We’re going to teach you… to think like bad poker players. Not so that you repeat the same mistakes, but to understand their way of thinking in order to exploit their weaknesses and translate this into profit.
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Jonny has been playing poker for 30 years, he has never studied the game. He plays for fun with his friends. He is not there to make a profit, but to win hands. That’s the big difference. Always keep this approach in mind, it will “justify” his way of playing. Let’s be honest, Jonny belongs to the category of bad poker players.
The most common mistakes made by bad poker players
- The limp is taboo, we will all overcome it
His favorite move preflop is the limp. He will limp A♥5♣ as much as his pair of [invalid notations] or J♦9♦ , broadways. As a result, it can be very costly if, for example, he hits top pair with a sick kicker. He has top pair and sees himself ahead. He won’t be able to sleep there. Not for a second he thinks he can be up against a better ace. He doesn’t know how to fold top pair, he will call 3 streets with his badly kicked ace and will repeat a sentence he heard around a table while looking for compassion and justifying himself: “It’s a setup, I don’t couldn’t get out of it.”
- What’s better than the limp? The limp-call of course!
He will also become emotional when he has an agro player at his table who 3bets him a little too often for his taste, so probably light sometimes. Suddenly, as he wants to see the flop with his speculative hands without having any idea of the real potential and the value of his hand, he will adjust his strategy and will decide to limp-call preflop to be able to support the raises of the aggressive player on his left without it costing him too much. You had to think about it! (Editor’s note: ironic for those who have not understood).
But he’s not going to adjust more than that. He is not going to think that his opponent may be light and that he cannot always have hands. His plan is limp-call and then we’ll see. At worst it didn’t cost him too much and if he doesn’t hit the flop, he’ll give up.
- He overplays his big hands
Jonny will make very big raises with his big hands (QQ+). He has an emotional attachment to those hands and doesn’t want to crack them. It’s understandable, he touches them too rarely to allow himself to lose them. As much as he wants to win hands that aren’t made, he doesn’t want to lose his big made hands. The approach is somewhat different and this will influence the way he plays.
Maximizing your big hands is an unknown notion, as distant as her German lessons in 7th grade in Madame Bäumer’s class. We repeat, he is not there to make a profit. He’s there to win hands and have as much fun as possible. If he makes a big raise from the blinds, that means he has a big hand. He’s not bluffing. He would never squeeze, he would never venture into such a move with [Ks][Qs] thinking that he has good equity on the flop with a very interesting hand.
- He is married to pocket aces
He’s also going to have an emotional attachment to his pair of aces. He won’t be able to let go. To put it simply, he is married with the pair of aces. For better and for worse. He risks losing big if his opponent hits 2 pair or better.
Most interesting about the way he plays it? When the flop is hyper-connected and the scary card comes out. The one that can potentially improve an opposing hand. For example a third spade which falls on the turn, or the straight which comes in, or even a doubling. In general, when that happens, Jonny tends to bet a big potato to stop the blow. He tells himself that it’s starting to stink and that he would just take what’s in the middle.
Unfortunately for him, he does not know it yet, but he will lose his carpet in the moments that follow.
- We won’t get it three times
Jonny was unlucky today. He had the aces twice and they were cracked both times. He will make a big raise of 8x preflop. Everyone goes to fold and he flips pocket aces, sighing “I didn’t want to bust her a third time.” Well yes, logical… . Wonderful ingenuity. The first quality of bad poker players.
- He plays passively
Jonny has no game plan. Neither preflop nor postflop. Or rather yes, it has one, but it is not quite developed. His plan: if I hit, I bet. If I don’t hit, I check-fold. Whatever… if I hit my ace, I’m super strong. As a result, Fischou risks paying you with ace-high on the flop. This can be justified, but in this case, he does not tell himself that he is in front or that he wants to go on a float, no, he tells himself that he can
hitting it on the turn. After all, there are theoretically still 3 aces left in the deck. Clear. That being said, if he bets, your bottom pair is unlikely to be ahead. Passivity with him is a leitmotif. He raised preflop with [Kd][Qd]. He has two payers. The flop comes 10♦9♣4♥. What does Michael do? He obviously checks. He didn’t touch. So yes, he has a belly draw and could hit a jack on the turn. But OK… . Certainly he has two overcards. In fact, he still plays quite a few cards. And it is true that by betting, he could even win the pot if his opponents did not hit. All in all, this might not be the best way to play this move passively. What do you think Michael?
Little fish wants to become top shark
If your name is Jonny, uh… nothing personal, huh. It needed a name and that’s it. The characters and situations in this story being purely fictitious, any resemblance to people or situations existing or having existed can only be coincidental. Whatever. If you’re one of the elite bad poker players and you do almost all of these things, that’s okay. You can always improve by studying the game. Not like Jonny.
