What are some of the most common mistakes you see among amateur poker players? 

Arlie Shaban: The biggest mistake amateurs make, and that I personally made as an amateur, is that when you see a move that you think is bad, you automatically label it as stupid instead of trying to figure out that play. I used to think that when players did something that I thought was dumb, I thought that they sucked. When usually, when I look back, they were good players but using a skill that I didn’t have in my arsenal. 

What explains that tendency? Why do we do it?

Arlie Shaban: It’s overconfidence. You’re thinking you know what you’re doing but no one knows what they’re doing unless they’ve studied. 

When did you personally develop that level of overconfidence and what made you realize the truth?

Arlie Shaban: I thought I was good because I was better than my friends. But my friends were terrible. I didn’t realize that until I played against pros. Then I had to learn poker and study the game.

So for those of us who are starting to realize that we need to learn, where can we start? What should we study?

Arlie Shaban: The very first thing you should ever try to learn is pre-flop hands. Just like, you need to know when you should be folding, what cards, what stack size, in what position. If you don’t have that base to the game tree you can’t branch out, you can’t get through all of it without that. The way to overconfidence is to study, and the first thing to study is pre-flop.

Are there some good resources for this?

Arlie Shaban: There are charts online created by dozens of top pros. You can look at any of them.