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3 Inexcusable Mistakes Online Poker Tournament Players Make

Some of you may have read our recent piece about 5 reasons to play at Blockchain Poker. It is a cryptocurrency poker site where you can play with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV. If you like Texas Hold’em and don’t mind smaller fields, this site can be profitable.

Lately, I’ve been playing some of their freerolls and have made several final tables. One reason I’ve made so many final tables is that players are making some insane mistakes in their play. Today, I will cover three inexcusable mistakes some people make playing online poker.

Failing to Collude in Multi-way Pots Against All-In Opponent

Yes, I know how the title sounds. However, we all know that if someone is all-in during a multi-way pot, it is usually customary to check it down. If someone bets, it is usually because they have a hand and figure they can take out the all-in player.

Online poker players know what I am about to gripe about. Too often you see someone decide to try and push out the third player when they don’t have a hand. They might have an ace or overcards to the board. Sometimes they have bottom pair. Regardless, they don’t have anything worth betting and many times they open the door for the all-in player to win the hand when the third player had to fold a hand that would have hit.

This is made worse when the all-in player is a sitter and the sitter’s hand wins, forcing players to wait for another round to see if the sitter is knocked out.

Failing to Bet Out Sitters

If a player is sitting out, they are forced to fold whenever they are facing a bet or a raise. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have watched players just call a sitter pre-flop in a heads-up situation. What’s worse, they will check the hand down.

whats up with online poker tournaments and players just sitting out? it makes the game suck really,

— Joe Richardson (@jrichardson330) June 12, 2009

Playing heads-up against a sitter is a simple process. Step 1 – you raise them pre-flop. If they are the only player left to act ahead of you, raise and watch them fold. Step 2 – If you get to a flop against a sitter, bet. They will fold. It is really that easy.

Failing to Call Short Stacks That Can’t Hurt You

The following situation is what prompted this article. I was in a freeroll with about 540 chips at 150 and 300 blinds. I look down at A-J in late position. Two players ahead of me limp into the pot for 300. Of course, I shove for 540. This isn’t even a full raise.

The small blind is a sitter so they insta-fold. What happened next astounded me. The big blind and the two limpers immediately folded. I even commented in the chat “Whaaaa?” What the heck just happened there?

I understand the big blind not calling. He was playing tight and had just 2,000. While a super-tight fold, he could blind off into the money. The other two players didn’t make sense as they both had stacks around 5,000. A 240 chip call is nothing and would have given them a shot to knock out a player.

The folds resulted in a 1,050 chip gain in my stack. I won another pot a few hands later and easily made the money in the tournament. Had those two players called my bet, they might have knocked me out. We will never know.

No Reasons to Make These Mistakes

The above mistakes are inexcusable in online poker. I cannot give a reasonable argument for any of the mistakes made above. In some cases, its players who are not paying attention properly. Otherwise, they are playing too tightly.

Yes, there is a third option that the players could be bots. Frankly, I don’t see bots being programmed that poorly to fold to less than a min-raise. It is likely players who are playing their F game. If you play online poker games, don’t make these mistakes unless you don’t like money.

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