What bad poker habit took you the longest to break?

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wushibala

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  • #26
It took me a long time to overcome that fear. For example, I used to go all-in or call an all-in only with premium hands like AA, KK, QQ, or AK. Hands like AQ or AJ were automatic folds for me. But now I can easily go all-in with J10 if the situation is right, whether I have a big stack or a short one.
 
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RomboPro777

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  • #27
my habit is to bluff a lot, but when I lose a lot, self-control turns on, and then I play carefully
 
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Gritz18

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  • #28
nabmom said:
So, what bad poker habit did you conquer after some effort, or maybe you are still battling?
When I started learning to play poker, I made one of the biggest mistakes in poker, which is wanting to play every hand, and the worst of all, limping in almost every hand.

I believe this is a mistake every beginner makes when they start playing poker, but as time went on and I watched some videos, I began to understand that this type of play wasn't getting me anywhere; I couldn't improve my game.

Perhaps this can't be considered a bad habit because every beginner makes this mistake, as long as you improve and leave this type of play behind.

But after a while, if you continue with this type of play, then yes, it can be considered a bad habit, because wanting to play every hand by limping in, that's what can be considered a bad habit.

I won't consider freeroll tournaments, because in those tournaments, since the player didn't spend any money, they play any way they want, so they'll limp in, call with weak hands, and if they're eliminated from the tournament, it doesn't matter.
 
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Cooking

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  • #29
Being on tilt. Nowadays, it rarely happens because I'm very careful to make sure it doesn't happen.
 
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yuriko oyama

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  • #30
I deeply consider poker, despite what many say, to be a very unfair game that often favors those who play poorly.
And tilt was something that consumed me a lot, the anger of seeing certain things happen at the tables, but I didn't do much to change that feeling. I think that because so many things are repeated, we become more experienced and stronger in relation to that fact.
Today, I rarely get irritated.
 
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Gutshot Gus

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  • #31
The hardest habit for me to break was staying out of the trap of drawing to the second best (or even third best) drawing hand,
That's a lot of hoping and gambling,
 
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JhonnyThe357

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  • #32
The hardest bad habit for me is letting go of a hand after I've invested a certain amount in it, especially when it's a hand I know I'm probably losing. I confess I'm learning to detach myself from that.
I even made a post about it.
 
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  • #33
nabmom said:
We all know that there is a learning curve to playing poker. We also know that sometimes, once we pick up a bad habit, it is hard to shake it. Combining these two things, I'm wondering what bad poker habits you had in the past that were the hardest to stop. Or maybe you still have a bad habit that you know isn't helping you, but you just can't help yourself.

For me, learning how to stop chasing losses during a slump in cash games took a long time to really conquer. It was often so tempting to "just play a bit longer" and try and win back what I had lost. Studying my hand history really helped me understand what I was doing and how it wasn't helping to be tilted and try and win back my buy-ins. Taking a break was a much better strategy that was easier to manage once I created a clear "stop/loss" amount. Once I hit that, I walked away from the table.

So, what bad poker habit did you conquer after some effort, or maybe you are still battling?
I used to overpay to do flush and straights and I still got nervous when I didn't hit. After I started studying more I learned that I don't need to hit the flush to win the hand and the flush is very difficult to do, the chances of him coming are very low, as much as we hit a lot, because we play every day he is very "difficult" to do.
 
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  • #34
playing past midnight when I know I'm tired and will just lose all the money i've made
 
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  • #35
Like you, I had a bad habit of trying to recoup my losses during cash games. But I didn't just keep playing; I actually moved up to higher stakes, where I’d invariably lose the entire bankroll I had painstakingly built up.

I handle losses relatively well these days and haven't done that in a few months. Since I play a lot of Spins—a format with very high variance—that experience has perhaps helped me learn to live with losses. That said, I wouldn't want to swear that I won't relapse at some point.
 
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  • #36
For me as MTT player who have long sessions bad habit was to play with lower focus after 3/4 of session. It is hard to sit for 8-12 hours with full focus so last few hours i played as a robot (i worked a lot with GTO and Flopzilla so i know math better than 90% of players imo). Last few years i cut my sessions a bit and now i play more tables at same time but my sessions are shorter. It helped me to be more focused even with bigger amount of tables.
 
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  • #37
Showing my cards after a hand was over in a pot I was not involved in. No one cares you folded a random 2 and coulda had trips.
 
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  • #38
Throwing away a great drawing hand, pre flop, when previous betting makes it obvious we are dominated even if we hit the flop. Exam: playing KJ when there is a raise and a call, or 3 bet, ahead of you. You are going to be behind if you hit the flop unless you flop or str8 or flush. Hard to break.
 
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  • #39
Right now, I'm not happy with the bet sizes I choose. I going to study that, but I think I bet large when should be small and vice-versa.
 
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  • #40
For me it was recognizing and acknowledging spikes in emotions.. When to stop for half n hour instead of upping the buy-in to "win back the losses". Sure sometimes i won back everything and more but usually i ended up broke and tilting.
 
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  • #41
Online: Paying people (and bots) off.
Live: Overfolding to big turn bets when I have implied odds to continue.

Still working on both of these.
 
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  • #42
At the beginning I played to agressive and bluffed too much when I payed in my first 20 USDs to Pokerstars as a student, I lost them in a few hours, trying without any idea of the game :), I started again after my studies with colleagues in my job playing afterwork
 
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  • #43
nabmom said:
So, what bad poker habit did you conquer after some effort, or maybe you are still battling?
I'm always learning new things, but one that has taken me some time to beat is playing without any study or reviewing marked hands between sessions.
 
tuitui

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  • #44
When to fold monsters. Took a while, but nowadays I can do it when needed.
 
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  • #45
For me, the hardest poker habit to break was definitely chasing draws blindly based on hope rather than math.
Early in my poker journey, whenever I had a gutshot straight draw or a flush draw,
I just couldn't bring myself to fold.
I kept calling huge bets from my opponents, always hoping that the next card would magically hit and win me a massive pot.
I completely ignored pot odds and implied odds.
It took me a long time and a lot of lost buy-ins to finally realize that poker is a game of math equity, not a game of wishing for the right card.
Now I can throw a draw card when the price is not right.
 
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  • #46
Having the nuts and not extracting all the chips by doing all in the river...
 
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