Here’s the latest item from the team at … bet365 poker it’s aimed at rookie poker players.

Playing in your first couple of poker tournaments can be an intimidating experience. Many new players get wrapped up in the action and make basic mistakes that they should never make. We all have to start somewhere and learn the game along the way, but here’s a list of basic mistakes that no one should be making at the tables . . .

Playing too many hands is the most common of rookie mistakes. Novice players don’t understand that rag hands have a lower winning percentage than premium ones. They’ll play anything hoping to hit two pair or trips. This mistake just bleeds their chip stack quickly until they get knocked out of the tournament. They need to learn some starting hand strategy and tighten up their game.

Pricing in their opponents is the most common mistake a rookie will make when they have the lead in a hand. Instead of knowing to bet their hand for value, rookie players often bet too small of an amount when they’re leading early on. Doing this allows their opponents to call the bet with drawing hands because the pot odds are low enough to justify the call. If enough players are still in the hand, the rookie player’s lead will often get out-drawn and they’ll lose the hand.

Chasing a straight with the sucker end is another situation where rookies get into big trouble. If a board is 6-J-10 and they hold 9-8, even if the queen comes on a later street they could still be way behind. It’s a good move to only call bets if you do hit the queen, and not to raise in that situation. A big bet from an opponent will usually tell them that someone has the bigger straight. This can also apply to a small flush when the hand has some other callers in it.

Going all-in pre-flop is another mistake that rookies often make. This move is dangerous at the best of times, even with pocket aces. Most times the rookie will not get any action on their hand, and if they do it’s from a big hand. The only time you’ll want to go all-in pre-flop is if a short-stack player has tried to force the action. Then you can go all-in to isolate them from other callers with your dominant hand.

Bluffing too often is a common rookie mistake for the aggressive type of rookie. These players use the all-in bet as a way to steal pots, but this play will eventually backfire on them and cost them a big amount of chips in a hand they shouldn’t even have even been in. They should limit their bluffs so they can be hidden, and it looks like they have the goods every time they have to show their cards at showdown.

Getting emotional is another one you’ll see. Novice players don’t understand that poker has a lot of losing for every player, and they give up, or tilt out, when things go wrong for a while. They will give up after a bad beat, and essentially throw away their final chips because they figure they can’t come back. They let frustration take over and dump chips for no reason – other than they’re not strong-minded enough to accept that they can’t win them all.

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