1: Playing too many starting hands

Only 20% of all starting hands are profitable with 10 opponents, this a mathematical fact. When you play a bad hand it’s like throwing money out of the window. Example: You have 72o in late position and 1 player in the game. It will cost you one big blind to call, but in this situation your expected winnings are smaller than one big blind. Maybe you’ll get lucky, but in the long run you will lose.

2: Cold calling with trash

Many players make too many cold calls pre-flop. For those who don’t know what the meaning of cold call is, here is the explanation: A cold call is when you call 2 bets at once pre-flop. Cold calling is mostly incorrect. You need a stronger hand to cold call than you need to open raise. For example: You have AQ and somebody in early position raises before you. In this case, your opponent shows that he has a premium hand like TT+ and AQ+. Maybe AJ and 99 fits this too. In this cases your AQ only dominates AJ. You are an underdog against all other hands. Why do you want to get involved in such a bad situation when you don’t have to invest anything in it? If you were first to raise with AQ, there is a pretty good chance that you have the best hand at the table. You might even get another AQ hand to fold if your opponent is playing carefully.

3: Limping with AK or a high pair

When you look at your table, you may find some players who will just call with hands like AK or QQ+ pre-flop to trap their opponents. This is mostly a big mistake, especially with QQ because this hand can be ruined by two overcards on the flop. Against a single opponent, your chances to win are pretty high. Even AA is very vulnerable against multiple opponents and because of this reason you should try to knock out at least the blinds with a raise. I have seen AA lose to all kinds of strange hands because the blinds were allowed to stay in. When you play lower limits, you will find many players who like to cold call so the raise gets you more money into the pot.

4: Playing potentially dominated hands

A lot of players don’t care about their kicker and because of this they lose too much money. For example: If you like to play small aces like A9 or something like that and you hit the ace, you are dominated most of the time and you have the so called “expensive second best hand”. Other examples of often dominated hands are KJ, KT, QJ, QT, and JT. Dominated hands win little and lose a lot.

5: Calling with weak draws

A draw is an unmade hand that you bet on because of its expected value (EV). You only want to call a bet from your opponent if you have the pot odds to do so. For example: You have something like A4 on an KT9 flop and you think: there’s a chance to catch an ace so I call. In this case you forget that there is a 1 in 15 chance of an ace appearing. Also you forget that someone could already have two pair or a straight, and you would lose to any bigger Ace too. This is the most common mistake that your opponents will make and from which you will make a big percentage of your winnings.

6: Playing too passive with a made hand/slow playing

You will often see many beginners talk like: “My opponents play all kinds of cards, even if I bet and raise like there is no tomorrow they won’t fold and on the river they’ll suck out, so it is better not to bet in the first place. The mathematical mistake: You give away possibly winning and you allow them to see the next card for free! Make your opponents pay to beat you.

7: Not letting go

For many people it’s hard to throw their hand away even if they know that they are beaten. Example 1: You have A2 in the big blind. The flop is A59 rainbow. Flush and or straight draws are impossible. You bet and get called, and on the turn you get raised. It is now apparent that your hand is not the best. If you call down to the river then it would be a big mistake. Example 2: You hold two red Aces. The flop is 789, all spades. The player who is first to act bets, gets called by one player and then is raised by another player before it gets back to you. In this case you should throw your Aces away because you are mostly already beat. Maybe you are in front now, but there’s a great danger that this will not be the case on the river.

8: Ignoring position

Some players only pay attention to their cards and the community cards. They ignore the implications of their position for strategic decisions completely. Example: An UTG (Under the gun) player calls with AT. AT is not a bad hand and you should raise it from middle position if there were no callers before you. For UTG, it is weak because 9 more players have to act and any of them can have a higher ace or a high pair in their hand.

9: Ignoring opponents and their betting actions

As in the case of underestimating position, some players ignore their opponent and his dynamic and just play their cards. There is no hand which has an absolute value. A three of a kind is only strong as long as nobody else has a straight or a flush. Every decision should be made with consideration of the actions of the opposing players, which can indicate the strength of their hands. In any case it is about quality and not quantity. A raise from a rock player might mean a monster, on the other side a raise from the table maniac might only mean that he holds any two cards and wants to bet.

10: Unfounded Bluffing

Because of some movies many players think bluffing is always the way to win. This is totally wrong. Bluffing is only justified if there is a good chance that all your opponents will fold. You have to realize that especially at the lower limits, most players call way too much so they are not very bluffable.