The more things change, the more they stay the same. The name on the marquee says Ozoon Poker now, but if you’re one of the thousands of Canadians already playing online poker with us, you’re still part of the same international player pool, using essentially the same industry-leading poker client on your desktop or mobile device. That’s why the games here are still as good as ever.
What makes a “good” poker game? That depends what you’re trying to get out of it. If you’re a casual player, you want a lively game with lots of action, and not too many sharks in the water; if you’re one of those sharks – like our list of best poker players in Canada – you want enough casual players at the table to keep your account balance moving in the right direction.
Speaking of balance, that’s what you get at Ozoon: just the right mix of amateurs and professionals to keep the action flowing. So which of these two buckets do you fall into? Whichever it is, you should know about the four most common poker mistakes you’ll see at the tables, either in your own game or that of your opponents.
Chasing Draws Without Proper Odds
In theory, you should be willing to make just about any move with any two cards you might be holding – or four cards, if you’re playing Omaha instead of Texas Hold’em. It might not be the “correct” move from a mathematical perspective, but it might trick your opponents into making an even bigger mistake later on.
That’s in theory, where players are trying to maximize their Expected Value on every hand. In practice, you’ll find most of the players at Ozoon are making the same predictable mistakes over and over again, especially at the lowest stakes. And the most common of these mistakes by far is to keep shovelling money into the pot with a drawing hand that isn’t likely enough to win.
Let’s say you’re playing No-Limit Hold’em at Ozoon, in a 9-handed cash game where everyone’s 100 big blinds deep, and you have Eight-Six suited in Spades on the button. The player under the gun opens 3x (three times the size of the big blind), and it folds around to you. Are you an experienced player with solid post-flop skills? Maybe it’s okay to call here, but if you’re relatively new to poker, you’re already falling into the trap.
Now let’s say everyone else folds after you call, and the flop comes Ace-King-Nine with two Spades. Your opponent fires a pot-size bet of 7.5 big blinds. Are you calling here with your flush draw? The odds say you have about a 2-to-1 chance of completing your hand, and the pot odds are also 2-to-1, so it looks like a break-even spot – except you could easily lose to a bigger flush if a third Spade hits the board, and your opponent is likelier to have the higher-ranking cards under the gun.
These mistakes only get worse with each passing street, as more money comes pouring in on the flop, turn and river. Casual players will keep calling down without thinking enough about risk and reward; that’s why they’re known as “calling stations.” Don’t be one of these players. Take advantage of them instead by making larger bets when you have a made hand, especially the nut hand.
Overvaluing Top Pair
Top Pair is a very nice hand indeed – it’s hard to make a pair. But Top Pair isn’t the nuts. The value of this hand goes down as the board gets wetter with more suited/connected cards, and you’re in serious trouble if two cards of the same rank come out.
For beginner poker players, the emphasis should always be on minimizing mistakes rather than maximizing returns. Protect yourself by adopting a series of betting thresholds that you won’t cross unless you have a strong enough hand. Here’s a set of thresholds based on The Mathematics of Poker (2006) by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman:
– One street: any pair
– Two streets: Top Pair Top Kicker (TPTK)
– Three streets: top and bottom Pair
– Four streets: second-nut straight
– Five streets or more: the nuts
A “street” here means a bet or call on the flop, turn or river; we have more than three on this list because we’re treating a raise like an additional street. Using these thresholds, if you have Top Pair this time instead of a flush draw, and your opponent under the gun bets all three streets, you should fold the river. Save that hero call for when you have at least top-and-bottom in your wardrobe – or you have enough experience to shed your training wheels and take on these marginal hands when the time is right.
Poor Bankroll Management
This is the easiest thing on our list to get right – and the most important. You can be one of the best poker players in the world and still go bust if the cards don’t fall your way. Consider the case of Gavin Griffin, who won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004, a European Poker Tour event in 2007, and a World Poker Tour event in 2008, only to lose most of his roll by 2011 after a string of misfortunes capped off by a bad WSOP run.
