October 1, 2025 • 15 mins
Avoiding just a few critical mistakes could be the key to unlocking your win rate at the poker table. In this episode of the Upswing Poker Level-Up podcast, Mike Brady and Gary Blackwood break down the three biggest leaks that crush players at low stakes—and how to fix them.
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00:00 Mistake #1 – Playing Too Passively
02:03 Mistake #2 – Missing Thin Value Bets
08:06 Mistake #3 – Calling with Bluff Catchers
12:52 Bonus Mistake – Playing While Tilted
In this episode, host Mike Brady and Scottish poker professional Gary Blackwood dive into the three biggest mistakes players make at the table and how to avoid them. The discussion is packed with real-world examples, hand breakdowns, and actionable insights that will help listeners sharpen their skills and maximize their win rate. This poker strategy podcast emphasizes practical advice for low- and mid-stakes players who often find themselves bleeding chips due to preventable errors.
Mistake #1 – Playing Too Passive:
Gary stresses the importance of aggression, especially preflop. Passive play, such as calling too frequently with marginal hands, leads to long-term losses. Good players lean into three-bets and apply pressure, rather than limping along and giving away equity. The key takeaway is simple: tighten your ranges and stay aggressive to keep opponents uncomfortable.
Mistake #2 – Not Value Betting Thinly Enough:
The heart of poker profitability lies in value betting, and Gary points out that many players restrict themselves to betting only with top pair or better. Through detailed hand examples, he illustrates why second pair, bottom pair, and even ace-high can often justify a small river bet. Mike reinforces this by showing how thin value bets, especially when properly sized, can significantly boost a player’s overall earnings. Integrating these small but consistent value spots is one of the fastest ways to raise your win rate.
Mistake #3 – Overcalling Bluff Catchers Against Non-Bluffers:
Perhaps the most costly leak in low-stakes poker is calling down opponents who rarely bluff. Bluff catchers, by definition, only beat bluffs—and against players who underbluff, these hands quickly become money burners. Gary explains why disciplined folds, even with seemingly strong holdings like top pair or two pair, are often the correct play. The lesson here is about opponent profiling: against players who lean nitty and conservative, folding is a weapon.
Bonus Mistake – Playing on Tilt:
To round things off, Mike and Gary highlight the dangers of playing emotionally compromised. A single tilt-induced mistake can wipe out hours of grinding. Taking a walk, doing breathing exercises, or even leaving the session entirely can save hundreds of big blinds over time.
Throughout the episode, the hosts emphasize that small adjustments in discipline, mindset, and aggression can drastically change long-term results. This poker strategy podcast serves as both a warning against common pitfalls and a roadmap to playing more profitable, confident poker. Whether you’re chasing incremental edges or simply trying to avoid costly errors, the episode offers concrete strategies that can be applied instantly to your game.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Mike:
(00:00):
Making any of these three mistakes atthe poker table is like throwing your
(00:04):
money into an incinerator.
Myself and Scottish pokerpro Gary Blackwood are here to help you avoid costly
errors at the table.
Gary (00:11):
That's right.
We're talking about the biggest mistakesthat you could be making at the table,
how to avoid them, and howto keep that win rate high.
Mike (00:18):
If you play low stakes,
pay extra close attention tomistakes number two and three.
Those are super costly when you'reup against weak competition.
Mistake number one is makingtoo many passive plays.
Gary (00:32):
Playing too loose and passive is a win rate killer,
especially before the flop. If youtake a look at any preflop chart,
you're likely to see a lot of handsplayed aggressively and actually quite few
played passively.
Watch any good player on a stream oronline and you're likely to see them lean
towards aggressive playsrather than passive plays.
(00:52):
There are some spots to play passivelylike when you're getting great pot odds
in the big blind against a raise, butthose are exceptions not the rule.
We want to be the aggressive player doinglots of three-betting in position not
doing too much callingwith marginal hands,
and keeping our foot on the gas andmaking our opponent's lives a misery.
