This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
If you’re looking to improve your poker game, preflop is usually a good place to start.
This doesn’t mean you should spend countless hours memorizing a bunch of preflop charts.
You can easily improve your preflop game by simply avoiding some common mistakes a lot of amateur players tend to make.
You should also be on the lookout for these mistakes in other players at your table.
If you see anyone making these mistakes, you can usually mark them as a recreational player right away.
Let’s get right into it.
Preflop Poker Mistake #1: Open-limping
Open-limping is one of the telltale signs of recreational poker players.
When you open-limp, you’re basically announcing to the whole table: “I’m a huge fish, please take all my money!”
Open-limping means being the first player to enter the pot by just paying the big blind instead of open-raising.
This is not to be confused with limping behind (i.e limping into the pot after another player or players have already limped in front of you.
Unlike open-limping, limping behind can be a viable strategy at times (more on that below).
If you are the first player to enter the pot, you should do so with an open-raise.
The standard open-raise size is 3 big blinds.
So if you’re playing a $1/$2 cash game, for example.
And you have a good hand like: A♥️K♥️
The standard open-raise is $6.
You can deviate from this and go for a bigger or smaller open-raise if the situation demands it.
Check out my other article on the best preflop bet sizing for much more on this.
Here’s a few key reasons why you should avoid open-limping altogether:
a) you can’t win the pot outright preflop if you open-limp
If you open-raise, you can sometimes win the pot right away if you make all the other players fold.
If you open-limp, on the other hand, you’re giving the players in the blind no incentive to fold their hand, which leads us to the next problem.
b) you are inviting multiway pots
A multiway pot is the one with more than two players involved.
The more opponents involved, the harder it is for you to win the pot, because every other player has a chance of making a stronger hand than you.
Ideally, you want to play a hand against a single opponent, preferably as a preflop aggressor.
c) you can’t make a continuation bet on the flop
A continuation bet (or c-bet for short) is a bet made by the previous street's aggressor.
For example, you open-raise preflop, then make a continuation bet on the flop.
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should be inclined to make one on most flops unless there’s a very specific reason not to.
Check out my other article on the optimal flop strategy used by today's pros for much more.
If you open-limp, however, you can’t make a c-bet on the flop, which will make it harder for you to win the hand.
d) you are failing to build up the pot with your strong hands
If you want to win big in poker, you need to be able to rake in big pots. And the best way to do so is to build up the pots with your strong hands.
In no-limit hold’em, most of the money you’ll earn will come from your strong value hands where your opponent will be willing to give you action with a weaker hand.
And in order to extract max value, it’s best to start building up a big pot as soon as possible.
If you don’t build a big pot preflop, it’s a lot harder to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
This has to do with pot geometry; seemingly small adjustments in your preflop bet sizing can balloon to a big difference when you get to the river.
d) you risk getting raised yourself
A lot of amateur poker players open-limp because they want to see a cheap flop.
But this often ends up backfiring because another player raises them, so they have to pay an extra bet just to see the flop.
If you want to see a cheap flop, it’s a lot better to open-raise yourself with a smaller bet size.
This way, you get the benefits of being the preflop aggressor and often get to see a cheaper flop than you would have had you open-limped.
Unlike open-limping, limping in after one or more players have limped behind you can be a viable strategy at times.
For example, if you have a speculative hand that prefers to see a cheap flop (like small pocket pairs, for example), you can go ahead and limp behind.
To learn the 5 poker strategies every beginner should know, see my latest video.
Never miss my latest poker videos. Join 100,000+ who are already subscribed.
Preflop Poker Mistake #2: Playing Too Many Hands
One of the most common amateur poker mistakes is playing too many hands preflop.
As a general rule, the more hands someone plays preflop, the worse of a player they are.
If you want to quickly improve your poker skills, you can start by simply being more selective with the hands you choose to play preflop.
That’s because most hands miss most flops in no-limit hold’em (2 out of 3 times, to be exact).
And since you have to pay money every time you want to see the flop, the more flops you see, the more money you’ll lose over the long run.
And the occasional times you do manage to win the pot won’t cover all the times you’ve missed the flop completely.
That’s because not all starting hands are created equal.
Some hands will connect with the flop far more often than others, so you should avoid playing hands that have very limited ways of hitting the flop.
In other words, you should avoid playing junk hands altogether.
Junk hands are the ones that don’t have a lot of potential to make strong post flop combinations, and can often get you in trouble due to a weak kicker.
A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can often determine the winner if both players have the same hand combination.
For example, if both players have a pair of Aces, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
Examples of junk hands you should avoid playing:
A♦2♠
J♥3♥
T♣5♣
Check out my other article on the 4 bad poker hands you should absolutely avoid playing to learn more.
