I see a lot of articles giving beginners the same general advice. Play tight. Don’t tilt. Be aggressive. Use bankroll management. Yada yada yada. In this article I’m going to try to discuss some of the mistakes I often see that don’t usually get pointed out.

DON’T TOUCH YOUR CHIPS UNTIL YOU’VE MADE A DECISION!

In live poker, I often see novice players “think out loud” with their chips. For example, some players will count out the amount of chips of a call pre-fl op, then count out the amount of chips of a raise, and then play with each stack as they decide whether they want to raise or call. If you do this, it often makes it extremely easy for your opponents to fi gure out how strong your hand is, which is obviously a disaster. Especially against seasoned players, you should avoid this at all costs.

If this is a problem for you, my advice is to try thinking internally. This is a good habit to have in virtually all poker situations. For starters always be aware of how many chips you have. You should rarely (if ever) have to count out your stack in the middle of a hand. If you do, you are giving away too much information. When it is your turn to act, don’t touch your chips until you know what you are going to do. If you like to shuffl e your chips or hold them a certain way, that’s fi ne, but only if you make sure that you do it the same way every time. Until you’ve decided exactly what you are going to do, don’t reach for the amount of chips needed. That way your opponents won’t get the extra information of seeing you toil over the decision.

NEVER BE CONTENT

Personally, I consider this to be great advice for virtually all situations in life, but it’s doubly true if you want to become a great poker player. Never be content with your play. I cringe every time I hear a poker player say that he played a tournament perfectly. No you didn’t. No one ever has in the history of poker. If the best players in the world say they make tons of mistakes every session (and they do say this, trust me), then what does it mean if you are content with your play? If the best players in the world can still fi nd room for improvement, and you can’t, you will be doomed to mediocrity.

The solution to this is simply thinking differently. If you got all in with K-K versus 10-10 to bust from a tournament, that doesn’t mean you played the tournament well. That doesn’t even necessarily mean you played that one hand well. Instead of focusing on the spots where you are positive you know what to do, look at the spots that other players might play differently, especially if they are successful. Remember that hand you decided not to bluff even though you thought your opponent was weak, and his ace high won in the free showdown? Would he have called if you bet? Was it reasonably possible for him to have a strong hand after checking the fl op? If the answer to these questions is no, you made a mistake by not bluffi ng.

As a corollary to this, don’t make decisions because you know it’s “right to always raise A-K” or “you should never go broke with one pair in a big pot.” Hard and fast rules have no place in poker. Instead, you should learn to see every situation differently. You will only grow as a poker player when you are able to understand and analyze why certain plays are correct.

SATELLITES DO NOT REDUCE VARIANCE, AND ARE NOT IDEAL FOR BANKROLL MANAGEMENT.

If you are a casual player that doesn’t care about a steadily increasing bankroll, feel free to ignore this completely. On the other hand, if your bankroll is what you rely on to make a living, or to accomplish your goal(s), then satellites are not for you.

Think about it this way. You want to play a $10,000 tournament, but you know that it’s not the best move for your bankroll. Instead you decide to play a $1,000 satellite! So now you win the satellite, and have $10,000 that you are FORCED to spend on this investment that you already knew was a bad idea. You would be better off playing a $1,000 tournament that paid cash that you could reinvest in your bankroll, rather than one where the prize pool is money that you are forced to invest poorly. My suggestion is this: Don’t play a satellite unless directly buying into the main event is at least CLOSE to a good decision in the fi rst place.

These are just a few of the mistakes that I constantly see at the poker table. Unlike many of the others, these tend to go unnoticed. Don’t fall into the same trap as everyone else! If you fi nd yourself having any of these bad habits, please don’t ignore them. Any of these can be disastrous to your game, but if you are conscious of them, patching up the leaks should be no problem.