Calling preflop with handsthat you shouldn't be calling with is like being the
(01:12):
only player at the table straddling.It's costing you money unnecessarily.
So let's tighten up, play solid ranges,
and lean towards being moreaggressive as opposed to more passive.
Mike (01:22):
Speaking of playing solid ranges,
you can get instant access tobattle-tested ranges for live cash games,
online cash games, and tournaments,
accessible anytime anywhere withthe new Preflop Prodigy app over on
upswingpoker.com. This browserapp is completely free,
you can use it on any devicewith an internet connection.
All you have to do is go overto upswingpoker.com/preflop and sign up with your
(01:46):
email address. Then onceyou log into Upswing Poker,
you can access the ranges at any timefrom the main dashboard of the Member's
Home area.
That's the Preflop Prodigy appover on upswingpoker.com/preflop.
Mistake number two is being scared ofvalue betting without top pair or better.
Gary (02:03):
Most important part of poker is getting value.
That is how you'll make most ofyour money playing this game.
Bluffing is great too, and at timesbluffing can be very profitable,
but one of the main reasons that webluff is to support our value bets.
If you're not going wide enough for value,
you are just costing yourself a lotof money. It is as simple as that.
(02:23):
There are numerous scenarios wherea hand as weak as second pair,
even bottom pair, even ace high isworth a wager in the right scenarios.
Mike (02:32):
Here's a quick hand example for you.
Suppose you're playing a one two livecash game with $200 effective stacks.
The action folds around to the buttonwho raises it up to $10 and you defend
your big blind with ace six offsuit.
The flop comes queen six deuce rainbowand you check call a $10 bet from your
opponent.
The turn is the three of clubs and theaction checks through the river is the
(02:54):
eight of diamonds making the final boardqueen six deuce three eight with no
flushes possible.
Gary (03:00):
Our hand on the river here is a very clear value bet.
We can use a small size to bethands like our six x, our eight x,
our pocket sevens,
and then obviously we can use a largersize to value bet our hands like pocket
eights and king queenand things like that.
But if you're the type of player that'sonly value betting a queen here and only
value betting a strong queen at that,you're leaving so much money on the table.
(03:21):
This is obviously a very specificexample tailored to get the point across,
but it's really important that we'revalue betting widely enough in the right
scenarios and getting valuewith second pair, third pair,
and fourth pair in the right situations.You might be asking yourself, well,
I've got a six,
what can I get called by and goingoff on a little bit of a tangent here,
but that is a fundamental leak for playerswho are wanting to get better at this
(03:45):
game. This is a wide range scenariohere and both players have really wide
ranges and we need to appreciate thewideness of our opponent's range.
When we have ace six here,
our opponent is going to c-bethand like pocket fours on the flop,
or six five or pocketthrees or king deuce,
so it's not as thin as it might initiallyfeel to throw out a bet here and try
and get called by a worsehand when we have a six.
(04:06):
Appreciate the wideness of your opponent'srange and go ahead and get that value
when you've got a thirdpair in the right scenarios.
Mike:
You also will have some hands that youwant to bluff with in this scenario.
You can definitely have a handlike king jack from the flop that
you decided to float with.
You can have some ace highs thatyou might turn into a bluff.
You can even have hands like seven fivesuited with a bunch of backdoor draws
(04:29):
from the flop, where now you'restuck with just seven high.
You're obviously going to bluff with ahand like that if you didn't check-raise
it on the flop. So with all thosepotential bluffs in your range,
it's definitely possible your opponenthas bottom pair with a deuce or ace king
high and decides to look you up.Another quick example for you,
suppose you're back in thatone two live cash game,
(04:49):
but you've got $300 effective stacks now,
the button raises it up to $10 when theaction folds to him and you three bet
from the small blind to $40 withpocket tens.The button comes along,
the flop is king eight three rainbowand you continuation bet for 50% pot,
which your opponent calls. The turn pairsthe eight, it's the eight of diamonds,
(05:09):
you check and your opponent checks behindthe river is now the four of hearts
making the final board king eight threeeight four with no flushes possible.
