It was Benjamin Franklin who once said: âA penny saved is a penny earned.â In poker, the phrase âMoney saved is money earnedâ is often spoken about, referencing this glorious old phrase which remains true to this day and never more so in the game we all love.
If youâre just started playing poker or are looking for a poker site to play poker online, then youâll definitely value the power of saving poker chips. In low stakes games, there are a number of ways inexperienced players throw away chips without realizing theyâre doing it.
Fortunately for you, weâre here to correct those errors and save you some poker chips from the moment you sit at the table, arming you up for bigger battles later in your tournament or cash game.
1. Donât Risk It All in Level One
This is a very simple tip and as easy to apply as it should be to grasp. Put concisely, donât lose all your chips in the first blind level of a multi-table tournament, or the first hand of a cash game. I once sat down in a cash game, played ace-jack pre-flop, then went all-in on the flop of J-8-7. Setting aside the nightmare of my opponent holding nine-ten and having the easiest call of his life, there are so many hands that beat mine there, with pocket eights, sevens and jacks as well as his hole cards all being better than mine. What was even worse was that I took two seconds to make the decision to shove on the flop.
The fact that I knew nothing about how that player played made it the worst move ever. Whether itâs a tournament or a cash game, going broke early is crazy. Youâre robbing yourself of chips – and by extension money – but thatâs not the worst of it. Crucially, youâre denying yourself a chance to win money by receiving free information about your opponents later down the line.
They say that you canât win a tournament in level one, but you can definitely lose it – donât let it be you.
2. Watch for Flushes and Straights
How often have you played a hand of poker then been rivered by an opponent who made a flush or straight on 5th street? Itâs an extremely frustrating way to lose a pot, but ultimately, itâs often avoidable.
Avoid this pothole along the road by studying what two cards your opponents play. Do they often get involved in hands with connecting cards or one gappers? Consider them hungry for a straight or two. Do they feel the need to get involved with suited cards way more than the 1% equity it actually offers? Know that they follow flushes better than the lead character in Ratatouille.
If you know which players like to play flush draws or straight draws and when they give up on them – on the flop, after the flop or after the turn – then you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Charge them the maximum for chasing their dream of sequential or same-suit cars and lose the minimum when they do connect.
3. Beware the Paired Board
Talking of connecting, a paired board can be a very dangerous thing. If you go towards the flop with a premium hand such as pocket queens, then it comes two tens and a seven, what do you fear? Pocket sevens? Nine-eight for a straight draw? Any hand with a ten in has you well beaten and with hands such as ace-ten, king-ten, and jack-ten all very strong pre-flop hands, this would be a flop to be concerned about.
Poker chips can go quickly in low stakes games – don’t let it happen to you!
If you make a flush and straight on the river, this can often come with a card that pairs the board. Itâs easy to get excited and – because you made your hand on the river – to ignore that pair that came with your card. You do so at your peril, however, because anyone with a set or two pairs could have made a full house and overtaken you just as you think youâve rivered the winner.
Count to ten, check the pair, align it with the range of hands you have put your opponent on and then make the right decision. It can be painful to fold, but itâs less painful than losing a massive bet on the river because you didnât count from one to ten.
4. Understand Instinct
What is instinct in poker? Well, much like in life, instinct is something you feel in your gut that is based on the information youâve accumulated over the course of time. If youâve played poker for some time, then you can feel an unease about a certain situation, or the polar opposite, a little voice at the back of your mind telling you to bet even if you have six-high because the flop didnât help your opponent.
Generally, we should listen to our gut instincts at the poker table, because win or lose, the result will help you. Either itâll confirm your instinct was right or, if you were wrong to make the action you did, that gut instinct will be different in the future. If you still make the wrong choice, use notes to help correct that error. Essentially, using instinct is one of the best ways to improve.
5. Stop Calling Flops and Folding Turns
This rule is broken so often in low-entry poker tournaments that it should be digitally imprinted on the virtual felt of ~$5 poker tournaments. What do we mean by not calling flops and folding turns? Well, we donât mean exclusively, because sometimes it will be the correct action. You might call a flop thinking youâre marginally ahead of a particular range of hands that you then know that your foeâs hand improved on 4th street. What weâre speaking about here is making it a regular bad habit you slip into.
Playing lower-level poker, itâs really easy to get into the habit of over-calling flops simply because so many players are performing badly. If you then face pressure on the turn, it can often come from players who only bet big if they have the business. You then fold and youâve lost that post-flop money when you neednât have.
Donât give away easy money, especially post-flop with a hand youâre unlikely to believe in after the majority of turn cards. It can cost you fold equity later on by your stack not being big enough to put bad players off calling when youâve got yourself too short-stacked. That is a major âpain pointâ of low stakes poker.
6. Think of the ICM Impact
At the final table, it can be really easy to make decisions based purely on the cards you have, your opponentâs behaviour and their likely range and other established factors. Youâve spent a long time getting to know the players around you and playing each hand to win is an elite strategy, right?
Well, yes and no. Playing the player and the cards well will win you more pots that you lose, but at the final table, itâs often about knowing when to play, not in terms of hands but in terms of the narrative flow of the final table. The big pay jumps are there and the final table is where the big money is won and lost.
Iâve seen so many really good players lose their chips at the final two tables of tournaments because they play hands and make decisions based on the chase to the final table. Itâs almost a separate tournament, as I and many others have learned. You know the players, but you donât; everyone plays differently when thereâs only one table left in the game.
I once interviewed Sam Razavi, the vastly successful British poker pro and WSOP event runner-up. He told me that from two tables down to a winner, you shouldnât just be identifying players youâll be trying to take out and those to avoid. You should be looking at which of your opponents will be trying to take each other out and adjust your behaviour accordingly. It really was great advice and learning from it can have a massive impact on your winnings at the business end of tournaments.
7. Watch Showdowns
One of the simplest of tips is possibly the most valuable of them all. What do we mean by watching showdowns? Essentially, not just paying attention to hands involving you. It may not be possible for you to study everyone elseâs game at your maximum concentration level from the first card to the last. Thatâs natural, and something called soft focus and hard focus – everyone who plays a game well uses that ability to concentrate more on the periods that affect them the most.
What you absolutely must do, however, is watch what cards other people are playing, and that is information you receive for free when watching players other than you get to showdown. This is a great exercise to try online, and is easy to do:
- Write down the cards each player at holds at showdown
- Note down a little information about what they did with those cards in the hand
- Write down the size of the pot
- Take a note of their table position
- Write down how many players were in the hand
See if you can write down six showdown hands involving each player (each showdown will feature at least two, so this takes less time than you might think) and youâll be surprised at the way each hand funnels your understanding of each of your opponents into what makes them tick.
From players who only play premium hands to those who – as weâve previously discussed – enjoy playing suited connectors or small pairs, if you know the kind of hands your opponents are holding – their range in different scenarios – then youâre going to make good decisions more often than not.
That is a recipe for success in low-stakes poker, whichever game youâre playing.
