I think TILTING is the worst mistake a player can make, because tilt can cause all the other mistakes to pile up on you, and that's a heavy load to carry around 24/7. So if you can remove tilt from your game, many of the other mistakes will go away with it.
Neboja said:
This is interesting because it reminds me of a discussion from "Small Stakes Hold'em" where they talk about how a player who open-folded each time they held a Royal Flush was making an error, but that the cost of that error was less than the error of playing too many hands (from the wrong positions) preflop. Because, while you might lose that one big pot, you can easily make up for it with other hands because you don't get the chance to make that mistake often. But, the compound effect of the small preflop errors, which you can make frequently, can absolutely destroy your chances of winning.
Folding AA preflop in hold'em, is a mistake. It is certainly more costly than the mistake of folding a royal flush. But, I think it is less costly than playing too many hands from poor position. Say you are giving up 80xbb of real equity when you fold that hand (which is super optimistic--I will check my database for my own personal stats with AA), you only get to do that one time in 212 hands. Meanwhile, calling a 3xbb raise 30 times with garbage that you check-fold on the flop costs you about the same amount (less than 90xbb because you Sometimes win something)... But you have the chance to make that mistake 60+ times between each time you hold AA preflop. It could cost you twice as much.
Edit: I pulled my database. I haven't been playing hold'em much (focusing on Omaha), but I have 20k hands of it. During that time, I have had AA only 81 times. I've averaged 8.9 bb in all-in EV per hand. Which is like 1/10 of the number I mentioned above. It is this low because we're not always getting called, not always getting 100xbb stacks in, and sometimes we lose. My results may be off from other people due to variance or other reasons (heck, I got dealt AA less often than expected just to start with and my actual results are 6.3 bb per hand due to run-bad). Still, even if people can get twice as much return, that's only 18 bb you're giving up by folding AA pre-flop. It doesn't take many bad calls pre-flop to eat up 18 bb in value. And you have way more opportunity to make them.
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The worst mistake a poker player could make is not to follow strict bankroll management in order not to lose much and to have a plan how much to spend depending on his wins or losses .
Another if he plays online is not to have a HUD programm which nowadays is very necessary to be a successful poker player.
Another if he plays online is not to have a HUD programm which nowadays is very necessary to be a successful poker player.
Only one other thing I would add: getting so excited after having success for a while playing agressively and really lose any common sense and start to think that your big stack and your huge raises you make everybody fold all the time. That's something I see everyday, people just lose half their stacks playing like that. I've been there too, I'm a idiot. hahaha
