Plenty of competent players sit down at the WSOP and never get a big stack together. Best-selling author and pro Alex Fitzgerald breaks down the five mistakes quietly keeping your stack small — and how to fix each one.
The five leaks
- Playing too few hands when deep stacks make implied odds enormous.
- Playing too many hands with no plan for postflop.
- Never using overbets as a bluff.
- Refusing to shove often enough on the bubble.
- Value betting too small against players who simply will not fold.
The idea is simple: look honestly at your own game and see how many of these you are guilty of. Fix even one or two and your results in tournaments should improve in a hurry.
1. You're not playing enough hands
This is the classic trap for the disciplined amateur. You read the books, memorise the charts, and conclude you must play a tight, solid range at all times. What that misses is the re-entry period, when stacks are very deep and opponents are happily splashing chips with weak holdings. In that environment you can afford to call far more liberally — provided the price is right.
The key is implied odds: add up all the chips you could realistically win postflop and divide by the amount you have to call. If a player opens to three big blinds from a 300-big-blind stack and two more deep stacks call, you are risking three to potentially win around 900 — roughly 300-to-1 if you connect. You will not scoop the whole pot often, but it shows how much room speculative hands have when everyone is deep.
Speculative hands — rough implied-odds thresholds
- Pocket pair — flops a set or better ~12% (about 1 in 8.3): worth a call around 15-to-1.
- Suited connector — two pair or better ~5.6%: around 25-to-1.
- Suited gapper — two pair or better ~5.2%: around 35-to-1.
Just remember to leave yourself a buffer. You will not always get paid when you hit, and sometimes you hit only to run into something bigger — so demand a cushion above the bare odds before you get involved.
2. You're playing too many hands
The opposite leak is just as common. Some players are so eager to be in the action that they switch off during the small decisions, then find themselves in big pots with no idea where they stand. Before you flat a 3-bet, remember the average player still does not 3-bet enough — and you need a full plan for every street.
Calling preflop, calling the flop, and then having no clue what to do on the turn is how people talk themselves into bad calls, imagining a bluffing range their opponent does not actually have. When you defend your big blind, decide in advance how you will play the flop: be willing to check-raise more, or check-call with a real plan for the turn and river. Don't put money in just because a hand "looks playable."
3. You never overbet as a bluff
Fitzgerald has long argued that only three bet sizes really make the average player stop and think: overbets, all-ins and triple barrels. Most recreational players come to gamble, not to agonise over ranges, so the only way to truly pressure them is with a bet that looks genuinely threatening — and that is more true now than ever.
So build a chunk of your bluffs around overbets. The prime spot is when an opponent merely calls on a board full of flush or straight draws — the sort of player who would have 3-bet his overpairs preflop and check-raised his sets and two pairs on the flop. That leaves him capped with mediocre pairs, and when the turn favours your range, you can blast him off the pot.
4. You won't shove enough on the bubble
The bubble is where your fold equity peaks. After hours of play and multiple re-entries, people desperately want to lock up a cash — so they fold far more than usual. If a player opens the hijack with six-four suited but won't call a 26-big-blind shove with ace-jack offsuit, he is folding a ton, and you can jam a wide range of suited aces, suited broadways, gappers and connectors at him.
"You are not playing well on the bubble until you have busted yourself while all the people who suck at poker chortle at you — because they have no idea what they're actually doing."
— Alex Fitzgerald
In other words, do not pump the brakes out of fear. The players punishing the bubble correctly are the ones willing to risk going out in a blaze of glory.
5. You're not value betting big enough
Finally, many players never build a stack simply because their value bets are too timid. Say you hold ace-jack offsuit on a jack-high board with two spades, betting into a couple of recreational players. They are not in the habit of folding any pair or any draw to a flop bet — and when the draw bricks on the turn, they want to keep going, convinced you missed.
The mistake is making tiny, "theoretically correct" bets you can't really justify. Against opponents who won't lay anything down, the fix is straightforward: size up for value until they finally start folding. Try it the next time you play, and you'll likely find a bigger stack comes together far quicker.
About the author. Alex Fitzgerald is a best-selling poker author published by D&B Poker. His latest book is How to Beat Players Who Never Fold.