A lot of amateur poker players are also guilty of playing just about any random suited hand just because it’s suited.
This is also a bad idea that’s likely to cost you a lot of money over the long run.
That’s because it’s very hard to make a flush in no-limit hold’em, so if you’re only playing a hand for the prospect of catching a flush, you’re in for a disappointment.
The chance of flopping a flush in no-limit hold’em is only 0.8%.
See my article on how to play flush draws for a much deeper dive on this.
Another problem with playing suited junk is the fact that even if you manage to make a flush, you’re still not guaranteed to win the hand.
For example, if you make a flush with a hand like J3s, you’re still potentially losing to a lot of stronger flushes.
Any suited Aces, King, or Queen of the same suit can potentially beat you. That’s an insane number of combinations you need to worry about.
This means you need to take the reverse implied odds into account when playing suited junk.
Implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially earn on future streets if your draw completes.
Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you stand to lose if your draw completes, but your opponent ends up having an even stronger hand.
So playing junk hands just isn’t worth the risk in most cases, and you’re better off only playing strong hands that have a good chance of connecting with the flop in some way.
Learn to Make $2000 Per Month in Small Stakes Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet
If so, then I wrote this free poker cheat sheet for you.
This is the best completely free poker strategy guide available online today. It shows you how to crush the small stakes games step by step.
Learn exactly what hands to play and when to bet, raise and bluff all in!
These are the proven strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to create some of the highest winnings of all time in these games.
Enter your details below and I will send my free poker "cheat sheet" to your inbox right now.
Preflop Poker Mistake #3: Calling Out of Position With Mediocre Hands
If you are the first player to enter the pot, you should do so with an open-raise.
However, you won’t always have the luxury of open-raising, since another player can open-raise before you.
When that happens, you have 3 options: you can fold, call, or 3-bet.
A 3-bet is a re-raise against another player’s open-raise.
As a general rule, calling is the last option you should consider preflop.
You should only call if all the other options don’t make sense, which is more of an exception than the rule.
That’s because it’s statistically more profitable to see the flop as a preflop aggressor.
If you’re using a hand tracking software like PokerTracker 4, you can check these stats yourself.
Yet, a lot of amateur poker players default to calling preflop.
This is especially problematic if they happen to call when playing out of position.
Playing out of position equates to playing with a handicap throughout the hand.
In poker, the money always flows from players playing out of position to players playing in position.
If you’re forced to play out of position, at least consider 3-betting your hand.
This way, you’ll at least see the flop as the preflop aggressor, which gives you the opportunity to make a c-bet on the flop.
As a preflop aggressor, you have the range advantage and the initiative, meaning you are perceived to have the strongest hand.
If you flat call preflop, on the other hand, you don’t have the same advantage, meaning you’ll often be forced to fold your hand if you miss the flop (which will be most of the time).
Some amateur players will often call preflop with mediocre to weak hands that often get them in trouble if they do manage to connect with the flop.
For example, if you flop a top pair with a weak kicker, you may be compelled to keep calling post flop, even though your hand may already be behind a stronger hand.
In other words, you run the risk of your hand being dominated.
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand, due to a weaker kicker.
For example, if you play a hand like A2, you are dominated by all the other Ax hands.
Your hand should always dominate your opponents’, instead of the other way around. I discuss this at length in Crushing the Microstakes.
Preflop Example Hand #1
You are dealt Q♥T♣ in the small blind.
A tight and aggressive (TAG) player open-raises to 3x from UTG (under the gun).
You: ???
You should fold.
This is a textbook spot where amateur poker players tend to call too liberally, which often gets them in trouble post flop.
Let’s examine why calling is a bad idea here.
First, let’s examine the open-raiser’s range.
Based on the player type, this player is likely to play quite a strong and narrow range.
Decent poker players tend to play tight ranges when they open-raise from early table position.
That’s because the earlier your position, the more players left to act behind you, so you need stronger hands to play them profitably.
Let’s say the open-raiser is playing a range of medium to strong pocket pairs, strong broadways like Ace-Ten or stronger, King-Jack and King-Queen.
Bear in mind that this is only a hypothetical range for the sake of example.
Against this range, your hand has only 32% equity.
Now, you might think that that’s not too bad, but this does not mean you’re expected to win 32% of the time.
That’s because you can’t fully realize your equity because you’ll often be forced to fold before getting to showdown.
You’re also playing out of position, which makes it harder to realize your equity.
Even if you make a top pair on the flop, a lot of hands in your opponent’s range will dominate you.
