First things first, try to save the details of every single hand you play. Almost all of the poker sites give the option of emailing you hand histories. These give all the details of hands you have played from stack sizes to position. If you don’t keep these you will never be able to tell what hands you are winning with and what hands you are losing with.
1. Slowly Losing Money
If this is the case, it’s time to take a good look at your game for leaks. Leaks are a weakness in your game that could be costing you a few bucks here and there that you don’t even know about. I’ll list a few here that you can check using the re-player and forum I mentioned above.
Calling too much in the Small Blind - A trash hand is still a trash hand. Although it’s cheap to see what could be a miracle flop, at best you are going to make a weak pair that is only going to cost you money in the long run. Once you have built up your experience, you will know when you can go for plays like this and also know when that weak pair is good/bad.
Over protecting your Big Blind - “I’m already half in right?”. Wrong!, once that money is in the pot, it’s no longer your money. Similar problems arise as “calling too much in the small blind”. With both these situations, you are also going to be out of position for the rest of the round (one of the first to act).
Not raising enough pre-flop - When you are losing money, the tendency is to play weak with regards to raising. You don’t want to put money in until you know you have the best hand. Sounds good, but this will only cost you more money. The fact is pre-flop there is a good chance you already have the best hand! For example you hold AKo, rather than make a decent size raise you decide to call and see if you hit the flop first. Well Mr Axs gets to come in for cheap and while you make an Ace on the flop for TPTK (top pair top kicker), he makes 2 pair or picks up a flush draw to bust you with later. If you had raised you might have forced him to fold pre-flop.
Inability to get away from a hand - If you have QQ, and the board has AK3 - and it’s a multi-way pot (more than 2 people) and there is action, it doesn’t matter that you have a pair of Queens, it's time to move out of the way. As you build experience you will get to know when your strong hands are no good and when your weak hands are the best. Until then, examine your play and post hands in the forum you are unsure about.
Under betting your good hands - You can’t win every hand, to make money is simple, win more money than the cost of the blinds and your losing hands. You might be losing the minimum on your losing hands, but winning the maximum on your winning hands. The two most common problems are:
1. Over betting – if you flop a full house don’t push all in, most of the time every will fold and you will win a small pot. Occasionally someone will think you are bluffing and call but why win a small pot with a very strong hand.
2. Under betting – You make two pair and rather than make a pot sized bet (a bet equal to the current amount of money in the pot), you make a weak bet and people call along to outdraw you for cheap, or you discover someone made 2nd best hand and would have been willing to pay more to see a showdown.
Invest in PokerTracker! - Poker Tracker is a software program that you use to analyze your poker game and help identify the leaks you have. You load your hand histories into Poker Tracker, and then analyze your statistics. Not only can you learn about your own game, Poker Tracker allows you to analyze your opponents' games, for those whom you have hand histories for. Read more about Poker Tracker here.
These are just some suggestions, there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket. These are just a few, but there are many more types of leaks. With experience, you will be able to spot them quicker and for every leak fixed is extra $$ in your pocket.
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