Our pocket tens here very clearly want to go for a value. Again,
you might think, well, myopponent's called a bet on the flop.
They're just going to have a king.That is a habit that must be broken.
We need to appreciate the wideness ofour opponent's range. Ask ourselves,
(05:32):
what can our pocket tens get calledby here, ace three, pocket fives,
pocket sixes, pocket sevens,pocket nines, ace queen, ace jack.
We need to get into the habit of usinga small bet size with our marginal hands
that want to get value on the riverso we can have two sizes here.
We're going to play some kingqueen, king jack like this.
We can use the larger bet size,
but these thin value bets thatmight feel a bit too thin.
(05:56):
Let's use a small blocker bet size withthose for around 33% pot and use them
very,
very consistently to get more valuewith our more marginal hands and it will
drastically increase our win rate ifwe're suddenly value betting wider,
getting more value andraking in more pots.
Mike (06:12):
Working these thin river value bets into your game can really make quite a
difference even when you're using asmall block bet size. In this case,
we'd probably bet around a third of thepot if we're betting our pocket tens on
the river. That'll be about$50 into the about $160 pot.
That's 25 blinds that you arepicking up on the river here.
(06:33):
25 blinds is nothing to scoff at.That is a reasonable amount of chips.
I mean it's bigger than youwould three bet to preflop.
So if you are just checking down andmissing your opportunity to eke out this
little bit of extra value,
you're really costing yourself a lot ofmoney and you got to be sure to look for
these opportunities.
Gary:
One of the added benefits of using a smallbet size on the river here is that in
(06:55):
theory when you bet 30% pothere with your pocket tens,
your opponent is supposed to jam a handlike king queen for value. In reality,
that's just never going tohappen in low stakes live poker,
so we are serving two purposes with asmall bet here with pocket tens. One,
we're getting value from hands likepocket nines and pocket sevens, and two,
we're stopping our opponent from usinga larger bet size when we check to them
(07:17):
when they've got a hand likeking queen or king jack.
It's worth noting that the two examples we used here were very wide range
spots featuring the button against theblinds and those are scenarios that are
particularly ripe for these thinvalue bets with marginal hands,
but these spots also come up when you'reup against earlier positions or when
(07:37):
ranges are tighter in general,
your threshold for making that thinvalue bet will just go up a little bit to
quite a bit in those scenarios.
The key takeaway is to keep an eye outfor spots where you can eek out a little
bit of extra value with a hand thatmight not be as strong as top pair.
Mistake number three is calling withbluff catchers against players who don't
(07:57):
really bluff. And just to makesure everyone's on the same page,
a bluff catcher is a handthat can only beat bluffs.
It doesn't beat any potential value bets.
Gary (08:06):
This is arguably the biggest mistake in poker,
especially at lower stakes. In many spots,
bluff catchers are zeroev. In other words,
the expected outcome of callingversus folding are the same.
If your opponent bluffsjust a bit too infrequently,
all of these zero ev bluffcatchers become just losing calls,
(08:28):
plain and simple, there'sno other way to say it.
And if you're up against most lowstakes players who rarely if ever make
bold, crazy bluffs,
calling with one of these handsis a surefire way to torch money.
You have to ask yourself,
is this a spot where people arebluffing the correct amount?
Are they overbluffing orare they underbluffing?
Most of the time they'll be underbluffing,
(08:49):
so as a result we need toexploitatively tighten up and make less
calls overall versusthese types of players.
Mike (08:55):
There's a reason most poker players underbluff,
don't bluff often enough. I've mentionedthis on a past podcast a time or two.
When you value bet in poker,when you have a strong hand,
it's more of a feeling.
You can feel that the hand is strong,
you can feel that it's worth money.You look down at pocket aces,
(09:19):
it gives you that warm andfuzzy feeling. You flop a set,
you get that thrilling feeling and youreyes dart to your opponent's chip stack
and you're going to try to get it all.
