Are You Really Doing OK?
I learned the rules of poker exactly one year ago. Like many beginners, I struggled at first because it’s not obvious how to actually get better at poker. In this article, I’ll share the specific steps that helped me move beyond the beginner stage.
First, we’ll cover two preflop bad habits that beginners should fix right away: limping and cold calling. Clean up just these two leaks, and you’ll take a real first step toward becoming a stronger player.
1. Bad Habit 1: Limping
A “limp” is simple: you call the big blind to enter the pot. In other words, you enter for the minimum.
You hold 2♥ 9♦, and everyone before you folds. If you call the BB of 100 to enter the pot, that’s a limp. Some players limp because they “just want to see the next card.” But here’s the bottom line.
Stop limping.
With extremely weak hands like this, you should auto-fold. Ignore the little voice saying, “Maybe the board comes 2 and 9 and I make two pair.” Now let’s look at why limping weak hands is a problem.
ing weak hands just burns chips
With 2♥ 9♦, even against a random hand (including weak hands), you only have about 36% equity. Against stronger ranges, or in multiway pots, your equity drops even more. You might think, “It’s only 100 chips,” but small leaks add up fast. Entering pots with hands this weak will cost you chips over time.
Now consider a different spot.
This time you have A♥ K♠, a very strong hand. And again, calling the BB of 100 to enter would be a limp. You already know what I’m going to say, but here it is again.
Stop limping.
With strong hands like this, you should raise confidently. Ignore the voice saying, “If I raise, everyone might fold and I’ll miss value.” Limping strong hands creates two major problems.
1) strong hands to get paid
A♥ K♠ is a premium hand. If an Ace hits the board, you can make top pair with the best kicker. Even when nobody pairs, you can win with ace-high. And when you make a straight or flush, you often make a strong one. In short, it’s a hand that wins often. But here’s what matters: poker isn’t about winning hands, it’s about winning chips. Even if you win at showdown, you won’t be profitable if you only win small pots. To get paid for your strong hands, you need to bet and raise. Give yourself a raise by building the pot.
2) Don’t let weak hands outdraw you
When you limp, the big blind gets to see a flop for free, and other players can enter cheaply too. In poker, the more players in the pot, the lower your equity becomes. And the truth is, “strong hands” aren’t as invincible as they feel. Even with A♥ K♠, in a three-way pot against random hands (including weak ones), you only have about 48% equity.
As a quick aside: Akechi Mitsuhide, who launched the Honno-ji Incident, later lost to Hideyoshi’s forces and fled toward his home province late at night. On the way, he was speared by farmers hiding in a bamboo grove and died there. His downfall came because extra people were in the mix at the worst time. In poker, the key to winning with strong hands is to reduce the number of opponents and remove weak hands from the pot. Don’t let the “farmers in the bamboo grove” take you out.
2. Bad Habit 2: Cold Calling
A “cold call” means you call someone’s preflop raise to enter the pot.
You’re in the small blind, facing a raise. What hands do you cold call with? Let’s go straight to the conclusion.
You should not cold call with any hand.
Do you ever think, “It’s not strong enough to raise, but folding feels wasteful, so I’ll call”? In most cases, that’s a losing habit, so avoid it. Here’s why cold calling causes problems.
1) You reveal your hand isn’t strong
As explained in the limping section, the default approach is simple: raise your strong hands to build the pot and narrow the field, and fold hands that don’t qualify. But when you choose to call instead, your hand often becomes a medium-strength hand by definition. Once opponents can assume you don’t have many premium hands, you put yourself in a tough spot on later streets.
2) Being out of position is a major disadvantage
In particular, from the small blind you must act first for the rest of the hand. Because you can’t see opponents’ cards, poker is an information game. Acting after your opponent gives you more information, so the small blind is inherently disadvantaged. You generally don’t want to play big pots from there. That’s why the value of making a raise and taking the pot down preflop is especially high in the small blind. On the other hand, the button, which acts last, has more room to include some cold calls.
A Preflop Practice Method You Can Start Today
In this article, we covered two preflop bad habits that beginners should fix first. How many applied to you? Unlike postflop situations, preflop happens every single hand, so losing chips preflop is one of the biggest long-term leaks. There are many other important preflop concepts too. When you put all of them together, you get what players call preflop range charts. A range chart shows which hands to play from each position and what action to take. Learning range charts is the fastest way to master preflop.
That said, memorizing an entire range chart right away is tough. But with POKER Q'z, you can practice preflop in a fun, quiz-style format. Download it from the link below and start training your preflop decisions. Master this, and you’ll be fully out of the beginner stage.
