5 mistakes that slow down your progress and how to avoid them

Home 5 mistakes that slow down your progress and how to avoid them
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Trick or Treat?

Our desire isn’t to bring too much of the Halloween spirit to poker, but we do want to be sure that bitB Spins’ players won’t be touched by the foggy and gloomy spirits of this holiday.

After all, what can be more frightening than being stuck at the same stake without seeing any ray of light?

It can be a real nightmare!

This Halloween our head-coach Fetedlabiere is taking care to protect bitB Spins beasts from being haunted by mistakes that can spell trouble even for experienced players.

Forget about garlic, evil spirits and incantations and take a closer look at what our poker “magician” and coach is sharing with you today:

 

1. Not learning the basics


Fetedlabiere: The most important thing every poker player needs is a good understanding of the most frequent situations. Knowing which hands to open, which hands to 3bet or an easy default post-flop gameplan is what actually helps you not just earning a good EV, but it will also give you more time to think about more difficult decisions.

If you have to think about every small spot like which hands to fold from the BU, all of this uses some brainpower and all these small situations add up and exhaust you quicker. So not only that sometimes you will take a wrong decision which will cost you EV, but you will also not think as deeply about other spots. More than this, sometimes you will feel the need to end your session earlier.

Unfortunately, I saw a lot of players in the past neglecting this important part of their game. I was also included in this situation. When I started to focus on these basics and they became the second nature for me, I realized how much my game could progress when focusing on the things that matter in-game and not the stuff that I already know.

 

2. Overvalue the impact of other regs


Fetedlabiere: As soon as players get to a level on which they start facing some other regs, they sometimes think that they need to focus a lot on how to beat these guys. They will shift their focus on studying GTO or how to exploit regs in fancy lines, sometimes even in lines that don’t really happen frequently. And actually, this seems natural because they will find themselves in spots in which they are not very comfortable, so improving in these areas is certainly good.

The problem that occurs is just that they start focusing way too much of their study time on this and they neglect the spots in which they actually make tons of money. Versus other regs you will never make much EV. The EV comes from exploiting weak players that make mistakes. I’m not saying that people should not focus on improving their game vs regs, they definitely should do this, but only to a degree in which they don’t make clear mistakes vs regs.

Everything that you are improving beyond that point will not increase your EV that much.

 

3. Not using the time efficiently


Fetedlabiere: You only have a certain amount of time to spend on poker and that is why you have to use this time efficiently. This means finding an appropriate study/grind ratio. I would recommend something like an 80% grind and 20% study, but this also depends on other circumstances.

For example, the problem with studying too much is that you get too much new input that you are not using effectively which usually leads people to not remembering everything after some time.

Also, you usually want to focus your study time on situations that happen frequently. Way too often I see students contemplating on situations that happen very rarely because this is a stop they are uncomfortable with and they want to solve this issue. The problem is that there are usually way more important things to focus on. At the same time, feeling uncomfortable in spots that rarely happen is totally fine and will actually improve your overall results.

 

4. Not knowing what to focus on

Fetedlabiere: This seems to be a problem that holds back a lot of promising players. It is very difficult to always know what you should focus on or how to spend your time effectively.

Because of this we created a clear learning path for our players and we also have the tools in order to help them find their leaks and to progress quicker than their competition.

It is always a difficult task to know what’s best to focus on. That is why having the help of coaches that went through this journey before you will help for a better understanding of what really matters. I believe there is no way around if you want to enjoy a rapid progress.

 

5. Not being open-minded

Fetedlabiere: This is actually a problem I see even at the highest stakes and even though I mentioned it last I think it is the most important factor for success. People often believe that they know what is going on and if they see an exploit of another reg they know is not theoretically good and they will just consider this a spew and not think further about it.

When in fact, every play has its purpose and place and you just have to understand when to use it. By not thinking deeply about such spots you will actually miss a lot of value for improvement.

Always try to learn from others, there is a reason why they play the stakes you are playing. I am more than sure that you are better in some areas than they are, but there are always spots you can learn even from a player you think is worse than you. This is true even for recreational players.

 

No more hiding under the bed! It’s time to forget about superstitions and transform yourself into a real stake crusher!

Meanwhile, enjoy Halloween!

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