You can just feel when a hand is wortha value bet, but in order to bluff,
you have to think, you have tothink about your opponent's range,
you have to think about your ownrange and what you're representing.
You have to think about what sizewill get them to fold. In general as a
(09:44):
human being, feeling is a lotmore natural than thinking.
So the thinking goes,
most of your opponents at the poker tableare going to be able to feel out their
value bets, but they're not always goingto be able to think out their bluffs.
We've got a quick example foryou on this mistake as well.
Suppose you're playing yet another onetwo live cash game with $200 effective
(10:04):
stacks.
The action folds to the player in thecutoff who raises it up to $10 and you
call in the big blind with queen jackoffsuit, with the queen of hearts.
That's going to be relevant in a moment.
The flop comes queen nine five withtwo hearts and you check-call a
$15 bet. The turn is the two of hearts,
that's the third heart on the board nowand you have that queen high flush draw.
(10:26):
You check-call a $35 bet.
This time the river is the six of clubsmaking the final board queen nine five
two six with three hearts.
You check for a third time and youropponent bets $85 into a pot of
approximately $120.
Gary (10:42):
This looks tempting to call. We've got top pair,
we've got a flush blocker,
but versus most low stakesplayers we're just toast here.
This is a pretty disciplined,
solid fold if we're ableto get away from this one.
When we factor in the player type thatwe're talking about here in terms of not
bluffing enough underbluffing,kind of a nitty player,
I think this would be amistake to call the river here.
We want to be tightening up and makingdiscipline folds with hands like this
(11:07):
which are just not going to befacing enough bluffs, enough barrels,
and as a result, I think a hand likethis, we just want to get away from.
Mike (11:13):
Even if you had a lower two pair hand, like say nine five suited.
You may have just folded thatpreflop against the raise,
but just imagine for a moment that youdid call preflop with nine five suited.
You flop two pair on the queen nine five,
the turn completes thatobvious flush draw,
the river's the six which actually bringsin some potential straights as well.
Against a lot of players even that twopair with nine five is pretty tempting
(11:35):
to fold.
I wouldn't fault you if you flicked inthe call if you happen to get to this
river with that two pair hand,
but are they really valuebetting with pocket aces?
Are they really value betting with acequeen three times on this runout? Maybe,
but they're definitelyvalue betting with flushes.
They're almost certainlyvalue betting with sets.
(11:56):
So you're looking at a range of handsthat he can definitely have that you
lose to and hands that he can maybehave that you beat. On top of that,
he doesn't have the bluffs.If he's not bluffing here,
you're just not goingto be good often enough,
even with a hand as strong as two pairon this queen nine five deuce six board.
The key takeaway for this mistake isto look for situations to make big
(12:19):
folds against players who aren't bluffing.
There's a quote from AlexFoxen that I absolutely love.
He's a top top player and he once said,
you should use folding as aweapon against certain players.
When you're up against a playerwho isn't making bold bluffs,
who isn't making super aggressiveplays without having the goods,
you've got to be lookingfor spots to make big folds.
(12:41):
It's going to work out much better foryou in the long run. Before we wrap up,
we've got a bonus mistake for you,and this is a key one to avoid.
Don't play when you are tilted.
Gary:
Some people think that they don't gettilted or that their mood never affects
their game. They're just in denial.
Be strong enough to tap the table whennot in the right frame of mind and not
(13:02):
let your win rate getannihilated as a result. Now,
if you're in a really good game and youcan feel yourself a little tilted making
mistakes and you don't want toquit because the game is so good,
at least get up from the table,step outside, take a break,
do some breathing exercises and comeback to the game when you're feeling a
little bit better.
It might save you dozens or hundredsof big blinds if you're able to
(13:24):
do this.
It could be quite a lucrative walk. Money saved is money earned.
If you just take a quick stepaway from the table, walk around,
stretch your legs, that couldreally pay dividends for you.
