Top 3 Mistakes That Cost You Money in Poker

03 Oct 2025

Intermediate

This material is for medium-skilled players

Making any of these three mistakes at the poker table is like throwing your money straight into the fire. Together with Scottish poker pro Gary Blackwood, we’ll break down the biggest errors players make, how to avoid them, and how to keep your win rate strong. If you’re playing low stakes, pay extra close attention to mistakes number two and three — they’re especially costly when you’re up against weak competition.

Playing too loose and passive is a win rate killer, especially preflop. If you look at any solid preflop chart, you’ll notice that the majority of hands should be played aggressively, while only a few are played passively.

Watch any strong player online or on a live stream, and you’ll see the same pattern: they lean toward aggression far more often than passivity. There are some exceptions — for example, when you’re getting great pot odds in the big blind against a raise. But those are exceptions, not the rule.

To maximize your edge:

• Be the aggressor.
• Mix in plenty of 3-bets when in position.
• Avoid overcalling with marginal hands.
• Keep the pressure on and make your opponents’ lives difficult.

Folding preflop with hands you shouldn’t be calling in the first place is like being the only player at the table straddling every hand — you’re bleeding money unnecessarily. So the fix is real simple: tighten up, play solid ranges, and favor aggression over passivity.

The most important part of poker is extracting value. That’s where the bulk of your winnings come from. Bluffing is important, too — and sometimes extremely profitable — but the truth is that bluffs exist mainly to support your value bets.

If you’re not going wide enough for value, you’re simply leaving money on the table. There are many scenarios where hands as “weak” as second pair, bottom pair, or even ace-high can be worth a value bet.

Example Hand #1

You’re playing $1/$2 live cash with $200 effective stacks. Action folds to the button, who raises to $10. You defend the big blind with  .

Flop:   . You check-call $10.
Turn: . It checks through.
River: . Final board: Q-6-2-3-8 rainbow.

Here, your pair of sixes is a clear value bet:

• With weaker hands like , , or pocket sevens, you can use a smaller sizing.
• With stronger hands like pocket eights or K-Q, you should size up.

If you’re only value betting a queen here — and only strong queens at that — you’re leaving massive amounts of money behind.

Many players ask themselves: “What worse hands will call me if I bet with just a six?”. That’s the wrong way to think. This is a wide-range vs. wide-range situation, and your opponent is capable of having many worse hands that will call: pocket fours, 6-5, pocket threes, K-2, and so on. It’s not nearly as thin as it first appears. Betting thin for value in these spots is critical if you want to maximize long-term profit.

You must appreciate the wideness of your opponent’s range. That means going after value not just with top pair or overpairs, but even with third pair in the right scenarios. Remember: you’ll also have bluffs in your range — hands like K-J that floated the flop, ace-highs you didn’t check-raise, or weak suited connectors like   that completely bricked. With these bluffs in your arsenal, opponents will call down lighter. They’ll sometimes show up with bottom pair or ace-high, convinced you’re bluffing.

Example Hand #2

Back to our $1/$2 live game, now with $300 effective stacks. Button opens to $10. You 3-bet from the small blind to $40 with pocket tens. Button calls.

• Flop:   . You c-bet half-pot. He calls.
• Turn: . You check, he checks back.
• River: . Final board: K-8-3-8-4 rainbow, no flushes.

At first glance, many players freeze here with pocket tens: “He called the flop, he must have a King”, they think. That mindset is costing you money.

Pocket tens here are a clear value bet. Your opponent can easily have:

• Middle pairs like 9-9, 7-7, 5-5, 6-6.
• Weak top pairs like   or  .
• Ace-high floats like   or  .

Even random  hands from a wide button opens. Anyways, use one of two river sizes:

• Large size (50%+ pot): for strong value like K-Q, K-J, or trips;
• Small blocker size (~33% pot): for thin value hands like T-T, 9-9, 7-7, or .

Those smaller bets might feel “too thin” at first, but they add up fast. By betting marginal hands consistently, you’ll extract value in spots where most players just check and give up. This one adjustment alone can drastically increase your win rate.

