Nathan Williams, aka BlackRain79, reveals the top 5 things winning poker players never do in his recent video.
Bluffing calling stations, playing trashy hands, paying off nits, limping pre-flop, and going on tilt are all costly mistakes. Instead, give up against "fish" who rarely fold, play premium hands for a mathematical edge, fold to tight players' big bets, raise to take control, and accept short-term luck as part of the game.
By avoiding these pitfalls and implementing a solid strategy, you'll be well on your way to poker success.
5. Bluffing the Fish
Guys, no good poker player in the history of this game will ever try to bluff the players who don't like to fold. Why would you ever do that? It makes no sense.
For example, you've got offsuit, and , and you're versus one of our fishy friends.
Now, I probably don't need to go into detail about these players for you. If you played any amount of poker, you've seen them. They like to limp a lot, which is just calling pre-flop. They like to play a ton of hands. They like to call down with any kind of trashy draw, anything. They like to play any trashy hands, of course, as well. They will call any bluffers, of course. They hate to fold, on and on.
So on the river, the board reads the . Let's talk about this board. First of all, the most important thing, of course, is we have absolutely nothing on this board. We have Ace-high. There are very few hands that we can beat. Any pair beats us at this point. Even if they have pocket Twos, that hand beats us, and most fish will not fold pocket Twos on this board.
The other important thing to note is that the flush draw did come through on the river, meaning there are three on the board. So they could have hit that as well. And there are multiple draws that came through. The straight draw also came through on the river. If they have , they now have a straight. There's a ton of ridiculous two pair hands like a or a or a or what have you. Fish play all these hands, guys, and they're not folding any of them.
So what should you do in this spot? Well, a lot of people will get frustrated, especially if they've been having a bad day at the poker table, and they'll try to run some crazy bluff here. They'll try to make a big bet and represent the flush or or something like that.
Guys, please, please do not do this. The best thing you can do in this spot, and it's not even close, is to simply check and give up. Once again, guys, you don't make money in poker by trying to bluff the calling stations, the specific player types who absolutely hate to fold, and that's the fish. So good poker players know that you can't win them all, guys. When you're in a situation like this, check, give up, and move on to the next hand.
4. Playing Trashy Hands
Of course, that is what fish do. Most bad players these days are playing all sorts of junk like offsuit or offsuit. When I say "offsuit", by the way, I'm just talking about two different suits, so like the and .
Guys, you don't make money playing these hands in poker because you're simply going to be up against a superior hand most of the time. Most good, tight players in today's games are only going to be playing hands like , , and . And so, therefore, if you play a hand like , you're often going to find yourself in a situation where you hit your on the flop and the other player has a higher kicker, and you have a very, very small percent chance to win.
This is why bad players lose, because they play hands like this that put them in a mathematically disadvantageous position to begin the hand. This is the worst thing you possibly want to do in poker.
So guys, as an example, as a rough range of hands to play, I would recommend playing a much tighter range of pocket Aces down to pocket Twos, , , , , , , , and a couple suited connectors so like suited, suited, and suited, which is what the "s" means there (87s or 54s). So for example, .
Play superior hands. Don't play trashy hands like the fish, and you're going to have a lot more success in this game.
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3. Paying Off the Nits
So guys, let's talk about the other player type now, the nits, the rocks. These are the players who sit around playing incredibly tight.
All the hands that I just told you, they're not even playing all of those. They're literally waiting for Aces, Kings, Queens. They're trying to hit a set, like a three-of-a-kind on the flop. They're waiting for their flush. Guys, these are the players who, when they finally make a bet or a raise, trust me, they have it. They're not bluffing you. So you don't want to play into their games.
For example, you pick up pocket Aces, , and a nit raises you on the turn of . Guys, there are so many different possibilities that a nit can have on this board. They probably successfully set mined you, meaning that they probably have a hand like , , , or .
also flopped a straight on this board, and turned the straight on this board.
Guys, bottom line, the tightest, most passive players at the table, which is what the nits and rocks are, are simply not going to raise you on what I call the big money streets, the turn and river, with a one pair hand. They are always doing this with two pair or better. There's two pairs on this board as well, , . If they have a hand that you actually beat here, like a or , they're just going to call. That's what passive players do, guys. So when they raise you here, serious alarm bells need to be going off, and quite frankly, you need to be folding your hand because you have a very, very small amount of odds to win if they have a hand like on this board.
2. Limping
Alright guys, let's move on to thing number two that you're never going to see a good poker player doing, and that is limping. We already talked about that, how this is one of the favorite things for all our fishy friends to do, and that is, before the flop, they will just call the blind. So for example, if you're playing at a $1/$2 cash game, they will just call the $2. Guys, you never want to be doing this for the simple reason that you're putting yourself in a passive position to start the hand. No good poker player would ever do this. They instead want to take control of the pot right away because they know this is going to make it much easier for them to win the hand later on.
So for example, you look down at , on the button, and there are three people who've already limped. So a lot of amateurs, in particular, will go, "Well, I'll just limp along here, you know, just try to go see a cheap flop." But guys, good poker players think differently. Of course, they're going to jack it up here, guys, to a minimum of seven times the blind. So for example, once again, if you're playing in a $1/$2 cash game, that would be about $14. The reason why I picked that number is because I usually raise around three or four times the blind as my standard opening raise size, and then I add one big blind on top per limper. So there's three limpers in here, so that, of course, is where I got the 7x figure from.
However, I do need to point out, guys, if you're playing in a super loose low-stakes game, especially if you're playing in a home game or 1 cent/2 cent on the internet, $1/$2 live, and a lot of people have been having some drinks perhaps and they're splashing around and playing anything – you might want to try making it more. Make it 10x, make it 15x. Basically, bottom line, guys, you want to aim for one caller. And if, when you make it 7x here, you're still getting 3, 4, 5 callers, that's not the right amount. You want to make it more.
Let people know that they are never going to limp your button. By the way, I've made other videos talking about position here. You can check those out. But the bottom line is, the button is the best seat at the table. Do not allow anyone to limp your blind, or any other seat, to be honest. Raise it up, take control, and you're going to have a lot more success in poker.
1. Going on Tilt
Alright guys, the number one thing that you're never going to see good poker players doing, and that is going on tilt, getting frustrated. That, once again, is what amateurs do. Guys, I can tell you from my nearly 20 years in this game, 10 plus years as a professional, and having coached hundreds of students in the small and mid-stakes games, this is the number one thing that holds them back, and that is getting frustrated every single time they get a bad beat.
For example, you've got two red Aces, , and a fish goes all-in before the flop. You call, and they hit their lucky on the flop. Guys, it's going to happen close to 20% of the time. There is nothing you can do here. Of course, you want to call off all your chips when you have the best hand in poker, but we have to make peace with the fact that you're going to lose the hand one out of five times, even though you did everything right. This is something that is very difficult for a lot of people to accept in this game because, in most other games out there, if you make the correct play, you get to win all of the money. You get all of the benefits.
But that's not the way it works in poker, guys. And that is why poker is so profitable, because the fish can get lucky one out of five times, one out of four times, and that keeps them coming back for more, putting in more of their money, and ultimately giving it all away to you in the end. Guys, when a fish gets lucky against you, it doesn't mean the site's rigged. It doesn't mean you're the most unlucky poker player in the world. It's actually just math.Conclusion
Alright guys, like and subscribe if you found this one helpful. And if you want to know my entire strategy to smash the small and mid stakes games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet. That will be the top link in the description below. Thanks a lot for watching, guys. All the best at the poker tables, unless you're on mine.
