5 Plays Good Poker Players Never Make

What's going on guys, Nathan here, and today I'm going to give you five plays that good poker players never make. Let's jump right into it. Alright guys, so in my nearly 20 years in this game, having coached hundreds of students at the small and mid stakes games, and having played this game professionally for over a decade myself, I can tell you that these are the five plays that you will never see good winning poker players make.

Counting down from five to one, let's go. go. Number five is chasing the bottom end of the straight, aka the ass end or the idiot end of the straight. Guys, this is something you will never see good serious poker players doing. This is something you will see amateurs and recreational players do. Let me give you an example.

So for example, you have ace seven of hearts and the flock comes down with the eight of diamonds, nine of spades and ten of diamonds guys if there is any kind of big action on this board you want to be folding your hand but the recreational players will continue to chase the straight here and let me tell you why this is a mistake guys the problem with this hand is that only a six is a card you're going to be happy with on the turn of river and even if that card comes which would

make you a straight you could be drawing completely dead already i hope you guys can see to a hand like queen jack furthermore if a jack were to come on the turn you would make a straight which is a very very strong hand in no limit hold'em however if anybody has a queen in their hand they would have a higher straight than you so guys i hope that you can see the absolute catastrophic fail of chasing the idiot end the ass end the bottom end of the straight in a situation like this guys you

do not want to be putting any kind of big money chips into the middle if there's any kind of big bets raise or anything you got to get out of there in a situation like this let's move on to play number four that you will never see good players make him the poker table and that is paying off the tightest player at the table now guys i've been guilty of this from time to time at the tables over the years and honestly nothing

tilts me more than when i pay off off the net or the rock at the poker table. Because these are the players that play their hand.

Basically when they bet big or raise big especially on what i call the big money streets which are the turn and the river they almost always have the nuts and what do i mean by the nuts the nuts is a slang term in poker for basically the best hand possible or one of the best hands possible let me give you an example once again you raise up two red aces best hand in the game awesome great but But the rock raises you on the turn of eight of hearts,

seven of clubs, six of diamonds, three of diamonds. Guys, a lot of amateurs and recreational players will simply make the call here. They'll make the crying call. They've got pocket aces after all. How can you lose with the best hand in poker? Guys, what you need to understand about pocket aces is that it is just one pair.

It can be beaten, especially when the tightest player at the table, who's been sitting in a corner patiently folding every single hand for the last half an hour suddenly out of nowhere makes a big raise on the turn guys this is a spot where there need to be alarm bells going off in your head you need to be asking yourself why this player is deciding to make a big raise out of nowhere as i talked about in my first book crushing

the micro stakes the turn raise is almost always the nuts and the river raise is always the nuts and if you're playing against the tightest player at the table, you can take it to the bank, guys. You need to fold your pocket aces in a situation like this. I know it's painful, but good players have the discipline to understand when they're beat like this and lay it down.

All right, let's move on to play number three that you will never see good poker players make it at the table, and that is jamming all in with top pair. Guys, top pair is another hand that weekend warriors. Recreational poker players, they love to overvalue and what all good poker players know is that when you're playing with deeper stacks like a hundred big blinds you have to play this hand cautiously because typically when the stacks are deeper like that it.

If somebody wants to play a massive big pot with you, get it all in. They're almost always, if you're playing against any kind of normal, decent thinking opponent, they're going to have a hand that beats one pair. They're going to have two pair trips. They're going to have a straight, a flush, something of that sort. And so good poker players, instead, they know to check and call with top pair instead. Let me give you an example once again.

You have ace, jack, offsuit, flop comes down with a jack of hearts, six of clubs and four of clubs.

And an aggressive player raises you so what should you do in a spot like this well guys you should just be calling a lot of recreational players and amateurs will make the mistake of raising again here after all we've got top pair top kicker but guys the problem with that play is that while we know an aggressive player is going to have quite a few bluffs in the range here when you put in the re-raise aka the three bat on the flop here you're basically

forcing them to fold all their bluffs out and you're only going to get action when they actually have the nuts, when they've got pocket sixes on this board, pocket jacks, pocket fours, or some sort of ridiculous monster draw like, for example, a 7-5 of clubs. It is much better in this situation, as we're going to talk about in another tip in this video, to just allow the aggressive player to keep bluffing.

You've got an excellent hand top pair, but guys, this is not the spot to play play a massive pot unless you're playing against a complete and utter maniac. The best course of action here is to just call, check into them on the turn, and let an aggressive player do what aggressive players love to do, and that's bluff at the pot. That's how you get the most value. All right, guys, let's move on to play number two that good poker players will

never do at the poker table, and that is overplaying suited connectors. Guys, this is another hand that is was notoriously overplayed by amateur poker players, a hand like 9-8 of diamonds, for example. And once again, all good poker players know to play this hand cautiously. And specifically, what you guys need to know is that a hand like 9-8 of diamonds or 10-9 of clubs, any one of these two connectors, we're not playing this hand, guys, to hit top pair. pair.

We're instead playing this hand to flop something big like trips, a combo draw, two pair, something of this sort. For example, if you do have the 9-8 of diamonds, we're looking for a flop like 10 of diamonds, 7 of spades, 3 of diamonds. This is a spot where you have not only an open-ended straight draw, but also a flush draw. This is around 15 outs. This will make you a mathematical favorite, even if this player has top pair.

This is a situation where where you want to play a big pot because you have a massive combo draw. But when you just hit top pair guys with your nine eight, you want to play it cautiously.

Call for pot control and if they really want to play a big pot sometimes you got to pitch it guys your top pair is not always going to be good in a spot like that let's move on to the number one play that you will never see good poker players making at the poker table and that is bluffing the table maniac guys we already touched on how to play against aggressive players in tip number three i think it was here guys the way to beat aggressive poker players is to let them hang themselves.

I actually made a video a couple of weeks ago talking specifically about this, how to beat aggressive players. And it's not by fighting fire with fire. It's by letting them do again, what aggressive poker players love to do, which is bluff at the pot. So good poker players know to never bluff the table maniac. Let me give you an example. You have queen jack offsuit versus a maniac.

And by the river, the board is queen eight, seven, six king with no possible flush on the board what should you be doing in this spot well guys this is an excellent spot to just check call the entire way versus a crazy maniac and the reason why is similar to what we already talked about before often versus these aggressive players who are playing a ton of hands it's impossible to put them on a hand we know that they're going to have a lot of bluffs in their range however something that

a lot of amateurs in particular fail to remember is that even maniacs can get pocket aces sometimes guys even maniacs can have a hand like pocket eights on this board and therefore often in these situations even though we know they're bluffing a ton of the time it makes sense to just check call versus them instead of re-raising because even most maniacs no to fold their ace-deuce when they have absolutely nothing on this board if you were to re-raise,

and they're just going to give you action when they got pocket aces or pocket eights on this board. So guys, often the best play versus the aggressive table maniac is to just give them the rope, let them hang themselves, let them make their big bluffs in these situations.

Don't try to bluff them back. I hope you enjoyed this poker podcast episode. If you want to know my complete strategy for beating small and mid-stakes poker games, make sure you go grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet that's available on my website at blackrein79.com. And also make sure you hit like and subscribe here to the podcast as I'm putting out new episodes every single week to help you guys quickly get beating your poker games.

I wish you guys all the best of the poker tables. I'll catch you next week.

This has been Nathan Williams with blackrein79.com.