Hopefully you’ve already absorbed a wealth of knowledge from our poker lessons. There’s still much to learn – in fact you’ll never stop learning about poker. Before moving onto the next stage of your poker development let’s review some of the typical mistakes that beginners make when playing Texas hold’em.

1. Online Poker Free
2. Bovada Poker

Although one or two of the mistakes we’re going to mention are relevant to no-limit hold’em, the majority are applicable to all forms of hold’em, in addition to other poker formats. Please use this lesson as a guide, so that you don’t fall into the same traps.

The Top 10 Typical Beginner Mistakes

In no particular order, here are our top ten typical beginner mistakes:

Jul 25, 2019  How to Play a Poker Game. Before we get started some basic rules for how to play poker you should first get familiar with the basic poker hand rankings. Maybe 90% of all beginner mistakes happen when someone thinks they have the winning poker hand and they don’t. You can consult the hand ranking guide through the link above but it’s actually pretty simple.

#1 – Playing Too Many Hands

One of the main mistakes new players make is feeling like they have to play every hand. They may become impatient, feel left out of the action or don’t want to look weak in front of their friends. It could also be that they just don’t know any better. Any Jack, Queen, King or Ace looks good if you don’t understand good starting hand selection.

The problem with playing too many hands is that you are actually only going to hit the flop a small percentage of the time and even if you do hit the flop; it’s hard to know if your hand is the best. Until you understand how to play beyond the cards, you will mostly be playing based on what you are dealt and if you are involved in too many pots, the next thing you know all of your chips will be gone.

#2 – Playing Scared

While some beginners play with reckless abandon, many play with fear. Having not played many hands, new poker players are often afraid to make a mistake or they simply are afraid to lose. Because of this they will fold until they know they have an unbeatable hand. Fear can also manifest itself into paranoia, where a player assumes that anyone betting aggressively must have a monster hand (often referred to as “monsters under the bed”) and they will fold all but the best possible hands. The only way to get over this is to log in time at the poker tables and practice trusting your instincts.

#3 – Getting Committed to a Hand

Because of the competitive nature of poker, beginners think that poker is like other sports where “giving up” is considered a bad thing. While you shouldn’t play passively, poker is not like other sports and it is often the correct play to fold. When you first start playing poker, it’s easy to get emotionally attached to a hand. This might be a pre-flop hand like a pocket pair or making a pair on the flop. You stay in a hand because you don’t want to get bluffed out of a pot or look weak – or because the competitor in you says there is no way to win if you fold. Unfortunately, by continuously calling bets you never really know where you stand in the hand until it’s too late.

#4 – Improper Bet Sizes

This one is primarily related to no limit and pot limit games. Understanding how to correctly size your bets in these games to manipulate the action comes with experience of playing poker. However, such common betting mistakes that beginners tend to make are easy to fix. New players often raise or bet at the extremes – meaning too little or too much. Some common examples of this are raising the minimum pre-flop in no limit games when there are several players who have already entered the pot or raising 5x-6x the size of the blinds when you are first to enter a hand.

Miss-sizing of bets also occurs after the flop. Beginners will bet the minimum with big hands (two pair or a set) when there are lots of players in the hand allowing them to draw cheaply to a better hand. Conversely, they may also over bet to “protect” their hand. In most cases, these are both incorrect. Ideally, in poker you want to bet an amount that maximizes how much you can win and minimizes how much you can lose.

#5 – Chasing

Similar to #3, a beginner will often stay in a hand hoping other cards will appear that could improve their hand. This could include straight and flush draws, but also calling bets in order to pair an Ace or a second card for two pair. Calling on a draw isn’t necessarily a wrong, but the mistake that beginners often make is chase getting improper pot odds to do so. While you might hit the card(s) you need in one particular hand, if you are chasing without the right odds you will lose money in the long run.

#6 – Overvaluing Marginal Hands

A very common mistake among beginners is playing hands that look good on the surface, but in reality hold little value or are easily dominated by other hands. In hold’em, examples include suited cards or face cards with bad kickers (K3, Q5, etc.). Additionally, this includes high hand combinations like QT, KJ or A9. While these hands are not unplayable, knowing how to play them comes with experience. The challenge with these face cards is that there aren’t many flops that you can be confident that you have the best hand. Even if you do make a pair, you can easily be out-kicked or beaten by a higher pocket pair.

#7 – Letting Emotions Affect Your Play

Whether it is from a bad day at work or a bad beat at the table, emotions can affect how you make decisions. This can result in unprofitable poker actions like chasing losses, making desperate moves or allowing your ego to take over. Beginners will often make rash, emotional decisions that can act like blinders, preventing them from taking in all the information they need to make a smart decision. Stuff happens. So if you feel like you are starting to make emotional decisions in a poker game, just take a step back and reset your mind.

#8 – Playing Out of Position

There are many other factors that weigh into a poker decision beyond just the cards. Your position in relation to the order in which the action occur is one of them. Being able to act last in a hand allows you to see how everyone else is going to act before making your decision. This is a very powerful concept. The mistake beginner poker players make is entering a pot or calling a raise out of position without a plan. They get lost in the hand because they don’t have enough information about where they stand.

