Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid in Cash Games in 2026

Winning at poker isn’t easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. With games getting tougher and more people becoming at least decent in No Limit Texas Hold’em, it takes some concentrated effort to become a consistent winner in cash games.

There are two sides to this coin. First of all, you need to at least become very proficient at fundamental game strategy, learning about things such as position, pot odds, continuation betting, etc. Secondly, you must, at all costs, be aware of the mistakes to avoid in cash games that many beginners, and even some intermediate players, are prone to making.

In this article, we’ll be focusing on the second aspect, bringing you the list of the top 5 mistakes to avoid in cash games in 2026. We’ll pinpoint the mistake, the reason behind it, and propose a solution to remove it from your play in the future.

Cash Game Mistake #1: Playing Too Many Hands

If you’ve been reading poker strategy articles or watching some training videos, it’s a safe bet that you’ve already heard about this one. Yet, despite being widely described as one of the top cash game mistakes to avoid, players struggle to avoid it.

Why Do We Play Too Many Hands?

One of the things that attracts players to cash games is the fact that you are almost always playing with a deep stack of 100 big blinds or more, and, if you happen to get low on chips, you can always add more. Unlike tournaments, where your chip supply is limited, adding more chips in ring games is not only easy, but it’s encouraged.

Since you’re never short-stacked, it feels like you can afford to get involved with more hands, with the idea of trying to flop big and stack your opponent(s). If things don’t pan out, you can add some extra chips and try again.

Plus, sitting around twiddling your thumbs is no fun. When we join a poker session, we want to play, and if cards are not cooperating, many players try to force the issue, getting involved with subpar hands. This approach is guaranteed to lose you money.

How to Fix It?

Even the most calm and patient among us are at risk of getting frustrated when we are dealt a bad hand after a bad hand for two hours straight. It’s easy enough to convince yourself that you have to lower your preflop standards and make the best of what you have in front of you.

But the reality is that the best way to outlast a run of bad cards with minimal damage is to fold. You can try to mix things up with an occasional bluff when you have a position and the opportunity presents itself, but stop limping and calling raises with weak hands in hopes of a miracle runout.

Suppose you know the correct preflop strategy, which you can learn easily from one of many cash game charts out there, stick to it. If none of your last 30 hands were worth playing, so be it. Preserve your chips for when things turn around and you start picking up some quality hands.

Indeed, you can always reload in cash games, but those reloads cost actual money, and if you aren’t disciplined, you’ll be down two or three buy-ins before you know it, without ever playing a significant pot.

Cash Game Mistake #2: Playing Too Passively Before the Flop

Another one of the biggest mistakes you should avoid in cash games is playing too passively before the flop. A lot has changed in poker, but even in 2026, one thing remains true about the game: smart aggression wins in the long run, and passive players don’t really stand a chance.

What’s the Reason Behind Passive Play?

If you play low stakes, and especially live low stakes games, you’ll see a lot of players who are content to call first in or flat raises to try and get to the flop. This ties into the first cash game mistake: playing too many hands.

When you find yourself in such an environment, it’s easy to go with the flow and adopt this passive approach yourself. You may be thinking that you’re better than most of your opponents, so you’ll be able to outplay them after the flop, so you don’t have to go crazy before the flop.

The truth is, even if you are the best player in your particular game, navigating three-, four-, or five-way pots is complex. You are dealing with scenarios where players can show up with almost any two cards, which means there are no safe flops.

By playing passively, you are effectively eroding your edge and making the game more like bingo, with many players going to the flop and seeing who connects best.

How Can You Fix This?

Fixing this major cash game mistake is quite easy. You need to turn up the aggression before the flop, aiming to play pots against one or two opponents at the most after the flop.

The way to do this is by 3-betting more. If there is an open and a couple of callers in front of you, and you find yourself on the button with a hand that you want to play, you should err on the side of aggression and 3-bet instead of calling.

You can find GTO 3-betting charts for 6 and 9-max games, and these will give you a pretty good framework to work with. From there, you can make adjustments and widen your range by including some of those fringe hands if you are playing in a passive game.

Often, your preflop aggression will win you the pot without further resistance. In other instances, you’ll end up playing against one opponent, and they’ll tend to over-fold to your flop continuation bet.

Like any strategy, this one won’t work 100% of the time. You’ll find yourself in some unexpected situations, and sometimes players will decide to take a stand against you with hands that they should be folding, but that’s nothing to worry about. Stay aggressive before the flop, and you’ll be printing money in most low-stakes cash games.

Cash Game Mistake #3: Failing to Adjust

Failing to pay attention and adjust to the game at hand remains one of the top mistakes to avoid in cash games in 2026. If you’ve been playing poker for a while, it’s easy to go on autopilot and play your default game. While this may not seem like a big deal, this approach will guarantee you leave significant money on the table.

Why Do We Auto-Pilot in Cash Games?

It’s not easy to stay sharp and focused for several hours. This requires a concentrated effort and the willingness to forgo distractions that indeed abound.

It’s no longer just a game happening on TV. We have our phones with us at all times, and it’s usually more fun to scroll through social media or chat with your friends than to pay attention to every hand in hopes of picking up a tell or identifying a betting pattern.

This isn’t the most gratifying of jobs, as a majority of hands end in a rather non-spectacular fashion, and it can feel like your efforts are not being rewarded.

However, it is only by paying attention to all the action that you’ll make sure that you don’t miss out on important bits of information. Does a particular player always bet big on the river when they’re bluffing? Do they call quickly when they are drawing and take their time when they have a made hand?

