No one will agree, of course, but I think one of the worst is calling a raise from the BB with a dominated hand. Why?
You will have to play from out of position, unless the raise comes from the SB.
Even if you hit your hand, you may have the second best hand. For example Cutoff raises and you call with K T. Even if the flop come King high or Ten high, you really cannot call a continuation bet or a check-raise with any certainty that you are ahead. Ergo, by frequently making this move, although you will win some pots, you will probably win small pots and lose huge pots, so you will almost certainly lose chips in No Limit poker. In fact there is no limit to the amount of chips you may lose.
Of course an even worse error is not knowing what dominated means.
If I had to offer another equally bad mistake in poker, if you can call it a mistake, it would be not understanding odds. To be good at poker you must be good at mental arithmetic and able to make quick calculations and estimates of probability. Gutshot plus flush draw plus two overcards–how large a bet can I profitably call? If an Ace comes on the turn, giving me a straight, what is the probability that it gives an opponent a boat?
This is the most important rule in any poker game. People use “bad cards” as a scapegoat constantly, but it’s not a legitimate excuse. Even the greatest poker players get terrible cards, yet they still end up at the final table.
You’re not going to win every single round — accept that and move on. The trick is to recognize profitable opportunities in the game.
You don’t have control over the good or bad cards that you are dealt, but you do have control over making the best of your situation and finding the good opportunities.
I agree that what bluffalo king said is an error, but there are definitely worse errors. I think getting tilted is the worst error in tournaments because you ruin your entire shot of winning the whole tournament. If a person is tilted the odds of them winning are almost 0% so that seems to be the worst error
Perhaps the error I mentioned is not the worst, but it seems to be the commonest, and if people eliminated it from their game it would make a huge difference. (Of course I want my opponents to make mistakes.)
Misplaying the blinds in general is a common and potentially major mistake. Players often play weaker hands there because they already have an investment, not realizing the disadvantage of position. Calling in the small blind, then acting first, means you are acting from the weakest position with a hand you would never have called if you didn’t already have money in the pot. Better to toss it and your small blind.
I’ve made folds where had I stayed in the hand I would’ve won lots of chips, but I’ve been fortunate that the folds that I made throughout my playing history have saved me much more over the long haul than I would’ve won. Not only did they save me chips, but I had more chips to use when I had the nuts.
Limping in every hand then donk betting into the preflop aggressor when you get a small piece of the flop like most people on this site do.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve flopped top pair and busted people who donk bet into me with bottom or middle pair and snap call my jam on them.
If you can’t recognize limping in every hand then donk betting bottom or middle pair into a tight preflop aggressor is a major mistake (and probably the most common on here) you seriously need to study up and improve your game.
