Common Leaks in Less Experienced Poker Players
Many poker players have wondered about their specific leaks and weaknesses when it comes to competing at the tables. No one can really spot a lot of leaks in your game just by looking at stats or a single play. In poker, it is important to realize that there are many black and white areas, meaning there is a correct play and an incorrect play. However, there is also a very large gray area and many things are left up to feel and experience. You will need to likely hire a coach or get a very good group of poker friends to identify your specific leaks. Although I also coach some poker players, I still seek out advice from others I respect often and have considered hiring a coach many times. Hopefully this article will help you find some of your leaks.
Often I see a big leak in building huge pots out of position. This is sometimes fine with certain stack sizes. When we are deep stacked, why would we want to play all of our big pots out of position? It has often been said that it is impossible to outplay a similarly-skilled opponent when facing a position disadvantage. This is true for many reasons. When we are in position, we are last to act on all streets giving us the advantage. This allows us to exercise pot control or bet as a bluff or for value. When we are out of position it is hard to be in control of the hand. Without going in to more detail on this topic for now, a good example would be 3-betting Ace-Jack on the button as opposed to doing it out of the small blind. The button gives us all the advantages of playing this hand while seeing a flop from the small blind offers more disadvantages. You should make it a point to play more pots in position than not.
Many players also tend to raise with very marginal holdings from early position. This is not always incorrect for experienced players with an edge on the field who are basically playing any holding and being able to represent stronger holdings. When you are first starting or in the learning stages you should keep your decisions simple. If you play very tight in the first few positions while opening your range in later position it should help greatly. Again, this makes our decisions easier because we are in position when we are opening our range. Playing marginal holdings out of position often causes us to get married to a flop that is only one pair or a draw.
Another very common leak I see from less experienced players is over-valuing a draw. We should avoid the tendency to overvalue weak draws; often shoving into a player who is not folding when we need to make our hand to win the pot. There is a huge difference between a 5-high flush draw and a flush draw with two over cards on the board. There is also a great difference between the top and bottom end of an open-ended straight. On the top end we obviously often will have two over cards to the board as well. I recommend running some hands through any form of odds calculator to see the difference in these shoves or check-raises all-in without fold equity. If your hand is going to showdown, an open-ended straight draw with no over cards is not a strong holding.
While many of us have or have had many other leaks, this article would be too long if I mentioned even all of my leaks and prior leaks, but I will add one more. Many players bet on the river or check on the river when the other option would be much better. It really helps to be able to put your opponent on hand ranges in order to make the correct decision in these situations. To simplify, the only reasons to bet on the river are to make a worse hand call or to make a better hand fold. This is something that you really need to think about before betting. If you can’t accomplish either of those two things a bet is probably not a good idea. If you are trying to make a better hand fold make sure that the line you took in the hand makes sense for what you are trying to represent. If you have not played your hand like a flush draw it is not going to work to try to represent a flush on the river.
I hope this helps some of you who have posted about needing help with leaks. Poker is not an easy game and it takes time and effort to get better. I dedicate a few hours every week to studying the game and I think you should, too. Review some hand histories, talk with friends, hire a coach, and read some books and forums. A few are blessed enough to be self taught and very successful but most of us will not be.
Best of luck at the tables!
*To view a list of poker coaches, visit the PocketFives Coaching Directory
PocketFives Scouting Report for ryan beckwith
Ranked #482 Worldwide — Career Online Tournament Cashes: $919,000
rbeckwith on all sites. Ryan Beckwith of Wisconsin placed 4th in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up in January ’09 for $41,000. More recently, he has a win in the Full Tilt Poker $42k Guarantee for $20,500 along with a $12,600 score for 5th place in the Stars $300k Guaranteed ($50+5 DNG Sunday Special). In January ’11, Ryan final-tabled the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl for $13,200 (7th place officially).