Griffin wasn’t the first successful player to hit bottom, but this wasn’t a case of drug and gambling addictions (Stu Ungar) or legal and business troubles (Jamie Gold); it was variance, which Griffin admitted he made worse with poor bankroll management. In 2012, Griffin started building his roll again by dropping down in stakes, and playing $8/$16 Limit games (both Hold’em and Omaha Hi/Lo) at the live tables in Los Angeles.
Other would-be poker pros see their careers break down before they even start, playing at stakes that are far beyond their current talent level. How expensive do you want your poker education to be? You don’t need to be a wizard to win at this game, but becoming proficient is like getting a university degree – it takes three or four years of proper study. Protect your bankroll by spending most of that time at the lowest stakes, including the freeroll tournaments here at Ozoon.
Once you’ve got the poker chops, then you can start thinking seriously about building that bankroll. The simplest approach here is to make sure you have at least 20 buy-ins in your account before you sit down at a cash table; for example, if you have $1,000 to play with, each buy-in should be $50 maximum. That lets you play the $0.02/$0.05 No-Limit games with 100bb stacks. Playing tournaments instead? Cap your highest buy-in (plus entry fee) at 1% of your roll, which would be $10 in this case.
You might still end up blowing through that $1,000 and having to reload. No shame in that, as long as you can afford it. Keep your poker money separate from the rest of your finances, and like the song says, don’t quit your day job. But if you play well enough for long enough, you’ll see that account balance climb to the point where you can move up to the next stake level, then the next – maybe even all the way up to the $30/$60 Limit games at Ozoon. Just be prepared to drop back down a level or two if need be. Growth is rarely linear in this sport.
Going on Tilt
Managing your bankroll is easy; managing your emotions, not so much. This is by far the most difficult poker problem you’ll ever deal with. The pros call it “tilt,” like when a pinball machine shuts down after you shake it too much. Your brain and body do something similar when emotions take over, whether it’s anger, fear, or even joy.
Right off the bat, we want to warn you about all the snake oil salesmen out there in the “mental game” space. Getting in the right frame of mind before you play is smart, but you can easily fall down the rabbit hole trying to perfect this. Don’t spend thousands of dollars on “personal wellness” mumbo-jumbo when the real fix is better diet, exercise and sleep habits.
Once you’ve got those ducks in a row, you’ll find that bankroll management and tilt management overlap. The higher the stakes, the more exciting poker gets; if you’re in a $1/$2 cash game at Ozoon and you start feeling a bit woozy, that’s a clear indication you need to drop down in stakes before your decision-making hits the wall, and you punt your stack doing something you wouldn’t normally do. Buying in for 70 big blinds instead of 100 can also lower the temperature without cramping your poker strategy all that much.
Time management is another important weapon in your anti-tilt arsenal. That same woozy feeling can happen if you play too long a session, and/or too many tables at once. Some people have more stamina than others, but you’ll probably find success by limiting your cash poker sessions to 90-120 minutes, with at least a 30-minute break in between. If it’s an online tournament at Ozoon, be willing to sit out the next few hands if you find yourself going on tilt, then use your next hourly break to reset and recharge.
As for multi-tabling, don’t jump right into the deep end – start with one table, and don’t add a second until you’re a winning player. Once that second table is in the mix, your win rate per hand is naturally going to suffer, but doubling your volume can make up for it, as long as you don’t slip too far. Zone Poker, our fast-fold variant here at Ozoon, will help you get in the most hands possible without having to multi-table.
Finally, we have the most important poker tip of all for tilt management: Have fun. Poker is a game, so if you’re not having fun, what’s the point? There are easier ways to make money than poker. Anytime you’re playing poker and you find the mood has changed, that means it’s time to step away from the table, at least for a moment or two. Get this right, keep working on those other common poker mistakes, and you’ll be on the path to poker glory in no time.