Poker has a remarkable skill to bring two kinds of people, one who wants to learn about poker, and the other, who cannot find enough time to educate you that he invented something five minutes before the conversation.
Being a novice, you will be bombarded with nonstop stream of the worst possible advice on poker. This advice seems to be sure in many occasions. In some cases, it seems like it is of a professional player. This advice appears to be copied and pasteboarded everywhere on the Internet like it is a law of poker. That is exactly why such kind of advice is so hazardous: inexperienced will start following the worst poker tips, cultivate poor poker habits sooner, and will lose money months until they will even notice that it is the worst poker tips, which makes them bleed the money.
The following is a top 10 list of the worst poker advice which is costing beginners the most money. I do not mean little adorable mistakes. I am referring to massive leakages that reduce your bankroll to a pathetic memory and your poker games to some kind of therapy.
1) “Multi-table to reduce variance”
You are being taught poker as you would be taught boxing; by being struck in the face time and again until you start to reflex at your own shadow.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices?
Novices waste their money most by playing too many tables, while they still cannot make good decisions on one table. The more hands you play at the same time, the more times you will be out of position, guessing, calling, and paying rake. When you are undergoing the process of committing multiple mistakes, multiplying them by opening more tables is detrimental to your bankroll.
Yes, it looks cool to power up 16 tables on a big monitor and look like a pro. So it is your decision, do you want to like a badass, or become one, by starting with one table and learning the poker craft.
What should you do instead?
Develop discipline. Reduce the number of tables and focus. Learn the game, become pro, before acting like one.
2) “Limp often. You want to see flops cheaply.”
Limping is such a comfort food of the amateurs: not only does it provide you with a sense of security, it also provides you with a sense of belonging to a community, and it does so without increasing your own winrate.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices ?
Limping lets a variety of players play, kills your fold equity, and transforms single-player pots into the mote-hill of a multi-player one. Consequently, novices will create the second-best hands and continue to pay off as though it is their business. Limping is extremely rake friendly, to the casino also.
What should you do instead?
Raise or fold into the pot. By raising, you give yourself the chance to win without having to come to a showdown, and you put pressure on your opponents. With marginal hands you can later force your opponents to fold, instead of hoping your middle pair is better than their middle pair.
3) “Bankroll is not important. Skill is.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest race drivers on Earth. This does not mean he will sit down in a car without brakes.
Your bankroll size is your car brakes. Sometimes catastrophic events happen on the poker felt, even if you play near-perfect poker. Let alone if you are a beginner and you are full of them.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices ?
Good players lose sometime. Bad players lose a lot. Lack of bankroll guideline will transform a bad night to a disastrous night. Then you will start playing scared, pursuing your losses and acting emotionally. And that is how poker becomes more of a money problem than a game.
What should you do instead?
Select one bankroll rule and remain by it as though it were a law. Cash games have a number of players who have a bankroll of 20-50 buys in hand. Variance is greater in tournaments, thus, you generally have to possess a considerably bigger number of buy-ins. It is impossible to have a definite figure which suits all, but there is no need in working out a rule which will make one avoid the common beginner error: I lost at the last table, so I will bet on a higher limit to play and hope that I will be able to make a profit.
4) “Raise the stakes. They will respect your raises”
Yes…and when you feel cold, then you jump in a volcano. It will keep you warm and respected until the rest of your life. Hall of Famer as far as worst poker advices are concerned.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices ?
The best way of making more mistakes is by going up and losing. Higher stakes do not necessarily turn your enemies into civilized soulmates. Increased limits simply ensure that all bad judgments you make and all the risky bluffs that you wish to make, will become even more expensive mistakes.
What should you do instead?
The last thing that you should do when you are losing is almost always the opposite, which is to have a break or to go down to lower limits. Poker punishes ego. Guard your bankroll against your emotions.
5) “Do not to fold draws. You may hit and win big”
This recommendation is all over the place since it is fun. But, may hit is not a plan, it is a hope.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices ?
Bad players pursue draws at an incorrect price, and they pursue again after losing. They refer to big bets that have marginal draws. They make multi-way with dreadful chances. Then they say poker is fixed up, as they did not get a flush at the right time when they wanted it. It wasn’t rigged. It was overpriced.
What should you do instead?
Fine-tune a single easy skill that will save you a significant sum of money: do not pay premium prices on lottery tickets. When there is a big bet, and you have a poor draw, then you ought to fold more often than bad players think. Remember that hitting your draw to the nuts, does not also mean you will get paid. This is called implied odds.
6) “Call one more street to see where you are at “
This is a deceptive one, even if it appears wise. It seems like you are learning more information. You are not. You are paying to have an expansive lesson of not chasing draws.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices?
The favorite activity of a bad player is calling out of plan. They peek the flop, and the next thing they reevaluate the turn, and the last thing they just look him up on the river. One big donation is three little mistakes.
What should you do instead?
Before calling, find out what you are trying to accomplish. Are you calling to improve? Calling because you are beating bluffs? What occurs on the next card? Where you are not in a position to give an answer, the folding is normally the least expensive and the smartest answer.
7) “Bet big to protect your hand “
Bet what? To protect your hand? Is your poker hand a family member or maybe your beloved? You extract value with your hands or throw them away if you are leaking value with them. You do not protect them.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices?
