First Poker Night? 10 Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

At your first poker night, the cards are almost never what gets you in trouble. It's the habits nobody tells you about. Saying the wrong thing while a hand is still going, showing your cards to the wrong person, or losing a pot you'd already won without anyone touching a chip. So, by the end of this video, you'll know the 10 mistakes every beginner makes at their first home game and the fix for each one before the first hand is dealt. And number one has nothing to do with the cards at all, but it's the one that ends the night in an argument. Number 10. You fold, you lean back, and while two players are still fighting over the pot, you say, "Ugh, I folded the seven." Then the flop comes with a seven on it. You just told both of them about a card that can't come anymore, and now one of them is mad at you because your seven changed their decision. Under Robert's Rules of Poker, talking about a folded hand before the betting is finished is improper, even though you're out of the hand. And at a home game, it happens more because nobody's dealing for a living, so nobody stops you. So, the fix is simple. Once you fold, say nothing about your cards until the pot has been pushed. No groans, no I would have had it, and no telling the person next to you what you threw away. The rule is called one player to a hand, and it means each player plays their own cards with no help from anyone else at the table. Number nine is the same mistake from the other side. You've got a big hand, you're excited, and you tilt your cards toward the friend sitting next to you so they can see. Then someone across the table says, "Wait, if they get to see them, I want to see them, too." And they're right. The official rule is called show one, show all. If you show your cards to one player, everybody at the table has the right to see them. And it matters most during a hand. If you show your cards to someone who still has a decision to make, everyone else gets to see them right away because now that player knows something the rest of the table doesn't. So, you either show the whole table or you show nobody. Number eight is the one that cost you a pot you were winning. Your two cards are sitting loose on the felt, a little too far forward, and the player next to you folds, tosses his cards in, and they land right on top of yours. Now there are four cards in a pile, and nobody can tell which two are yours. Under the tournament rules, protecting your hand is your job. And if your cards can't be identified for sure, your hand is dead, and the chips you already called with are gone. And the fix costs you nothing. Keep your cards close to you and put a chip on top of them until the hand is over. That's all the card protector is and it's why experienced players do it without thinking. It also stops the dealer from scooping your cards up by mistake when they think you folded. And when you do fold, slide your cards to the dealer face down and low instead of tossing them toward the middle. And if you're thinking this is all just manners, the next one is the mistake that makes people actually angry. Number seven is the slow roll. It's the river, your friend bets, you call, and they turn over a pretty good hand. You've got them beat and you know it, but you sigh, stare at your cards, and wait 10 seconds before you finally flip over the winner. No rulebook names it, but stalling on purpose is on both lists of bad behavior and it's the fastest way to not get invited back. So, when you know you've won, turn your cards over right away. Number six, somebody bets, you fold, and the hand ends without a showdown. Then you ask, "What did you have?" Or worse, "Deal the next card, I want to see if I would have hit." Showing the card that would have come is called rabbit hunting and the official tournament rules don't allow it. And if a player wins without being called, they never have to show you anything. >> [music] >> It's different at the showdown. If a hand was called on the river, anyone who was dealt in can ask to see it, but it's a privilege and if you ask every single hand, the table will stop saying yes. Most home games are relaxed about this and that's fine. Just ask once after the hand and take no for [music] an answer. That's the halfway point and the last five are different. These are the ones that actually cost you chips and number one isn't really about poker at all. Number five is playing too many hands. It's a friendly game, you came to play, so you put chips in almost every hand. But most starting hands lose more than they win and the player who plays every hand is usually the first one buying back in. How to play poker covers which hands to play, so here's the short version. If it isn't a pair of two high cards, fold it, especially when you're one of the first to act. You'll fold most of your hands and that's how you're still in the game at midnight. Watch the players who've been doing this for years, they fold for 20 minutes then win one big pot. Number four, after the turn you've got four hearts and you need one more for a flush. Someone bets big and you call because maybe the river's a heart. With one card to come, a flush draw only hits about one time in five. So, when you're behind, the bet is big, and you're only calling to see what comes, you're paying for a card that misses four times out of five. And the fix is to fold the draw when the bet's big, and only chase it when the bet's small. It's the same with calling just to see. If you call a big bet on the flop with nothing hoping something good shows up, you'll usually have to pay again on the turn and again on the river. >> [music] >> Number three is the mistake that feels the smartest. You've seen big bluffs on TV, so when you miss everything, you bet big to make your friend fold. But, your friend is the player who calls every hand just to see what you had, and they call. A bluff only works against someone who's willing to fold. So, against the friend who calls everything, don't bluff at all. Wait for a real hand, and then bet it, because that same friend is going to pay you off. And if you really want to bluff, pick the player who's been folding all night, not the one who's been calling. Number two, you get all your chips in with the best hand, and the last card gives your friend a lucky straight. That's a bad beat, and it's going to happen to you at your first game. The mistake is what comes next. You play the next three hands angry trying to win it all back at once, and that's called tilt. Tilt loses you more chips than the bad beat ever did. So, after a bad beat, stand up, get a drink, and sit out a hand or two. The cards don't remember what happened last hand, so you shouldn't either. And watch for it in your friends, too. The player who just lost a big pot is usually the one who's about to call your bet with anything. And now number one, the one I promised, which has nothing to do with the cards. You lose your first stack, you say, "I'm back in," and someone slides you a new stack of chips. Nobody writes it down. An hour later, somebody else does the same thing, and then again after that. And at the end of the night, the count is off by a whole buy-in, and nobody can remember who bought back in or how many times. And it's never really one person's fault. The host was busy dealing, the player who bought back in honestly forgot, and the friend who's up just wants to go home. That's the argument that ends poker nights. [music] So, the fix is one person keeps track of every buy-in and every re-buy starting with the very first hand. That's why I built HG Poker. It keeps track of every buy-in and re-buy, and shows who owes who at the end, and it takes no bets, holds no money, and moves no money. So, tell me in the comments, which one of these 10 has somebody at your table done? And if your friends are still learning what beats what, watch how to play poker next. >> [music]