Facing my most common mistakes....what are yours?

You can only move forward and improve if you try to recognize and admit to your mistakes.

Here are some of mine:

- Calling from my SB all the time to see the flop and playing OOP (i discussed this in another thread and trying to improve it)...

- when in a multiway pot, I seem to regularly make a donk stab at the pot on the flop (just because the pot is huge, not due to any read, shouldn't be doing that with 4-5 people in the pot )

- My number 1 reason these days for exiting tourneys is.....taking a bluff too far and not giving up the hand when knowing the opponent is not capable of laying down a marginal hand


Im interested in knowing what mistakes you guys commonly make , it'll help me evaluate if I make those mistakes too and hopefully minimize them

i ussually dont fold second monster even when i feel iam behind

I often get too far into the scope of just one hand, rather than understanding the scope of the entire tournament. For example, I'll often make a play because it's the "only way I can win the hand" which isn't always the best play. Sometime we have to accept our losses and conserve what we have left.

jordanbillie said:

I often get too far into the scope of just one hand, rather than understanding the scope of the entire tournament. For example, I'll often make a play because it's the "only way I can win the hand" which isn't always the best play. Sometime we have to accept our losses and conserve what we have left.

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That's definitely a good point, and a often a trap I fall into. A bad lay down that can take you deeper in the tournament is much better that a bad call that can cripple or bust you.

I biggest mistakes I play are usually early in the game. Pushing to many chips and scareing the others off of small pot when I could have easily scored more chips.

The other is bluffing late in tourneys hoping to get some easy chips then getting caught and loseing a sizable amount of chips for no reason.

digdug0037 said:

I biggest mistakes I play are usually early in the game. Pushing to many chips and scareing the others off of small pot when I could have easily scored more chips.

The other is bluffing late in tourneys hoping to get some easy chips then getting caught and loseing a sizable amount of chips for no reason.

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Yes, your first point is also something I'm trying to improve on. Not making proper value bets and getting taking down small pots where a bigger pot could have been built.

digdug0037 said:

I biggest mistakes I play are usually early in the game. Pushing to many chips and scareing the others off of small pot when I could have easily scored more chips.

The other is bluffing late in tourneys hoping to get some easy chips then getting caught and loseing a sizable amount of chips for no reason.

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Good points. I really like to play the early stages for value and see a lot of flops cheaply (if the table is loose passive and allows me to do so). There is sooooooooooooo much value in hitting a flop hard and getting paid by players who over value top pair type hands.

Late stage steals are such a delicate act, and I certainly prefer a 30BB stack or more so I can safely get away from steals and/or experiment with the table to see how certain players react to steal attempts.

I seem to either over fold, or stay in hands too long. I've not found that happy medium lately.

Oh, and my other MAJOR flaw is believing getting the chips in with the best hand is a good idea.

Playing pairs too hard - "pairs suck".

Believing that I am being bluffed and calling down when I am dominated.

In my case, it is lack of patience, lack of discipline, or lack of patience and discipline.

I am heads up player and the most difficult thing when playing mtts is to readjust hands strengts. For example in heads up game second pair is a value bet while in mtt top pair top kicker is practically bluff catcher...

FoxMS said:

In my case, it is lack of patience, lack of discipline, or lack of patience and discipline.

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If two aspects of a winning player were to be highlighted, it would be patience and discipline.

If you have the discipline and patience to fold for an hour in early stages of a tournament due to being card dead, you are doing something right.

I want more action when I get bored so 3-bet and bluff all the streets way too often. Sometimes it works and I get right imago and get value with good cards but it's often very expensive

My main problem is not neccesarily a mistake but I am sometimes just not quick enough to think it all throu. When I analize the HAnd afterwards I notice my poor decision due to lack of time.

And I can really feel most of your Problems some are hard to overcome.

I fold to easy with good cards. All it takes is someone to make a bet where I could lose 20% of what I have left. Have watched straights go bye, 3 of kind because I have fold pairs below 10"s.

DTMath said:

I fold to easy with good cards. All it takes is someone to make a bet where I could lose 20% of what I have left. Have watched straights go bye, 3 of kind because I have fold pairs below 10"s.

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This might not be a mistake. Depending on the table dynamic and the stage of the tournament, folding low-mid pairs is fairly standard.

Also, whether or not you would have hit a flop should not have any impact on your analysis on whether the fold was "good" or "bad."