And to quickly illustrate how massive theimpacts from these tilted mistakes can
be, I've got a little example.
Suppose you're a solidwinner in your poker game.
(13:44):
Let's say you win an averageof 10 big blinds per hour,
which is pretty damn good.
Now imagine you're tilted after playinga stupid hand and instead of going for a
walk, you decide to just grind it outand stay at the table. A few hands later,
you find yourself on the riverfacing a 50 big blind bet,
which is pretty chunky,
and you decide to flick inthe call against a player who's probably not bluffing
(14:05):
quite often enough to justify that call.Considering your 10 big blind hourly
win rate,
you'll now have to play five hoursof poker to recoup that money.
One moment of clouded judgmentleads to hours of your
time flushed down the drain.
And that's why it's so importantto be in tune with your emotions
(14:26):
and make sure you're keeping alevel head at the poker table.
Now that you know whatthe biggest mistakes are,
you should be able to avoid them.We hope this episode helps you out.
Definitely go check out thePreflop Prodigy app over on upswingpoker.com if you
want access to those battle-testedranges on any device with an internet
connection. And if you enjoyed thisshow, go ahead and hit that like button,
subscribe, follow or leave acomment. We really appreciate it.
(14:49):
It helps us keep this thing going whenwe get positive engagement like that.
And if you have any requests for futuretopics, drop them in the comments below.
We appreciate it and we'llsee you in the next one.
Mike:
(00:00):
Making any of these three mistakes atthe poker table is like throwing your
(00:04):
money into an incinerator.
Myself and Scottish pokerpro Gary Blackwood are here to help you avoid costly
errors at the table.
Gary (00:11):
That's right.
We're talking about the biggest mistakesthat you could be making at the table,
how to avoid them, and howto keep that win rate high.
Mike (00:18):
If you play low stakes,
pay extra close attention tomistakes number two and three.
Those are super costly when you'reup against weak competition.
Mistake number one is makingtoo many passive plays.
Gary (00:32):
Playing too loose and passive is a win rate killer,
especially before the flop. If youtake a look at any preflop chart,
you're likely to see a lot of handsplayed aggressively and actually quite few
played passively.
Watch any good player on a stream oronline and you're likely to see them lean
towards aggressive playsrather than passive plays.
(00:52):
There are some spots to play passivelylike when you're getting great pot odds
in the big blind against a raise, butthose are exceptions not the rule.
We want to be the aggressive player doinglots of three-betting in position not
doing too much callingwith marginal hands,
and keeping our foot on the gas andmaking our opponent's lives a misery.
Calling preflop with handsthat you shouldn't be calling with is like being the
(01:12):
only player at the table straddling.It's costing you money unnecessarily.
So let's tighten up, play solid ranges,
and lean towards being moreaggressive as opposed to more passive.
Mike (01:22):
Speaking of playing solid ranges,
you can get instant access tobattle-tested ranges for live cash games,
online cash games, and tournaments,
accessible anytime anywhere withthe new Preflop Prodigy app over on
upswingpoker.com. This browserapp is completely free,
you can use it on any devicewith an internet connection.
All you have to do is go overto upswingpoker.com/preflop and sign up with your
(01:46):
email address. Then onceyou log into Upswing Poker,
you can access the ranges at any timefrom the main dashboard of the Member's
Home area.
That's the Preflop Prodigy appover on upswingpoker.com/preflop.
Mistake number two is being scared ofvalue betting without top pair or better.
Gary (02:03):
Most important part of poker is getting value.
That is how you'll make most ofyour money playing this game.
Bluffing is great too, and at timesbluffing can be very profitable,
but one of the main reasons that webluff is to support our value bets.
If you're not going wide enough for value,
you are just costing yourself a lotof money. It is as simple as that.
(02:23):
There are numerous scenarios wherea hand as weak as second pair,
even bottom pair, even ace high isworth a wager in the right scenarios.
Mike (02:32):
Here's a quick hand example for you.
