A poker leak is a systematic mistake — something you do repeatedly that costs you money over hundreds of hands. The tricky part is that leaks don’t feel like mistakes in the moment. They feel like reasonable decisions. That’s what makes them so persistent.

Here are five of the most common leaks at low and mid stakes, how to spot them in your own game, and what to do about each one.

1. Playing Too Many Hands Preflop

This is the most expensive leak in poker, and almost every beginner has it. Your VPIP (voluntarily put money in pot) tells the story. At a 6-max table, a solid range is roughly 20–28%. If you’re north of 35%, you’re playing too many hands.

Why it’s costly: Every hand you play from a weak range is a hand where you’re at a statistical disadvantage postflop. You’ll hit fewer strong hands, face more tough decisions, and put money in with the worst of it more often.

How to fix it: Track your VPIP over at least 100 hands. If it’s too high, start by cutting the weakest hands from each position. You don’t need to memorize charts — just tighten up the bottom of your range and notice the difference.

2. C-Betting Too Much (or Too Little)

The continuation bet is one of the most powerful moves in poker, but many players use it on autopilot. They either c-bet every flop regardless of texture, or they give up too easily when they miss.

Too much: If you c-bet more than 75% of the time, you’re betting into boards where you have no equity and no fold equity. Observant opponents will start check-raising you off these pots.

Too little: If you c-bet less than 40%, you’re giving up on pots where a single bet would take it down. Opponents learn they can see cheap turns and rivers against you.

How to fix it: Think about the flop texture before deciding. On dry boards (like K-7-2 rainbow), c-betting is usually strong. On wet, connected boards (like 9-8-7 with a flush draw), be more selective. The board should influence your decision, not just whether you hit.

3. Folding Too Much on the River

This leak is extremely common and extremely profitable for opponents who notice it. If you fold to river bets more than 60% of the time, you’re giving up too much equity.

Why it matters: The river is where bluffs are most expensive — and most profitable. If your opponents know you’ll fold most of the time, they can bet any two cards and print money. You become a target.

How to fix it: You don’t need to call every river bet. But you do need bluff catchers — hands that beat bluffs but lose to value. When you have one, think about whether the opponent’s line makes sense for a strong hand. If their story doesn’t add up, call.

4. Not Adjusting to Opponent Type

This isn’t a single mistake — it’s a pattern. Many players have one strategy they apply to every opponent, regardless of playing style. They raise the same amount, c-bet the same frequency, and fold at the same thresholds whether they’re facing a loose-passive calling station or a tight-aggressive regular.

Why it’s costly: Poker is a game of adjustments. The correct play against a player who never folds is the opposite of the correct play against a player who folds too much. If you’re not adjusting, you’re leaving money on the table in every hand.

How to fix it: Start by categorizing your opponents into broad buckets: loose or tight, passive or aggressive. Then make one adjustment for each type. Against loose-passive players, value-bet relentlessly. Against tight players, steal more pots preflop. Small adjustments compound over hundreds of hands.

5. Ignoring Position

Position is the single biggest edge in poker, and many players undervalue it. Playing out of position (acting first after the flop) is fundamentally harder. You have less information, fewer bluffing opportunities, and tighter equity realization.

Why it’s costly: The difference in win rate between the button (best position) and the small blind (worst position) is enormous — often 20+ big blinds per 100 hands in the same player’s results. If you’re playing the same range from every position, you’re overplaying from early position and possibly underplaying from late position.

How to fix it: Tighten your range significantly from early position and the blinds. Widen it from the cutoff and button. Pay attention to how much easier decisions feel when you have position — that feeling is real, and it translates directly to profit.

Finding Your Leaks

The hardest part of fixing leaks is identifying them. You can’t fix what you can’t see. This is where hand review matters — go back through your sessions, look at the hands where you lost the most, and ask whether you’d make the same decision again.

In Poker Shark’s training arena, every hand is saved automatically. The replay system lets you walk through each decision, see what you were facing, and branch into alternate lines. It’s the fastest way to spot patterns in your own play and start closing leaks.

And before you move up to try to outrun your leaks — check whether your bankroll can actually handle the next level with the Bankroll Risk Analyzer. Moving up too soon with unresolved leaks is one of the fastest ways to go broke.