Poker Forums

More often that you can imagine, good luck and bad luck have nothing to do with common mistakes that beginners make when it come to poker.

If you want to improve your gaming strategies, keep in mind these simple rules towards developing your intermediate skills:

• Never play too many hands, study your cards and determine the best hands
• Never play above your bankrool. Set an amount you can affort to bet and stick to it
• Not try pot odds, specially if you do not understand at all this concept.
• Control your emotions at the table, because they can contribute to make you lose good hands at the table.

 

These are great tips, especially the last one.  Do not go on tilt!  By showing emotions, you are thereby showing your vulnerability to your opponents.  Any real poker player will immeditaely pick up on your behavior and will use it against you quicker then you can snap your fingers, and then before you realize it, they'll have every single one of your chips in front of them.

Very true, and probably the reason why experts are always bluffing about their poker hands.

A way to learn more about your emotions.

 

Yep... I think especially the second one... that's what gets many many people in trouble, is betting more than they can afford to lose. Have a limit and STICK to it, is the best policy.  

Yea, I have a buddy who is in debt right now because of playing above his bankroll.  He is usually a great player, but in poker, you can't really sway the cards your way all the time.  We usually play $1/$2 NL, but we were having a great swing, and started playing $2/$5 NL, and he ended up losing nearly $3,000 in one night...when he was supposed to lose only a max of $1,000.

Sometimes sitting at online tables, you will see another player take a loss personally ...so personally that they sort of go after whoever beat them.  I sit and just watch their bankroll diminish as they make huge bets on hands that don't make sense.  It's sad to watch.

Also, you should look at everyone else before you look at your cards. You have all night to see what you got but only a second to see what everyone else got!

And here's another thing - never sit in front of a mirror or a cabinet with a reflective surface! It sounds like a no -brainer, but someone that doesn't play a lot can get set up (even as a joke) and it'll kill you!

I would see no reason to have a mirror in a poker area. I probaly jsut ask to move the table away from the mirror.