Suppose you're playing a one two livecash game with $200 effective stacks.
The action folds around to the buttonwho raises it up to $10 and you defend
your big blind with ace six offsuit.
The flop comes queen six deuce rainbowand you check call a $10 bet from your
opponent.
The turn is the three of clubs and theaction checks through the river is the
(02:54):
eight of diamonds making the final boardqueen six deuce three eight with no
flushes possible.
Gary (03:00):
Our hand on the river here is a very clear value bet.
We can use a small size to bethands like our six x, our eight x,
our pocket sevens,
and then obviously we can use a largersize to value bet our hands like pocket
eights and king queenand things like that.
But if you're the type of player that'sonly value betting a queen here and only
value betting a strong queen at that,you're leaving so much money on the table.
(03:21):
This is obviously a very specificexample tailored to get the point across,
but it's really important that we'revalue betting widely enough in the right
scenarios and getting valuewith second pair, third pair,
and fourth pair in the right situations.You might be asking yourself, well,
I've got a six,
what can I get called by and goingoff on a little bit of a tangent here,
but that is a fundamental leak for playerswho are wanting to get better at this
(03:45):
game. This is a wide range scenariohere and both players have really wide
ranges and we need to appreciate thewideness of our opponent's range.
When we have ace six here,
our opponent is going to c-bethand like pocket fours on the flop,
or six five or pocketthrees or king deuce,
so it's not as thin as it might initiallyfeel to throw out a bet here and try
and get called by a worsehand when we have a six.
(04:06):
Appreciate the wideness of your opponent'srange and go ahead and get that value
when you've got a thirdpair in the right scenarios.
Mike:
You also will have some hands that youwant to bluff with in this scenario.
You can definitely have a handlike king jack from the flop that
you decided to float with.
You can have some ace highs thatyou might turn into a bluff.
You can even have hands like seven fivesuited with a bunch of backdoor draws
(04:29):
from the flop, where now you'restuck with just seven high.
You're obviously going to bluff with ahand like that if you didn't check-raise
it on the flop. So with all thosepotential bluffs in your range,
it's definitely possible your opponenthas bottom pair with a deuce or ace king
high and decides to look you up.Another quick example for you,
suppose you're back in thatone two live cash game,
(04:49):
but you've got $300 effective stacks now,
the button raises it up to $10 when theaction folds to him and you three bet
from the small blind to $40 withpocket tens.The button comes along,
the flop is king eight three rainbowand you continuation bet for 50% pot,
which your opponent calls. The turn pairsthe eight, it's the eight of diamonds,
(05:09):
you check and your opponent checks behindthe river is now the four of hearts
making the final board king eight threeeight four with no flushes possible.
Our pocket tens here very clearly want to go for a value. Again,
you might think, well, myopponent's called a bet on the flop.
They're just going to have a king.That is a habit that must be broken.
We need to appreciate the wideness ofour opponent's range. Ask ourselves,
(05:32):
what can our pocket tens get calledby here, ace three, pocket fives,
pocket sixes, pocket sevens,pocket nines, ace queen, ace jack.
We need to get into the habit of usinga small bet size with our marginal hands
that want to get value on the riverso we can have two sizes here.
We're going to play some kingqueen, king jack like this.
We can use the larger bet size,
but these thin value bets thatmight feel a bit too thin.
(05:56):
Let's use a small blocker bet size withthose for around 33% pot and use them
very,
very consistently to get more valuewith our more marginal hands and it will
drastically increase our win rate ifwe're suddenly value betting wider,
getting more value andraking in more pots.
Mike (06:12):
Working these thin river value bets into your game can really make quite a
difference even when you're using asmall block bet size. In this case,
we'd probably bet around a third of thepot if we're betting our pocket tens on
the river. That'll be about$50 into the about $160 pot.
That's 25 blinds that you arepicking up on the river here.
(06:33):
25 blinds is nothing to scoff at.That is a reasonable amount of chips.
