What bad poker habit took you the longest to break?

ebazynski · Jul 4, 2026

Staying in too many hands when the flop gives me a backdoor straight or flush draw, particularly when the possibility of drawing a possible nut hand is present. Still haven't conquered this, but am trying to focus on the situational impact of continuing or not.

miric007 · Jul 8, 2026

I struggled the longest with the need to “get back what I lost.” After a few bad pots, I felt I had to recoup my losses immediately, which often led to overaggressive play and poor decisions. It took me a while to accept that each hand is a separate decision and that the previous outcome shouldn't affect the next one. Today, as soon as I notice that emotions are starting to make decisions for me, I take a short break and refocus on the quality of my play.

MARCIO123 · Jul 10, 2026

The bad habit that took me the longest to let go of was the emotional attachment to strong initial hands, especially the famous “pair of Ases” (AA) or “Kings” KkkK.

gustavofuentes2 · Jul 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?

My problem comes and goes. I lose my patience when my cards just don't show up for some time. Then I would really lose it when the other players would just keep making their crazy rivers after my great hand. My frustration would just have me going all in with any 2 because if it worked for them it would work for me. (NOT). I learned to control that emotion and just say it's part of the game. When i look at that way I play great poker and make the final table many times. Uffortunately after a little time I seem to forget and fall back into that bad habbit. Well I guess this is going to be a life long problem. I just have to deal with it. Don't fall into this habbit, just play your game and dont let your imotions led you astray. Good luck at the table

Semprini · Jul 12, 2026

gustavofuentes2 said:
My problem comes and goes. I lose my patience when my cards just don't show up for some time. Then I would really lose it when the other players would just keep making their crazy rivers after my great hand. My frustration would just have me going all in with any 2 because if it worked for them it would work for me. (NOT). I learned to control that emotion and just say it's part of the game. When i look at that way I play great poker and make the final table many times. Uffortunately after a little time I seem to forget and fall back into that bad habbit. Well I guess this is going to be a life long problem. I just have to deal with it. Don't fall into this habbit, just play your game and dont let your imotions led you astray. Good luck at the table

Play 2 tables, or 3. This helps me a great deal as it keeps me disciplined when I'm card dead. With 2 tables open we rarely go very long without playing at least one hand here and there, so we don't get bored waiting for good cards. Even if we are only seeing 30% of flops, we will be playing at least one hand more often than none. When I'm feeling good and sharp I can easily play 3 tables will full attention to all 3. I thought that it would be impossible but once I tried I found that it's actually much easier than I thought it would be. Just don't start with heads-up games or tables with less than 4 players because the action comes quite quickly. Add those tables in once you get more comfortable with it.

koalapanda · Aug 3, 2026

My biggest struggle was playing too many hands preflop out of pure boredom.
Whenever I went on a card-dead streak, I’d start opening weak hands out of position just to "get in on the action." Nine times out of ten, it put me in awkward post-flop spots and bled chips unnecessary. Adding a second table or keeping my mind focused on observing opponents helped me stay disciplined and stick to proper preflop ranges.

acidburnfx · Aug 5, 2026

I think it should be playing a lot of hands without considering table position. After a while, you realize that you need to focus and be more selective with your hands to make better decisions.

Mr.Ram · Aug 11, 2026

It’s a foolish habit to make hasty decisions when there is plenty of time to think—as well as entering limped pots with weak hands and overcalling weak players.

Mazembe · Aug 11, 2026

Chasing draws without realising my equity. Whether it's on a paired board etc, sometimes we blindly chase without fully recognising where we at

bowserdon · Aug 11, 2026

Thinking A K always wins, and risking too much on it

Mario7 · 2026-08-24T07:23:18-0400

This would be NOT folding to the aggression on later streets.
I repeat to myself pretty often, to overfold in such situations, but anyway it still happens to me to forget. Since in 90+ % of such situations opponents are not bluffing, this is usually a loss to not to fold.

Cardi · 2026-08-24T11:16:46-0400

Playing too many marginal hands out of sheer boredom during long sessions was definitely the hardest habit for me to shake.

alucaa · 2026-08-24T11:30:31-0400

It was very difficult for me to accept that I lost money in poker and to be calm, so I played non-stop until I recovered or lost everything, I learned a lot and I was very frustrated with all that, but that's it, even though I still feel like winning or losing everything when I'm in a bad streak

christovam · 2026-08-24T12:36:03-0400

Always call the bet, regardless of the size, to see the flop.

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What bad poker habit took you the longest to break?

ebazynski

Legend

miric007

Visionary

MARCIO123

Rising Star

gustavofuentes2

Visionary

Semprini

Rock Star

koalapanda

Rock Star

acidburnfx

🧃Senior apprentice

Mr.Ram

Rock Star

Mazembe

Rock Star

bowserdon

Legend

Mario7

Rock Star

Cardi

Enthusiast

alucaa

Rock Star

christovam

Legend

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