Cash game: Not calling with any pocket pair to a 4x-5x bb preflop bet because they think they are beat. You call, hoping for the 7-1 chance that you hit your set.

Tournament early stages: Calling/raising with A-9os and below from early position.

Tournament late stages: Not calling all-in bets from the short stack with J-10, Q-9, or similar hands.

best of luck,

-amob

Playing 2 many hands out of position.
My buddy was doing this, calling suited connectors UTG, UTG+1 at the local casino, only to have me raise $15 from the BB and him having to fold, or pay $15 more dollars and hope there wasn't a re-raise.

I quickly explained to him why to wait to see how the table is playing, and more importantly, why its unprofitable to play these early, when you have to much them for a raise.

Starting hand selection in position

These were all very good responses. The gap concept, taking chances late, playing to many pots out of position etc. I probably should have named the thread common mistakes, because one I see may not be the biggest but is very common.

What I see is that many people go all in much, much more on semi-bluffs or just total bluffs, busted draws and such, then they do when they actually get good hands. When so many people are using things like poker tracker, it is very easy to get a read on people and it makes calling an easy descion for opponents. I think it's a good idea to go all in with good hands, if you flop a set with two flush cards out there or two drawing cards like j-10, going all in is not a bad idea, many people will think you are on a draw and you'll get their whole stack. When one gets a big stack, the first thing people hate is getting bullied and many think you are just fos by going all in so much. They will end up making huge mistakes and instead of just extracting some of their chips, one will end up getting people's whole stacks.

I used to watch Antonius play on Prima and he was a nightmare to the other players. He's all in on made flushes, made straights, sets, top pair top kicker, good hands ,semi bluffs and many total bluffs. His playing style opened the doors for so many more bluffing oppurtunities. Imagine three spades out there and he's all in, yet he plays a made flush, just like a bluff, what does one do? They would go in the tank and fold and sometimes he'd show 5-2os. Antonious could have set up this play by just calling the flop to look like he's on a draw. What I noticed was the constant pressure that he puts on his oppenents wears them down mentally and he tended to get their whole stack in the end.

If one can get in good position late in a mtt, a couple of timely bluffs could be the difference in winning or blinding out, but to pull off the bluff people have to fear you when it's tried.

I was in a mtt on party the other day and had a 4x average stack with two tables left. There was a guy all in the BB, bc he couldn't post it. Someone in mid position raises and I was dealt JJ, I reraised him and he flat called. He only had less then half of the average sitting behind. I figured he had a medium pp. I had been very aggressive and the flop came J-8-5. I knew probably that the other table was watching too, so I went all in, we were hand for hand and I knew my hand was getting shown, because the BB was all in. I was wanting everyone to fear my all ins at the FT, when the blinds would be so huge, that one good bluff might make a big difference. Well it worked out good, the guy called with 9s anyways I'm sure he put me on AK, but more importantly I won a huge pot on one timely bluff at the FT and took it down.

If people have noticed in their games that they have been going all in mostly on draws and bluffs, they will be surprised how many calls they will get if they have a good hand and they go all in. Don't underestimate Poker Tracker and such.

Good post, keep 'em coming! ; )

Way too many people play WAY too passive. Particularly preflop.

A good rule of thumb is to not call preflop. In fact, I try to never call preflop.

if you raise every pot you go into, it serves a variety of functions. First, it MAKES you play tight. If you aren't willing to raise with J7o then you shouldn't be willing to call with it.

This serves very well to disguise your hands. If you play AK, AA, and 87s all the same, it will be very hard for anyone to put you on a hand. Passive players tend to be very easy to read.

Although as said above, you don't want to overplay your draws, you do want to still be aggressive with them time to time. I see way too many people call all day and then wonder why they get no action when that third spade hits and they bet the farm.

<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td>Why Poker is so hard... </td></tr><tr><td>by supermoves on 5/4/2006 12:14 </td></tr></tbody></table> </td><td><nobr> <span onclick="javascript:return confirm('Are you sure you wish to delete this post?');"></span> </nobr> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td>So, I was typing my response to a thread in the hand advice section called "what advice would you give to an average player". My response was I would tell them to pay attention. I started typing out all the things you must pay attention to and take into account and I realized what a HUGE list it was. Below is a list of everything I believe you must know and think about when making a decision while player poker.

1. The blinds reletive to your stack

2. The blinds relative to your opponants stack

3. How many people are left

4. Your position

5. Your cards

6. Opponants betting actions

7. How close you are to the money

8. When the blinds go up

9. What is the average stack

10. How to spell

Please feel free to add on to this list...we will see if we can get a final list of everything you have to take into consideration when playing a NL holdem hand. </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><a id="FirstPageLink" disabled="disabled">[First Page]</a> <a id="PreviousPageLink" disabled="disabled">[« Previous]</a> <a id="NextPageLink" disabled="disabled">[Next »]</a> </td><td valign="top" width="33%">[«] [Poker Discussion] [»] </td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a id="TopicViewLink" disabled="disabled">[Topic View]</a> [Thread View] </td></tr></tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeedd"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td> </td><td>Re(1): Why Poker is so hard...
by Zeropants on 5/4/2006 12:19 </td><td><nobr> </nobr> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td colspan="2"><table celspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="2"><tbody><tr><td>How often your opponent folds to a raise.

What hands your opponent has been taking to the showdown.

How much you've raised pre and post flop in recent time. (do people think you're a bully)

Can the short stack at your table wait for a good hand, or will the blinds take them out?

What hands have you shown after winning, or shown down with?

</td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#eeeedd"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td> </td><td>Re(1): Why Poker is so hard...
by TroubleSuit on 5/4/2006 12:20 </td><td><nobr> </nobr> </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr><tr bgcolor="#ffffff"><td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td><td colspan="2"><table celspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="2"><tbody><tr><td>11. Your opponents frame of mind at this time. Did they just take a horrible beat.

12. Your opponents Image, loose player, tight player, passive agressive.

13. Your table image. (regardless of if you have had a run of good cards, if you have raised 3 hands this orbit you look very loose agressive)
</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

I see this so often. Players shoving bc they think they are shorter than they are. My friend wanted to shove j7s with 7500 at 300/600 on the button because of this. Some people just don't know.

nice example roooothlus. 10 BB is short but you have 20-30 pockets to wait to get ak (or maybe aq from late) or JJ and up to raise and steal or see a flop.

--tc

Good posts DeliChief and Junsie. DeliChef you are absolutely right, the truly great players spend a lot of time studying and replaying hands, just like a chess grandmaster would do. It would also save people a lot of money if they joined a good teaching site. And all the ones you mentioned are well worth it. I visited Sheets and Bax's site and just by looking over one way Bax played a hand, it helped me in my next mtt. I will definitely be joining a couple of those in the near future.

Supernova, you mentioned in your post payinng attention and that is true. When I have several or 4-5 games going it can be overwhelming. If someone has the same problem, it might be good to try and first place notes on the people your left, because one has position most of the time on the guys on your right. And then you can add notes from there.