Working thin river value bets into your game can make a huge difference. Even when you’re only betting a small “blocker” size, those chips add up fast. Take the pocket tens example: betting one-third pot ($50 into $160) may not look like much, but that’s still 25 big blinds added to your stack. Compare that to what you’d win with a preflop 3-bet — it’s a significant chunk of value. If you check back instead, you’re leaving money on the table.

Thin value bets serve a dual purpose:

• Extracting chips from weaker pairs (like 9-9, 7-7) that will pay you off;
• Protecting yourself from larger bets by checking — opponents at low stakes almost never jam thinly with K-Q or K-J when you block-bet first.

Most of these examples come from wide range scenarios (button vs blinds), where thin value betting is especially profitable. Against tighter ranges — say, EP vs MP — the threshold for betting thinner hands rises, and you’ll need stronger holdings to justify it.

The bottom line: don’t wait for the top pair or better. Keep an eye out for situations where even the second or third pair can squeeze out value. Over time, this single adjustment will noticeably increase your win rate.

A bluff catcher is a hand that only beats bluffs — it loses to every value hand your opponent might bet. Think weak top pairs, marginal second pairs, or ace-high type holdings. At lower stakes, calling too often with bluff catchers is arguably the biggest mistake you can make. Here’s why:

• In theory, many bluff catchers are zero EV. That means whether you call or fold, the long-term result should be about the same.
• But the second your opponent bluffs even slightly less often than theory suggests, those zero EV calls become losing calls.
• And most low-stakes players simply don’t bluff enough — they’re far more comfortable betting for value than pulling the trigger on a risky bluff.

That means every time you pay them off with a bluff catcher, you’re just burning money. Let’s imagine you’re in a $1/$2 cash game with $200 effective stacks. Action folds to the cutoff, who raises to $10. You defend your big blind with  .

• Flop:    → You check-call a $15 c-bet.
• Turn:  → You pick up the queen-high flush draw and check-call $35.
• River:  → The board is Q-9-5-2-6. You check again, and the villain bets $85 into $120.

On the surface, this feels like a tempting call. You’ve got a top pair plus a flush blocker. But against a typical low-stakes opponent, this is a disciplined fold. Why? Because these players underbluff. They’ll value bet strong hands (flushes, sets, two pairs), but they rarely turn air into a big triple-barrel bluff. Against this population tendency, calling with Q-J here is torching money.

Hands like top pair or even two pair can look too strong to fold, but when you’re facing opponents who don’t bluff enough, these spots demand discipline. Take the earlier example: even if you somehow reached the river with   on a      board — flopping two pair — it’s still often correct to fold. Why? That’s because:

• Your opponent will always value bet flushes and sets.
• They’ll sometimes value bet strong one-pair hands like A-Q or pocket aces.
• And they’ll rarely, if ever, show up with bluffs in this spot.

As poker pro Alex Foxen once said: “You should use folding as a weapon against certain players”. Against opponents who don’t bluff — the ones who only bet when they have it — the strongest adjustment you can make is to find big folds. Over time, this saves you a massive amount of money compared to paying off every river bet with a bluff catcher.

Tilt is the silent bankroll killer. Many players convince themselves they don’t tilt, or that emotions don’t affect their game — that’s just denial. The strongest players know when to tap the table, step away, and protect their win rate.

If you’re in a great game and don’t want to leave entirely, at least take a short break. Get up, breathe, stretch, reset your focus. That five-minute walk can save you dozens, even hundreds of big blinds. Money saved is money earned.

Consider this: say you’re a solid winner at +10bb/hour. You tilt, make one bad river call for 50bb, and torch an hour’s worth of profit five times over. Now you need to grind for five hours just to recover from a single poor decision. One slip in emotional control can undo hours of solid play. So the lesson is simple: protect your mindset with the same discipline you use to protect your bankroll.

You now know the three biggest mistakes to avoid:

• Not thin value betting often enough.
• Failing to adjust bet sizing on marginal hands.
• Calling with bluff catchers against opponents who rarely bluff.
• And the bonus mistake: playing while tilted.

Mastering these areas will instantly make you tougher to play against, more disciplined in tough spots, and far more profitable in the long run.