I mean it's bigger than youwould three bet to preflop.
So if you are just checking down andmissing your opportunity to eke out this
little bit of extra value,
you're really costing yourself a lot ofmoney and you got to be sure to look for
these opportunities.
Gary:
One of the added benefits of using a smallbet size on the river here is that in
(06:55):
theory when you bet 30% pothere with your pocket tens,
your opponent is supposed to jam a handlike king queen for value. In reality,
that's just never going tohappen in low stakes live poker,
so we are serving two purposes with asmall bet here with pocket tens. One,
we're getting value from hands likepocket nines and pocket sevens, and two,
we're stopping our opponent from usinga larger bet size when we check to them
(07:17):
when they've got a hand likeking queen or king jack.
It's worth noting that the two examples we used here were very wide range
spots featuring the button against theblinds and those are scenarios that are
particularly ripe for these thinvalue bets with marginal hands,
but these spots also come up when you'reup against earlier positions or when
(07:37):
ranges are tighter in general,
your threshold for making that thinvalue bet will just go up a little bit to
quite a bit in those scenarios.
The key takeaway is to keep an eye outfor spots where you can eek out a little
bit of extra value with a hand thatmight not be as strong as top pair.
Mistake number three is calling withbluff catchers against players who don't
(07:57):
really bluff. And just to makesure everyone's on the same page,
a bluff catcher is a handthat can only beat bluffs.
It doesn't beat any potential value bets.
Gary (08:06):
This is arguably the biggest mistake in poker,
especially at lower stakes. In many spots,
bluff catchers are zeroev. In other words,
the expected outcome of callingversus folding are the same.
If your opponent bluffsjust a bit too infrequently,
all of these zero ev bluffcatchers become just losing calls,
(08:28):
plain and simple, there'sno other way to say it.
And if you're up against most lowstakes players who rarely if ever make
bold, crazy bluffs,
calling with one of these handsis a surefire way to torch money.
You have to ask yourself,
is this a spot where people arebluffing the correct amount?
Are they overbluffing orare they underbluffing?
Most of the time they'll be underbluffing,
(08:49):
so as a result we need toexploitatively tighten up and make less
calls overall versusthese types of players.
Mike (08:55):
There's a reason most poker players underbluff,
don't bluff often enough. I've mentionedthis on a past podcast a time or two.
When you value bet in poker,when you have a strong hand,
it's more of a feeling.
You can feel that the hand is strong,
you can feel that it's worth money.You look down at pocket aces,
(09:19):
it gives you that warm andfuzzy feeling. You flop a set,
you get that thrilling feeling and youreyes dart to your opponent's chip stack
and you're going to try to get it all.
You can just feel when a hand is wortha value bet, but in order to bluff,
you have to think, you have tothink about your opponent's range,
you have to think about your ownrange and what you're representing.
You have to think about what sizewill get them to fold. In general as a
(09:44):
human being, feeling is a lotmore natural than thinking.
So the thinking goes,
most of your opponents at the poker tableare going to be able to feel out their
value bets, but they're not always goingto be able to think out their bluffs.
We've got a quick example foryou on this mistake as well.
Suppose you're playing yet another onetwo live cash game with $200 effective
(10:04):
stacks.
The action folds to the player in thecutoff who raises it up to $10 and you
call in the big blind with queen jackoffsuit, with the queen of hearts.
That's going to be relevant in a moment.
The flop comes queen nine five withtwo hearts and you check-call a
$15 bet. The turn is the two of hearts,
that's the third heart on the board nowand you have that queen high flush draw.
(10:26):
You check-call a $35 bet.
This time the river is the six of clubsmaking the final board queen nine five
two six with three hearts.
You check for a third time and youropponent bets $85 into a pot of
approximately $120.
Gary (10:42):
This looks tempting to call. We've got top pair,
we've got a flush blocker,
but versus most low stakesplayers we're just toast here.
This is a pretty disciplined,
solid fold if we're ableto get away from this one.
