You’re Burning Chips For No Reason

We need to talk about the absolute worst habit at the poker tables: open-limping. You look down at a hand like Pocket Fives or King-Jack offsuit under the gun, and instead of raising, you just click "Call" to "see a cheap flop."

Stop doing this. You are literally burning money.

When you limp into a pot, you are giving up the easiest way to win a poker hand: fold equity. If you raise pre-flop, you can win the pot right then and there if everyone folds, or you can take control of the hand and win it with a continuation bet on the flop.

When you limp, you are playing pure defense. You’re letting the big blind see a free flop with garbage, and you’re begging aggressive players behind you to raise and price you out of the hand.

If a hand is worth playing, it’s worth raising. If it’s not worth a raise, just throw it in the muck. The only time you should ever be limping is if someone else already limped ahead of you and you’re "over-limping" with a speculative hand like a small pocket pair or suited connectors to hunt for a monster.

Be the aggressor. Put the pressure on the other guy, stop playing passive poker, and watch your win rate instantly shoot up.