For example let’s say the flop is: Q♦6♠3♥
You have a top pair, but you’re potentially losing to Ace-Queen, King Queen, pocket Queens, Kings, and Aces.
That’s a huge chunk of your opponent’s overall range.
Bottom line: calling out of position preflop is a losing proposition most of the time.
Even if you manage to win an occasional pot, you’re still likely to bleed money over the long run.
If you’re playing out of position, consider 3-betting or folding first.
You can still have a preflop calling range, but that should be more of an exception than the rule.
Preflop Poker Mistake #4: 3-Betting a Minimum Amount
Another common preflop mistake a lot of amateur poker players are guilty of is using the wrong bet sizing.
This is particularly obvious when it comes to 3-betting, where players often 3-bet a minimum amount.
This is a huge mistake for a few reasons.
There are two main reasons why you bet in poker. You can either bet for value or bet as a bluff.
You are betting for value when you expect to get called by a lot of weaker hands. In other words, your hand is strong enough to be ahead of your opponent’s calling range.
Conversely, you are bluffing when you expect to get stronger hands than yours to fold.
If you’re 3-betting a minimum amount, you’re not really accomplishing either of these.
If you’re value betting, why would you only bet a minimum amount?
3-betting a minimum amount with a strong hand means just leaving money at the table.
If you fail to build up the pot with your strong hands preflop, it’s a lot harder to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
This has to do with pot geometry discussed earlier.
If you have a strong value hand like pocket Aces or pocket Kings, for example, your best bet is to build up a big pot preflop, so you can comfortably stack your opponent post flop if the board cooperates with you.
If you’re 3-betting as a bluff, on the other hand, betting a minimum amount won’t persuade your opponent to give up the hand.
That’s because they will be getting an insanely good price on a call, so they’ll be able to call you down profitably with quite a wide range.
Worse yet, if you make a minimum sized 3-bet, you’re leaving yourself open to facing a 4-bet from your opponent.
A 4-bet is a re-raise against another player’s 3-bet.
So you’re essentially giving your opponent another chance to build up the pot if they have a strong hand, or you’re giving them the chance to try to bluff you out of the pot with a bluff 4-bet.
If you want to 3-bet effectively (either for value or as a bluff), your bet size needs to give your opponent pause.
It needs to be big enough to signal to your opponent that you mean business, and that it’s going to cost them if they want to get involved in a pot with you.
As a general rule, you should size your 3-bets to 3 times the size of the open-raise if you’re playing in position, and 4 times the size of the open-raise if you’re playing out of position.
For example, if you’re playing $1/$2 cash games and your opponent open-raises to $6, you should 3-bet to $18 if you’re playing in position, and $24 if you’re playing out of position.
You want to bet bigger when playing out of position because you want to charge your opponent a premium if they want the luxury of playing in position against you.
Also, as I discussed in my 2nd book, by 3-betting bigger, you’re creating smaller effective sizes, which makes post flop play easier as well.
Preflop Example hand #2
$1/$2 Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt Q♥Q♦ in the BB (big blind). Villain open-raises to $6 on the BU (button). SB (small blind) calls.
You: ???
You should 3-bet to (at least) $24.
You are dealt pocket Queens, the third strongest starting hand in no-limit hold’em. This is a clear value bet spot.
The question is, which size should you go for?
Since you’re playing out of position, you should size up your 3-bet to 4 times the open-raise, so $24.
If any (or both) of the players involved in the pot happen to be recreational players, you can size up your 3-bet even more to take advantage of their overcalling tendencies.
This way, you’re creating a bigger pot preflop, meaning it will be much easier to stack them post flop.
If you want to learn more about preflop squeezing, light 3-betting, and other advanced poker strategies, enroll in Blackrain79 Elite Poker University.
You will get a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to play every single street in Texas Hold’em, along with countless example hands to make learning easier.
You will also learn advanced poker strategies to quickly build your bankroll and climb up the stakes with confidence.
The course contains 17 hours of advanced poker training, hundreds of step by step example hands and downloadable "cheat sheets" below all 50 videos.
If you are serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.
If you are serious about taking your poker game to the next level, enroll today.
Get $100 OFF Use Code: ELITE100
Preflop Poker Mistake #5: Slowplaying Strong Hands
In poker, most of the money you’ll make will come from your strong value hands.
This means that it’s absolutely crucial to get your money’s worth once you actually do get a strong hand.
And in order to do that, you need to build up a big pot as soon as possible.
This means you should absolutely avoid slowplaying your big hands, especially preflop.
To slowplay means to play your hand passively (to check and call) instead of aggressively (bet or raise) in order to conceal your hand strength.
