ll call him Jeff, no it’s not his real name. I know Jeff from seeing him in the room fairly often, and we have played at the same table many times. As the game progressed, he complained that he just couldn’t win. “Can’t hit a straight, a flush, even a frickin pair”, he moaned. I responded with “Some days are that way”, he said, “It’s been going on for 9 years.”
Within a couple of hours, Jeff had dumped over $800 in a $1/$3 game. At the Beau Rivage, a $1/$3 game would be a $2/$5 in nearly any other poker room. The games at the Beau are all uncapped as it regards buy-in and it’s not unusual for many of the players to buy in for $1K or more. It became, through the course of the evening, reasonably easy to understand why Jeff had lost the $800. Jeff’s Game Plan was not conducive to a winning strategy.
As I thought about this, I recalled a few other players that I play with regularly, that I would classify as having the same “Poker Game Plan” player as Jeff, and it’s a rarity that I see any of them leave the table a winner. That said, I made a few notes that evening as I continued to observe Jeff’s play, as well as the other players. Over the course of the next week, I did the same in every game I played. Here are my observations, the Top Eight Reasons, that I observed causing consistent losses.
Playing Too Many Hands
It seems as if hand selection is completely out the window, and that starting hand requirements are any two, in a lot of cases, every two cards, that’s a recipe for a losing poker strategy. There are “lots” of players that play upwards of 70% of their starting hands. I’m not complaining. I want them to do exactly that. But if you expect to be a winning player, and you are playing over 15% of your hands from an early position and 40% from late position, then you may want to rethink your range. Playing too many hands is a recipe for a losing poker strategy.
Chase Too Much
Chasing straights and flushes can be costly to your earnings. Trying to “hit” those inside straight, runner-runner flushes, etc. will not generally end well for you. I will not go through the math here, but look at what your probabilities are of making those kinds of hands.
Don’t Be A Calling Station
I watched Jeff call down several hands with middle pair, good kicker or top pair, bad kicker. From my perspective, it was fairly easy to read the board and see these hands were no good. Add in the betting pattern and playing styles of the players he was calling, and all of those hands were easy folds. Not to mention some of those hands should have never even been played.
Limp/Call/Fold
I see this rather often, not just from Jeff, but lots of players. They will limp pre-flop, then there will be a raise behind them, and they will call the raise. Flop comes, it will go check, bet, fold, almost invariably. Certainly, some of this is set mining, but when the same player(s) are doing this repeatedly, it’s not possible that they have pocket pairs that often. It’s simply bad play.
Tilting
I will not go into any detail here. Read the post regarding How Emotions Can Affect Your Play. There is also another great learning, posted in Rick’s Turn To Act.
Ego
Often, I see players get “goaded” into making a bad play. There will be a talkative, sometimes even an obnoxious player at the table. This obnoxious player will eventually get under someone’s skin and then the battle of egos begins. Read the post regarding How To Deal With Obnoxious Players.
Thinking Ahead
Thinking ahead should be at the top of your Poker Planning List. Before you make a marginal call or play a marginal hand, think about what happens next. If a player makes a bet, what will the next bet be? What’s his stack size? What was the bet? What percent of his stack size did that bet represent? Even if you hit your hand, will it be any good? Of course, it’s all situational, but you should think beyond your current stage in the hand. Be more concerned with “what’s next” than only thinking about the stage you are in.
Kicker Problems
How often have you heard someone say “I have kicker problems” or something similar? They play that A3, then an ace flops and they bet and get called. If they make it to the showdown, you will hear the spill about kicker problems. I really only have one question here, “Did you not think of that before you played a weak Ace”?
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