#9 – Bluffing Too Much

Some players who are new to the game think poker is all about bluffing. While it is satisfying to bluff someone out of a pot, you should develop an optimal percentage of bluffing in order to not become predictable. For a bluff to work, your opponents need to think you have a real poker hand. If you are always bluffing, your bluffs will not be believable and people will start to look you up. Another component to bluffing is that your bets need to tell a believable story and you should be representing a particular hand instead of just random aggression.

#10 – Playing Above Your Bankroll

Even if you are only playing poker recreationally, it is still important to manage a poker bankroll. Most beginners do not understand the role that variance plays in poker. You can be playing great, but still go through a long losing streak. If you don’t manage your poker money properly and play within your limits, you will burn through your money. Even if you develop the skills to play at a higher level, if you don’t have the bankroll to withstand the inevitable variance that comes with poker, you will go broke.

Mistakes Are an Opportunity to Learn

Mistakes at the poker table can prove costly but as a beginner you should see them as an opportunity to learn. Don’t worry if you’re guilty of making any of the mistakes listed in this lesson. Everyone who plays poker makes mistakes all the time. Skilled poker players just make fewer mistakes. Hopefully now you know what needs improving and what parts of your game you should consider working on.

By Donovan Panone

Donovan started playing poker in 2004 and is an experienced tournament and cash game player who has a passion for teaching and helping others improve their game.

Online Poker Free

If you are a newbie to online poker, then one of the first
things you’ll need to decide is which poker site you want to
use. This can be something of a challenge, largely because there
are so many to choose from. Even experienced players sometimes
find it difficult when looking for a change.

Bovada Poker

There are several things to consider when choosing a poker
site, but not everyone has exactly the same requirements. For
that reason at GamblingSites.org, we rank sites based on a range
of different criteria and rank them in specific categories.
Below you can see our choices for the best poker sites for
beginners.

Rank	Gambling Site	Deposit Bonus	Get Started
#1	200% Up To €750	Visit Site
#2	888poker	100% Up To €400	Visit Site

Ranking Beginner Poker Sites

When we rank poker sites for beginners, a few factors are
particularly relevant. First and foremost, we take great care to
only recommend places we feel are completely reliable and
trustworthy; it’s important to play where you know your funds
are going to be safe.

We then also take a look at the minimum deposit you can make,
what stakes are on offer, and any perks for signing up. The
minimum deposit is important as we know that many beginners like
to deposit small amounts at first. In addition, many feel more
comfortable playing low stakes when starting out, so this should
be an option.

The perks you get for signing up need to be taken into
account; they can help to grow your bankroll a bit and give you
more to put into play. The most common, and usually the biggest,
benefit you get for joining a new poker site is a sign-up bonus
where you get additional funds added to your account.

You usually have to make a deposit to claim such a bonus.
There will generally be certain terms and conditions that have
to be met before the bonus money is actually considered yours
and can be withdrawn. However, providing the terms are
reasonable, a sign-up bonus can be a real benefit to beginners.

All of the sites listed above score well in the key areas
mentioned, as well as others. We really cannot recommend them
highly enough and believe them to be the very best beginner
poker sites of 2020.

Playing Online Poker for the First Time

When you play poker online for the first time, there are a
few pieces of advice you would do well to follow. We’ve provided
a few tips to help get the best out of the experience and ensure
that you have an entertaining and enjoyable time.

First, we suggest that you only deposit money you are
prepared to lose. Even if you are an experienced card player,
making the switch to online takes some getting used to, and
there are no guarantees you will be successful right away. Of
course, if you are completely new to the game, there is every
chance you will lose a bit while learning.

You should spend some time adapting to the software and
figuring out how it works. Many online sites have a
play-for-free option, whereby you can try things out before
actually risking any of your own money. Many places also invite
new customers to a number of freeroll tournaments, so take
advantage of this when you can. Freeroll tournaments have no
cost to enter; and although the prize money is usually pretty
small, they are a great way to get started.

Also, don’t be afraid to try out a few different sites before
deciding which one you like the best. Our recommendations are
all very high quality, but you will probably find that one or
two of them are more suited to you. A lot of players play
regularly at different places, and it’s an option if it works
for you.

It helps to have at least some idea of the game’s strategy,
so you should take a little time to learn about this subject. If
you are only planning on playing for fun, you don’t need to
spend ages studying up, but a bit of basic knowledge is somewhat
necessary. If you are striving to be a top player, then
obviously you’ll need to put more effort in.

Poker Strategy for Beginners

As a beginner, you really don’t want to over think things too
much. The best approach when you first start playing is to keep
it simple. You shouldn’t play too many hands, and you shouldn’t
try to bluff too much. If you just stick to playing very good
hands, and playing them strongly, you are unlikely to get
yourself in situations where you don’t know what to do.

Remember to pay attention to what your opponents are doing
and to think about what cards they may have based on their bets.
You’ll need to take position into account, too, which means
thinking about who is going to act first. If you can get your
head around all this, then you should be able to enjoy playing
without making a boatload of silly mistakes.

Once you are ready to start improving as a player and
considering other strategies and concepts, you can do more
studying on the subject. We have a very detailed
poker strategy section that you will no doubt find very useful.