While slowplaying can be a viable strategy at times, it’s usually better to play your strong hands in a straightforward manner.
This is especially important preflop when your hand is likely to be ahead of your opponent’s calling range.
There are a few problems with slowplaying big hands preflop:
a) you’re inviting multiway pots
Some players may think that slowplaying their pocket Aces preflop is a good idea because they can “trap” their opponents.
But this often ends up backfiring, because slowplaying encourages more multiway pots.
The more opponents involved in a hand, the harder it is for you to win the pot.
This is the case even if you have the strongest starting hand.
So when some players complain about constantly getting their Aces cracked, this might be one of the reasons why.
Let’s look at the numbers to see why this is the case.
If you’re dealt pocket Aces, your hand has a whopping 85% equity against another random hand.
But if you’re up against say, 4 players with random hands, your hand equity with pocket Aces falls to only about 56%.
That’s because every additional player has a small chunk of equity against you, and can potentially crack your Aces post flop.
So you’re better off betting and raising in order to “thin the herd” preflop, and see the flop against only one or two opponents.
b) you’re failing to build up the pot by slowplaying
This one’s fairly obvious. If you fail to build up the pot preflop, you’re going to have a much harder time getting the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
So if you want to take your opponent’s whole stack, make sure to build up a big pot preflop by open-raising and 3-betting.
If you open-raise and another player 3-bets, go ahead and make that 4-bet with your pocket Aces!
Getting all the money in the middle while your hand is a favourite to win is what winning poker is all about.
Of course, this doesn’t mean just blindly shoving all-in every time you get dealt pocket Aces or pocket Kings.
But when in doubt, you should always err on the side of aggression, especially in low stakes poker games.
As mentioned, players at these stakes tend to call way too liberally, so you must take advantage of this fact by charging them a premium when your hand is a favourite to win.
c) slowplaying only works if your opponent can build up the pot for you
When you’re slowplaying, you’re essentially relying on your opponent to build up the pot for you.
This can be a viable strategy if your opponent is very aggressive and you can induce them to bet by checking or calling.
But if you’re playing low stakes poker games, most players simply don’t play this way.
Most players at the lower stakes play way too passively for slowplaying to be a viable strategy.
So you’re usually better off building up the pot yourself and take advantage of their overcalling tendencies.
If you’re up against a particularly aggressive player, on the other hand, go ahead and consider slowplaying your hand to trap them.
But these types of players are more of an exception than the rule at lower stakes.
See my other article for a full walkthrough on how to beat aggressive poker players.
Bottom line: slowplaying is usually not an effective strategy at lower stakes because players at these stakes tend to play too passively and prefer calling to betting and raising.
A much more effective strategy is to simply play your strong hands as straightforwardly as possible, and let your opponent make the mistake of calling you down too widely.
Let them make their hero calls while you show them the stone-cold nuts.
Check out my other article on when to slowplay for a detailed breakdown of when slowplaying is actually a good idea.
5 Preflop Poker Mistakes Fish Always Make
You don’t need to spend countless hours studying advanced poker strategy in order to improve your preflop game.
A solid preflop game mostly comes down to being disciplined with your starting hand selection and avoiding some common (but easily fixable) mistakes.
Avoid these 5 preflop mistakes at all costs:
1. Open-limping
If you open-limp, you can’t win the pot outright preflop, you’re failing to build up the pot with your strong hands, you’re inviting a lot of multiway pots, and you run the risk of getting raised yourself.
If you’re the first player to enter the pot, always do so with an open raise. A standard open-raise is 3 big blinds, but you can adjust your open-raise size if the situation demands it.
2. Playing too many hands
You should only play hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop in some meaningful way.
This includes pocket pairs, strong broadway hands, suited Aces and suited connectors. The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
3. Calling out of position with easily dominated hands
The most profitable money-making spot in no-limit hold’em is playing in position as a preflop aggressor (preferably against a single opponent).
Seeing the flop as a preflop caller out of position is the exact opposite of a profitable situation, especially when you call with weak to mediocre hands, so avoid these spots whenever possible.
4. 3-betting the minimum amount
There are two main reasons to bet in poker: either for value or as a bluff. 3-betting the minimum amount accomplishes none of the two.
The standard 3-bet size preflop is 3 times the open-raise if you’re playing in position, and 4 times the open-raise if you’re playing out of position.
5. Slowplaying big hands
If you want to win big in poker, you need to win big pots. And the best way to do that is to build them up yourself when you have a strong value hand.
If you’re playing low stakes games, don’t rely on other players building up the pot for you, because it will end up backfiring more often than not.
---
This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at email@franferlan.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
