What bad poker habit took you the longest to break?

wushibala · Jun 10, 2026

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.

RomboPro777 · Jun 10, 2026

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

Gritz18 · Jun 10, 2026

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.

Cooking · Jun 10, 2026

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

yuriko oyama · Jun 11, 2026

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.

Gutshot Gus · Jun 11, 2026

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,

JhonnyThe357 · Jun 11, 2026

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.

leomarinho · Jun 12, 2026

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.

Stringy · Jun 12, 2026

playing past midnight when I know I'm tired and will just lose all the money i've made

ms_attack · Jun 13, 2026

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.

NSX_Amfe2nat · Jun 13, 2026

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.

boxwaxer · Jun 13, 2026

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.

hobojim1247 · Jun 13, 2026

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.

Marcos1315 · Jun 13, 2026

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.

rifflemao · Jun 13, 2026

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.

bapfel · Jun 14, 2026

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

Marshmalo1994 · Jun 14, 2026

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 · Jun 15, 2026

When to fold monsters. Took a while, but nowadays I can do it when needed.

csecsey · Jun 15, 2026

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.

martinoni · Jun 15, 2026

Having the nuts and not extracting all the chips by doing all in the river...

Gonzalez1234 · Jun 16, 2026

I like to talk a lot in live poker, no one cares

Nur5951 · Jun 16, 2026

I mainly play free tournaments. Suppose 82 player will get the prize, when ever I enter that range I can not help myself and always play all-in and loss the hand and go out from the tournament.

s0ftdumps · Jun 16, 2026

For me, the two biggest leaks were playing too many hands preflop and getting too attached to a flop once I connected with it.

I used to convince myself that every suited connector or marginal ace was worth seeing a flop with. The result was constantly finding myself in difficult spots with weak holdings.

The other habit was overplaying mediocre made hands. Just because I hit top pair or caught a piece of the flop didn't mean I had a hand worth stacking off with. Learning to slow down, think about ranges, and fold when the action told me I was beat probably saved me more money than any strategy adjustment I've made.

Being more selective before the flop and less stubborn after the flop made a huge difference in my results.

riff_raff312 · Jun 17, 2026

Well the main one was chasing the flush till the river and drowning or the open ended straight and not getting it just a couple there are more but i can't give them all away

.

frnandoh · Jun 17, 2026

I'm constantly evolving so I yet have a lot of habits to break (all that general people have too), but playing with weak hands out of position was my habit I took longest to break. It is not intuitive that for commom people that playing less you win more. In poker, we need someone to tell us about some important answers.

What bad poker habit took you the longest to break?

wushibala

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RomboPro777

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Gritz18

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Cooking

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yuriko oyama

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Gutshot Gus

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JhonnyThe357

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leomarinho

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Stringy

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ms_attack

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NSX_Amfe2nat

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boxwaxer

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hobojim1247

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Marcos1315

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rifflemao

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bapfel

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tuitui

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csecsey

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martinoni

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Gonzalez1234

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Nur5951

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riff_raff312

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