What is chip leak? This is when you consistently make a small error in judgment that over time results in you losing more money than you need to. Imagine having your chips in a basket or a bucket with a small hole at the bottom.

 The problem is the hole is not big enough for you to throw you hands in and realize you need some learning. For most players, when dealt a bad hand, they know they need to fold. When you have something that looks hard to beat, you decide to stay in and get more money into the pot.

But what can happen is you decide to stay because you read the poker school and have a reasonable good hand and you ignore the fact that the cards on the table also support a hand that is higher than yours. Let’s look at an example. You are drawing for a straight but you are not going to get a flush. However, with the right cards, another player might get flush or even a straight flush.

To avoid this, you must really look at what possible hands are available based on the flop. Instead of only looking at what your best hand is, you will need to consider what is the best hand somebody else could put together with the same cards on the table. A free poker odds calculator can help you analyze winning card combinations.

 If the possibility is very high that a higher ranking hand could come out about the same chances as you making your outs, consider folding and keeping your money to play another round. However, if you have a better chance of making your hand that he or she does, stay in the game. 

Notice, that your odds change with every card that lands on the table. Even if your hole cards looked good pre-flop, consider stopping after the flop if your hand looks considerably weaker. Here is a problem that some players have – they hate to fold after coming in strong pre-flop.

 They fall in love with their hand and want to keep playing. However, everything changes with the flop. What might have been super if you were playing three-card poker is dumped on its head based on what the dealer puts out during the flop. 

To avoid doing this, you must stay flexible with your hand. Even if the hand looked good in the beginning, you must have the discipline to fold your hand if it looks outranked after the flop. Do not get lulled into a false sense of security with a relatively strong hand. Unless he or she is bluffing, another player is not going to stay in with the same table cards as you unless they are confident that they can win the pot with his or her hand.