How To Boost My Win Rate At Low Stakes?

3 Tips To Boost Your Win Rate As A Recreational Player

If you play poker recreationally you might not have the desire to spend hours studying the game. As a pro, I often forget there’s a lot of players who show up to play because it’s something they enjoy doing in their spare time. However, even if you’re a recreational player I’m sure you don’t show up to a card room hoping to lose money. So let’s give you some good tips that will boost your win rate.

1. Play Tighter Preflop - I know, I know. You’ve been getting dealt napkins for an hour. It’s hard to resist temptation because you just want to get in the action. But, playing negative EV hands will surely lose you money over time. The farther away you are from the button the tighter your preflop opening range should be. If you need help deciding which hands to play from what positions, check out Solve For Why online. There is a link on my website PokerfaceAsh.com where you can get a free trial. What I love about S4Y is they address the WHY. Why play certain hands? They go into depth about what hands play well and why. Check it out!

2. Tilt - I’ve addressed this a bit in other articles but it can be a huge problem. You can be a very solid player with a nice win rate but if you tilt and allow yourself to make bad decisions you’re throwing away money. Learning to control your emotions at the tables is what sets apart the good players from the great players. Removing your ego will tremendously help with this area. Remember poker is a game of skill and math. Over time, if you make the right decisions you WILL profit. So if Mr. Drunk guy hits his lucky gut shot against your set...it’s okay. Lose with grace knowing that the majority of the time you are printing money. The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler is an amazing book to help with tilt and mindset. I highly recommend checking it out!

3. Overvaluing Over Pairs - Understanding board texture is a huge part of the game. For example, if you raise 3x UTG in a 100 big blind $1/2 game and the Big Blind calls you, the flop is: QhTd8h. You have Pocket Aces, do you continuation bet? A lot of you will say, “Yes, of course! I want to protect my hand!” But the correct play with Pocket Aces on this board is to CHECK. WHY?! Well, think about the board and your opponents range. This is what we call a very dynamic board. Tons of straight draws, gut shots, and a flush draw. Pocket Aces is just one pair. But the key to understanding this board is to understand how drastically the board can change on the TURN. There are so many bad turn cards for your one pair hand. We want to realize the equity of our hand and also not blast money into the pot on a very dynamic board where things can drastically change on future streets. This flop of QhTd8h is the famous Solve For Why flop. It is used as an example many times throughout their training courses to explain ranges, board texture, and bet sizes.

I hope this little article helped spark some interest into diving deeper into the game of poker. There’s so much to learn and we can all improve. Don’t forget to play good hands, keep your ego out of it, and don’t overplay your over pair!