With all of the good players in poker today, you’ve absolutely got to be on your best game to be a profitable player.  And making countless mental mistakes is a good way not to be on your best game.  There are literally thousands of mental errors you can make during a game, but these 3 are the top mistakes you need to avoid.

Stopping a session early because you’re ahead

While most players already know not to keep playing during a losing session just to break even (many people still do it anyways), some players will quit sessions just because they’re ahead.  Now this can be a great confidence booster to know that you’ve played a solid, winning session.  However, quitting when you’re beating the game will leave you short on profits time and time again.  If anything, you want to make even more time for a winning session by putting things off while the going is good.

Picking the wrong games

Being a profitable poker player isn’t always about making the best plays or being one of the top players at your online poker room – it’s about being better than those at your table!  That’s why picking the wrong games can be such a killer in terms of profit.  When choosing an online poker table, make sure to look at the flop-viewed percentage so that you can get a good idea as to how many limpers are in the room.

Making a call just to see an opponent’s hand

You can usually make a fairly good gut decision as to whether an opponent has you beat or not.  However, there is always that inclination to try and see if an opponent is possibly bluffing even when you know you’re beat.  Resisting this temptation is a must though if you’ve already put your opponent on a range and have decided that they’ve got you beat.

Seven Card Stud certainly isn’t as popular as it was a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean nobody is playing it.  In fact, there are still plenty of Seven Card Stud tournaments out there including some major WSOP events.  Seeing as how Stud isn’t totally irrelevant, let’s take a look at some tips for how to get started with this game.

Remember Everyone’s Face Up Cards

One big difference in Seven Card Stud, as opposed to Texas Hold’em, is that you get to see a face up card from all of your opponents.  However, when an opponent folds, that face up card gets mucked and you’re forced to remember it.  This is where some players make the mistake of only concentrating on their own hand.  But when you do this, you’re missing out on opportunities to correctly count your outs.  That’s why you need to pay attention to every face up card and memorize it.

Bet Frequently

Stud is a drawing game and so players like to see cards as cheaply as possible.  That’s why you need to bet frequently whenever you hold the advantage.  If you’re sitting in the driver’s position, you don’t want to give this advantage up by letting several drawing hands into the pot.  At the very least, you’ll be making opponents pay to chase their draws.

Bluffing rarely works

Bluffing is always thought to be a major part of any poker variation.  But in Seven Card Stud, you’re often wasting your time (and chips) by bluffing.  This is especially true in the lower stakes where the only people who play are either going to call with every draw they have or play all of their hands straightforward.  There are few bluffing opportunities that arise in a Stud game so you’re very unlikely to make anyone fold.  About the only time you can truly bluff people in a Seven Card Stud hand is when a flush draw is showing on the board.

Big pots are what defines a No-Limit Texas Hold’em player’s success.  Sure there are lots of little small wins along the way that can boost your bankroll, but it’s the big pots that will make or break your bankroll.  That’s why you need to know how to both build big pots and play them in Hold’em.  Here is a look at how to accomplish this so you can properly play big pots and earn lots of money while doing so.

Building a Big Pot

If the pot is $2 and you’re betting $60 into it, you’re building a pot the wrong way.  After all, if you’re holding pocket queens, your opponent only needs to have pocket kings or aces one out of 30 times to make this a bad play.  But betting $60 into a $60 pot is a lot smarter because you’re only contributing half of the pot.  When building a pot, make sure to keep the pot size in mind, and make measured bets that will increase the pot over each street.

When to build Big Pots

The obvious time to build big pots is when you have a big hand and think you’ve got one or more players that will call your bets.  Of course, you can also build bigger pots when you’re looking to draw another player into a bluff or force them to call with poor odds.  In the case of a bluff, you could bet $30 into a $30 pot and scare off a tight player who’s been checking and calling on every street.  As far as forcing a player to call with poor odds, if the pot was $60 and you made a $25 wager, this is enough to give the person calling bad pot odds.  However, it’s not enough to force an automatic fold.