When we factor in the player type thatwe're talking about here in terms of not
bluffing enough underbluffing,kind of a nitty player,
I think this would be amistake to call the river here.
We want to be tightening up and makingdiscipline folds with hands like this
(11:07):
which are just not going to befacing enough bluffs, enough barrels,
and as a result, I think a hand likethis, we just want to get away from.
Mike (11:13):
Even if you had a lower two pair hand, like say nine five suited.
You may have just folded thatpreflop against the raise,
but just imagine for a moment that youdid call preflop with nine five suited.
You flop two pair on the queen nine five,
the turn completes thatobvious flush draw,
the river's the six which actually bringsin some potential straights as well.
Against a lot of players even that twopair with nine five is pretty tempting
(11:35):
to fold.
I wouldn't fault you if you flicked inthe call if you happen to get to this
river with that two pair hand,
but are they really valuebetting with pocket aces?
Are they really value betting with acequeen three times on this runout? Maybe,
but they're definitelyvalue betting with flushes.
They're almost certainlyvalue betting with sets.
(11:56):
So you're looking at a range of handsthat he can definitely have that you
lose to and hands that he can maybehave that you beat. On top of that,
he doesn't have the bluffs.If he's not bluffing here,
you're just not goingto be good often enough,
even with a hand as strong as two pairon this queen nine five deuce six board.
The key takeaway for this mistake isto look for situations to make big
(12:19):
folds against players who aren't bluffing.
There's a quote from AlexFoxen that I absolutely love.
He's a top top player and he once said,
you should use folding as aweapon against certain players.
When you're up against a playerwho isn't making bold bluffs,
who isn't making super aggressiveplays without having the goods,
you've got to be lookingfor spots to make big folds.
(12:41):
It's going to work out much better foryou in the long run. Before we wrap up,
we've got a bonus mistake for you,and this is a key one to avoid.
Don't play when you are tilted.
Gary:
Some people think that they don't gettilted or that their mood never affects
their game. They're just in denial.
Be strong enough to tap the table whennot in the right frame of mind and not
(13:02):
let your win rate getannihilated as a result. Now,
if you're in a really good game and youcan feel yourself a little tilted making
mistakes and you don't want toquit because the game is so good,
at least get up from the table,step outside, take a break,
do some breathing exercises and comeback to the game when you're feeling a
little bit better.
It might save you dozens or hundredsof big blinds if you're able to
(13:24):
do this.
It could be quite a lucrative walk. Money saved is money earned.
If you just take a quick stepaway from the table, walk around,
stretch your legs, that couldreally pay dividends for you.
And to quickly illustrate how massive theimpacts from these tilted mistakes can
be, I've got a little example.
Suppose you're a solidwinner in your poker game.
(13:44):
Let's say you win an averageof 10 big blinds per hour,
which is pretty damn good.
Now imagine you're tilted after playinga stupid hand and instead of going for a
walk, you decide to just grind it outand stay at the table. A few hands later,
you find yourself on the riverfacing a 50 big blind bet,
which is pretty chunky,
and you decide to flick inthe call against a player who's probably not bluffing
(14:05):
quite often enough to justify that call.Considering your 10 big blind hourly
win rate,
you'll now have to play five hoursof poker to recoup that money.
One moment of clouded judgmentleads to hours of your
time flushed down the drain.
And that's why it's so importantto be in tune with your emotions
(14:26):
and make sure you're keeping alevel head at the poker table.
Now that you know whatthe biggest mistakes are,
you should be able to avoid them.We hope this episode helps you out.
Definitely go check out thePreflop Prodigy app over on upswingpoker.com if you
want access to those battle-testedranges on any device with an internet
connection. And if you enjoyed thisshow, go ahead and hit that like button,
subscribe, follow or leave acomment. We really appreciate it.
(14:49):
It helps us keep this thing going whenwe get positive engagement like that.
And if you have any requests for futuretopics, drop them in the comments below.
We appreciate it and we'llsee you in the next one.
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