Top Ten Cash Game Leaks

1. Not Folding Enough – Be it pre-flop or post-flop many players are either playing too many hands or simply taking weak hands too far after seeing a flop.

2. Calling Too Much – “Its suited so I call” or “I called to see if I hit my Ace”. Two of the fish`s favorites. If you are calling the only way you can win the hand is by having the best hand at showdown. Many players never get past this simple concept.

3. Not Value Betting Enough – For some reason people tend to bet less with their made hands which goes against what the above two leaks say. They either bet less or get tricky and miss out on a ton of value.

4. Not Being Positionally Aware – Position affects everything in Poker, the later someones position the weaker range they tend to have. Some people simply do not adapt their ranges to this concept when deciding what hands to open, what hands to call a raise with, and what hands to 3bet with.

5. Not Having A Plan – A lot of players are simply playing the game street by street and never thinking ahead. It is almost akin to A Snooker player simply potting a red ball without even thinking about getting position on a colour.  Before you do anything at a poker table – think.

6. Money Matters – Playing on too small a bankroll is a problem that a lot of players have to face.  Moving up is good, not moving down after losing a lot of buy ins at the new level is bad. A lot of players simply can not face the thought of moving down when it is not going well. The fact is that you can not improve your game if you have no money to play.

7. Tilt – Everyone has tilted at one point or another. A lot of the best players that make the most improvements simply have it under control and it is not something that affects their game for the most. Tilt is going to hamper your improvement and waste mental energy that could be spent on making your game better. Get it under control.

8. Basing Decisions On Too Small A Sample – Most regulars are using HUD`s these days but never a day goes by with out someone posting a hand in a forum where they are basing a decision on for instance someones 3bet range when the villain has only played 20 or so hands and is showing a 3bet range of 10%.

9. Not Stealing Enough – Stealing Blinds in Poker is like printing money if you can learn to do it well. Most people don’t though, most people either don’t think it is worth it or misapply concepts and end up doing it badly.

10. Thinking You Are The Next Tom Dwan – Someone maybe, but you are probably not. There is a reason that Tom Dwan can get away with doing what he does. That is because he is an exceptional reader of hands and people. He can probably explain in great detail why he makes every play. If you can make a good legitimate explanation for every `out of the box` play you make then great, but I bet you can’t.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2013 at 1:00 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.