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BAD PLAYS GOOD PLAYERS MAKE
By definition, good players do not make many bad plays in poker. Nevertheless, many good players do have a small number of bad plays that they make routinely. Determining whether or not you have any “pet ” bad plays, and eliminating them is an easy way to improve your hourly rate.
HERE ARE A FEW POOR PLAYS THAT SEEM TO BE COMMON TO AT LEAST SOME
GOOD PLAYERS:
1.Overuse of the small pair isolation play.
It seems that I used to see this more often in holdem games than I do now, but there are certainly still players who are guilty of it. They begin with a play that is actually not so bad if applied very selectively. The play is to three-bet a preflop raiser with a pair like or smaller.
The goal is to get heads-up against the other player, on the assumption that if he does not have a big pair, the holder of the small pair can thus manufacture a small positive expectation. In the right spots this play poker probably can indeed be slightly profitable. The problem is in using it unspectacular this play to be profitable, the situation needs to be right. First, it is crucial that you have a very high probability of successfully isolating the raiser. Yet I have often seen players make the play when the chance that at least one or both blinds would call was fairly high. If you are an experienced player you should see that to invest three bets before the flop with only a small pair, having then to play the hand out in a three or four-handed pot is not an attractive venture.
Most (of the 88 percent ) of the time that you fail to flop a set, that pair is going to be difficult to play against two or three opponents.(It prefers one, or many opponents ). For example, and combination of overcards on the board and aggression from your opponents will inevitably lead you to make pot-costing mistakes.
TO ILLUSTRATE, SAY THE FLOP IS:
Your two opponents, both average players, check and call your bet. The turn is a
I could have made the turn a K (or a J, or a T, or an A.) but even with this blank, now what do you do when they check again? Are you sure? And what if one bets? Also important to this play’s profitability is that it be applied against the right kind of opponent. The ideal opponent would be one who will raise preflop with a very wide range of poker drawing hands (such that you are less likely to be up against a big pair), but who will then play tightly, passively, and predictably after the flop (so that you have a good chance of stealing, are not bluffed off your hand, and will know when you can safely fold). While few opponents will fit this profile perfectly, some players will take their small pair and three-bet opponents who do not even come close in one or both qualities.
They will try, for instance, to isolate a player who, while loose in his raising standards, is very aggressive after the flop, likely to play back at them unpredictably, forcing them into costly errors.
Alternatively, they will make the play against a player who is somewhat predictable after the flop, but whose preflop raising standards are so tight that they run a great risk of clashing with a big pair. Naturally, if you try this play against someone with both high preflop raising standards and a propensity for aggressive, deceptive poker winner after the flop, you are giving up too much in light of this play’s marginally positive expectation under the best of circumstances.
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Conjecture on the Limits of Tell Detectability
Quick Indicators / Afterthought