Bad players simply over-bet at random to protect themselves, and they ultimately achieve the opposite of the goal that they set:
It is like screaming at the world that I am strong! into a microphone and then pretending to be shocked when only tough guys continue to listen. Why would you scare off countless of bad holdings, draws, tilted opponents, other beginners like you and every possible fish behaviour with large bets to “protect your hand”.
What should you do instead?
Set the size of your bets depending on an objective. When you want to see some weaker hands called, bet a size that weaker hands can call. Should you wish your hands to be stronger, it would be well to take opponents and boards in which folds are really likely. Protect your bankroll, not your hands.
8) “Bluff always. Unless you bluff, you can be predicted”
It is a tip which is usually given by a person who bluffs three people, and proceeds to react in a manner that he is personally cheated on when one of those people chooses to call his bluff.
The equivalent in online poker is when a fish gets called after randomly decided to bluff, that the other person is superuser who sees his cards.
In live poker games, if you go to the lowest stakes table, no one bluffs, and on the slightly higher tables, everyone tends to bluff all the time. Both of these make mistakes for different reasons. Bluffing is like telling a story. It has to make sense. You can now wake up one day and tell everyone you are Batman.
Why is one of the worst poker advices?
In the beginner-friendly tables, calling is often on the menu for breakfast , lunch and dinner. Thus, random bluffing is a direct deposit + juicy tip for your opponents. Inexperienced players tend to choose the worst times to bluff: multi-way pots, boards where everybody can have a chance to hit, or bluff against a tight player.
What should you do instead?
Stop bluffing till you understand who folds and why. The majority of bad players would immediately become better as they would be able to make their preflop bets more value-oriented and build a reliable preflop discipline with their creativity.
Learn the table, notice who overfolds, who overcalls, pick who you bluff against and make sure your story adds up.
9) “Avoid bluffing”
This is the other cliff. It may look as it just prevents you from winning slightly more, but in reality it can hurt you much deeper than that.
If you are card dead and do not have a bluffing strategy in your arsenal, what do you do? Wait hours to hit one big hand and recoup all your losses?
Without bluffing, I would argue that you can only barely avoid losing. You can be a breakeven player long-term, but a winning one? Hardly a chance.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices ?
Not to bluff, would mean that your raises would not be paid, when you are strong. You will feast on small pots forever.
Meanwhile, you will lose every time when you are unable to make a hand, as you cannot put pressure on your opponents.
Consequently, you turn into a player who has become easy to play against. When you place a bet, you have the hand; when you do not place a bet, you have no hand.
What should you do instead?
Use plain and simple bluffs. Use backed-up bluffs (e.g., draws) and select the situations where the story makes sense. There is no need to bluff so much. Just choose the spots and the opponents. Do not use also obvious spots only.
Many of your opponents will know about them as well. For example, turn or river completing flush draw or straight. If you always try the scare the opponents with the same bait, they will adjust.
10) “Do not think about rake. Rake is insignificant.”
Although this one is the last reason, you will be not profitable, completely neglecting it is like going outside in a huge rain storm with umbrella which has a hole in it. You may not get fully soaked, but will be wet.
Especially for beginners, who start on micro-stakes, there the rake is highest with highest caps and sometimes without caps.
Tolerate this only in private games, where the other players are beginners as well. If you play against low-stakes grinders, it’s basically mission impossible to win.
Why is this one of the worst poker advices?
Rake is unkind to little edges, pots which are limped, and to constant calling. Bad players often participate in the very kind of play that rake feeds on, excessive hands, excessive little pots, excessive multi-way flops and excessive lets see calls. Although you are making rational decisions, high rake can turn you from slightly profitable into slightly unprofitable.
What should you do instead?
Play less, but high-quality hands. Or change the room/site/casino.
Raise more preflop. Stay away from limpfests. Try choosing games that have a fair rake structure. When you are playing online microstakes or playing games with higher rake in the live games, then your strategy must be able to realize that there will be a rake at all times, which will consume a part of the pot.
How to stop the bleeding out of money.
Most of the losses bad players incur are fuelled by the repetition of five similar habits that are supported by worst poker advice:
- Playing too many tables
- Limping to “see flops”
- Calling without a plan
- Chasing draws at bad prices
- Changing the stakes according to emotion.
These habits will be corrected, and you will not have to have secrets. You will save money right now, because you have got out of the big leaks that hold bad players at a high cost.
Worst Poker Advices test :
If the advice seems to be:
“Always” or “Never”
“Bluff a lot”
” Don’t bluff”
“Play bigger to win it back”
“Call to see”
“Do not worry about bankroll”
“Rake does not matter”
The extreme “this is always true” guidances often make the worst poker advices. The kind that’s easy to repeat, fun to say, and expensive to follow.
Meanwhile if you want good advice, check the low stakes tables on ClubGG, PokerBros , and PPPoker. They are not the most suitable place to learn, as the majority of the players there are not strong. However they are one of the best places to build a bankroll.
For those who want to learn heads up, there is a club on GG where the rake is only 1%.
If you prefer something, which resembles regular poker site, has fair rake structure and can be played on browser – QQPK is the trendiest platform.
