It is generally accepted that in order to be considered among the best poker players, you need to be able to put your opponent on a hand.
Though, as unusual as it may sound, many poor poker players have the ability to generally put most of their opponents on a hand.
So why are they still ‘losing’ players? Simple. They remain losing players because they do not have the ability to ‘execute’ based on what they have read in their opponent.
They know what they could and should be doing to win, but alas, they fail to act when they should.
So, what are the common mistakes that are made by these players and how can you avoid being one of them?
Well, the first of these common mistakes is calling in order to prove you were right. A player will call simply to satisfy their own intuition, to prove that they have read a tight player’s hand correctly.
This is entirely redundant. After all, what is the point of putting your opponent on a hand if you do not act on your read?
A second common mistake is to make a silly change of mind during a hand. This is a real trap that you must train yourself out of.
A common vice of many poker players is the ability to entirely fabricate a hand that you can beat and then attribute this hand to your opponent.
Usually your first instinct is correct, if you think you should fold on a hand then you probably should.
The final, and perhaps most common mistake is to show everybody the hand that you just lost on. Simply throwing away money in order to get to a showdown, in order to show everybody what bad fortune you have had by losing on a strong hand.
By avoiding these common traps you will be able to ‘execute’ on the successful reads that you are more than likely already making.
