The microstakes are where most players will start their poker journey. It’s the ideal place for learning strategy, gaining experience, while still enjoying the thrill of competing for real prizes.

No matter what your bankroll allows, it’s recommended that you take on the microstakes until you feel confident. Only then can should you move up and play against tougher opposition.

As you partake on this journey, you’re probably going to make a fair amount of mistakes. Everybody does. These are the most common errors that you’ll make in microstakes games.

1. Playing too many hands

When you first take to the tables, you probably won’t have a full grasp of preflop opening ranges. You also won’t be used to just how often you should fold your cards.

As a result, beginners at the microstakes tend to play too many hands. They overvalue certain combinations such as aces with a weak kicker. And they don’t take into account other factors such as position and stack sizes.

This tends to lead to difficult situations post-flop. After raising a weak ace or a king-ten sort of hand, players at the microstakes tend to be unsure how to proceed when they make a pair.

As you improve, one of the first lessons you’ll want to learn is which poker hands to raise with preflop.

2. Disregarding position

One of the main factors that determines starting hand selection, as well as impacting how the hand plays out post-flop, is position. Being in position is a huge advantage in poker. Because you can see how your opponent acts before it’s your turn to make a decision.

If you’re in early position, you’ll have a lot of players left to act behind you. The chances are you’ll be out of position post-flop, so it’s only worth playing very strong hands. In late position, you can loosen up your range considerably.

Players at the microstakes tend to neglect position, playing the same hands from anywhere on the table. This is a costly mistake. Knowing about position, meanwhile, adds structure to your game and allows you to play more hands profitably.

3. Not folding “good” hands post-flop

At the microstakes, it’s common for players to be unable to fold good or even mediocre hands if they face a lot of action. As a newer player, you might find it difficult to let a pair go, for example, even if an opponent shows strength on a very wet board.

Given that it’s the microstakes, it’s less likely opponents are trying anything tricky, or throwing in loads of technically perfect bluffs. It’s much more likely that their bets represent what they actually have.

It might seem tough to fold good hands, but hand strength is relative in poker. If you’re beat, it’s a costly error to keep putting chips in the middle.

4. Bluffing too much/not enough

As we’ve just mentioned, players at the microstakes tend to call too often with mediocre or good hands. They struggle to make big folds against aggressive action.

This also means bluffing is not as effective at the microstakes. Players won’t have thought through the hand enough. Or they may be incapable of finding the fold button when they should. Bluffing too often against calling station opponents is a big mistake at microstakes.

For the most part, when the blinds are low, you should be playing for value, looking to get your chips in the middle. Later on, when blinds are high and players feel more invested, you can start to bluff more frequently to take down pots.

On the flipside, some microstakes players make the mistake of never bluffing at all. It can be hard for some players to fathom pulling the trigger when they don’t have a strong hand. As with everything in poker, balance is key to bluffing.

5. Not adapting to opponents

One of the most common errors you’ll make at microstakes is not adapting to opponents. Instead your play against everyone as if they are the same. This usually happens because you’ll start out too focused on your own hand and not focused enough on everything else.

Yet, if you observe the action at the microstakes, you’ll quickly notice that there’s a vast difference in how opponents approach the game. Some will be very tight, others too loose, some will bluff loads, others not at all.

Noticing and taking notes on other players will elevate your strategy to the next level. And allow you to tailor your betting lines to exploit mistakes.

6. Going on tilt

Even if you’re already pretty proficient when it comes to poker strategy, one of the hardest things to learn is emotional control at the tables. You can’t learn it in a book or by watching a video. You can only gain experience and grow a tough outer shell.

Even at the microstakes, where the entry costs are relatively low, it still hurts when your aces get cracked. Or when you get bad beat eight times in a row. Or when you get close to the final table only to be knocked out before the significant prize money.

One of the common errors you’ll likely make is to let your emotions get the better of you. To go on tilt and play with a sense of anger, frustration, injustice – you seek revenge. But you end up throwing away the rest of your stack.

Developing emotional control is an important step in your poker journey. It’s better to learn it now at the microstakes so that you can carry it with you as you improve.

7. Never analysing, learning and improving your gameplay

Another common error made by microstakes players is to remain at the same level, forever. For some, this is totally fine. If you’re playing only occasionally and entirely for entertainment, you might feel like you don’t need to put the hours into learning.

But if you’re even remotely serious about gaining a firmer grasp of poker strategy and moving beyond the microstakes, it’s going to take more than just in-game experience.

Most microstakes players will never read a poker book or take a training course. They will never watch back a session or analyse hands. If you want to get ahead, all you need to do is push on with the learning.