When playing poker it’s important to realize that you aren’t the first or the last person to play the game. More importantly, when you make a mistake, you can rest assured that others have made the same mistake, possibly many more times than you have. Mistakes in the game of poker fall into three categories: technical, personal, and strategic.

Technical mistakes are when you play the wrong cards or the wrong hand because you didn’t understand the odds or what hand is the winning hand. One example would be thinking you have an automatic win with four of a kind when it can be beat by a straight flush or even a royal flush. You see this played out in movies on occasion, usually to great dramatic effect.

Personal mistakes are when you misread your opponent or when you get greedy. A personal mistake is any mistake where your personal feelings or ideas get in the way of playing poker properly. For example, you get on a roll and win a few hands. You’re feeling great, so you decide to press your luck and get a little greedy. You bet on a hand hoping to get a high pair or a straight on the last community draw and it doesn’t work out for you. Oops. You loose big time. Another mistake would be when you get suckered in on a bluff because the other player tricked you with some table talk. These things happen, but they don’t have to.

Strategic mistakes are when you try a strategy and you get out-foxed or are just unlucky. When you try and bluff, it can backfire. Sometimes the other poker players read you better than you read them and they’ll be one step ahead of you. It happens from time to time and sometimes the cards just don’t fall your way.

The biggest thing to understand is that you can’t give up and you have to be willing to learn from your mistakes at the poker table… just like everyone else who has ever played the game.

Tags: online poker, poker blunders