There are so many details that you can pick up on, in live and online cash games alike, but you will be missing out on them if you turn on the autopilot and just play your cards.

What’s the Best Fix?

Unlike some of the other top cash game mistakes listed here, you won’t get rid of this one by studying more. Instead, it requires a conscious, focused effort on your part and a level of dedication that sets top players apart from the rest.

When you sit down to play a poker session, make that your first (if not only) priority. Everything else comes secondary during those few hours you spend at the tables. Remove distractions whenever possible and focus on the task at hand.

While this can get tedious at times, try to make it more engaging by making mental notes and trying to guess what happens next in the hand, even when you’re not involved. Slowly but surely, you’ll notice your guesses are improving as you create a mental profile of players, understanding their strategy, tendencies, and weaknesses. With this approach, you can get rid of 20% of the top 5 mistakes to avoid in cash games – definitely an improvement!

Cash Game Mistake #4: Paying Off the Nits

Curiosity comes naturally to us, and in many walks of life, it’s a beneficial quality. At a poker table, however, being too curious can have a detrimental effect on your bankroll. One of the top mistakes to avoid in cash games is paying off the nits to find out what you already know: they have you beat.

Why Do We Keep Paying Off the Nits?

Almost anyone who’s ever joined a poker game has been guilty of paying off the nit at least a couple of times. There is almost always one player who plays almost no hands and only bets and raises when holding a monster. No one can recall the last time they’ve shown the bluff.

And yet, these players continue to be paid repeatedly.

It’s an interesting conundrum with no straightforward answer. The best explanation is that this tendency to pay off nits is a mix of curiosity and the desire to achieve the unachievable: catching these players bluffing.

So, you keep calling them in marginal spots, putting money in on the river with a third pair, hoping to hear those three words: “you are good.” Instead, they keep turning over the goods and raking in your chips.
Of course, if you call down any player enough times, you’ll eventually catch them in a bluff. Still, against this particular type of player, it happens so infrequently that the amount of money you’ll lose chasing them will far outweigh the amount you win by picking off their once-in-a-blue-moon bluff.

How to Stop Paying Them Off?

Despite this being one of the biggest cash game mistakes you should avoid, it’s not that easy to get rid of bad habits. To stop paying off nits, you need to look deep inside and figure out why you’re doing this to begin with.

You know you’re not making money with this approach. You also know that you’re allowing the nits to play on easy mode, because you’re allowing them to utilize their straightforward strategy and make a profit.
Your goal in poker is to beat the game, not any individual player. The only thing that counts is how much money you make in any given session and over the long haul. Please set aside any emotions you may have about the nits and recognize that the best way to counter their strategy is not to pay them off.

It’s not easy to make big hands in poker, so when these players wake up with a monster now and again, don’t try to outplay them and don’t overthink it. Instead, let them win a small pot and move on. This will significantly reduce their profits, forcing them to change their strategy or accept that they won’t be able to make much money by sitting on their hands and waiting for the nuts.

And yes, it is a good feeling to bust the nit and force them to rebuy, but you won’t do that with mediocre hands. The lesson here is that the best way to punish the nits and save a lot of money is not give them action.

Cash Game Mistake #5: Playing Outside of Your Bankroll

We’ll wrap this article on the top five mistakes to avoid in cash games with one mistake that’s been plaguing poker players since the game was invented: playing outside of your means/bankroll. No matter how good you are and how soft the games may be, if you don’t have a good enough bankroll to survive the natural variance, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure.

Why Do We Want to Play Bigger Stakes?

There is no mystery why most poker players want to play higher stakes. The bigger the blinds and the larger the stacks, the bigger the potential bottom line. And, unlike most things, poker doesn’t have any barriers to entry, and everyone can join almost any table as long as they can afford the buy-in.

If you usually play $1/$2, the temptation to try your luck at $5/$10 is understandable. You could win in one night what it takes you two or three weeks to win at your usual stakes. Such a win would be a significant boost to your bankroll, allowing you to move permanently to $2/$5 and increase your profits.

The problem is, if you don’t have a proper bankroll to play in higher games, all it takes is a few bad beats or a couple of bad judgment calls to clean you out. For example, $5,000 is a decent bankroll for $1/$2, but it’s only five 100-big blind buy-ins at $5/$10.

Even if your skills are good enough, which you can’t really know until you’ve played at a certain level for a while, with just a few buy-ins to your name, you’ll be playing under tremendous pressure. You might make mistakes you’d never make at your normal stakes, just because every decision is much more serious.

How to Avoid Playing Too Big?

A solution to one of the biggest cash game mistakes is quite simple, and it’s discipline. Discipline is a core quality of all serious poker players. You have to make a plan and stick to it, and proper bankroll management is a huge part of that plan.

To do things right, you need to figure out how many buy-ins you want to have before moving up in stakes. Various players and coaches advocate approaches ranging from 20 to 50 or more buy-ins. It really depends on several factors, including game difficulty, your skill level, and your ability to reload if things go wrong.

Without going into specific details here, whichever bankroll management plan you choose, you must stick to it. Variance in poker can be very brutal, and even the best of players have to deal with prolonged losing streaks. Good bankroll management is the only thing that can offer some protection against it, ensuring you survive to fight another day.

These tips on the top five cash game mistakes to avoid should help you understand where your game might be lacking and how you can improve moving forward. While there is no magic pill that will make you an excellent poker player, every small positive change you make will get you one small step closer to your goal!

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