Gotta know when to fold 'em

I know a no-limit holdem player named Bob. Bob loves to check-raise the turn. He got into poker toward the beginning of the boom after he saw Greg Raymer check-raise the turn on TV, and he really wanted to do it himself, so he started playing cash games and check-raising the turn whenever he could.

This worked out pretty well for Bob for a little while. He moved up in limits quickly, but eventually people figured out that he was raising the turn as a bluff way too often, and he had to move back down again. But Bob wasn't to be daunted. Turn check-raises were his passion, and he was going to learn to do them as well as anyone ever had.

Bob read thousands of forum posts about turn check-raises. He watched hundreds of training videos. He did an unreasonable amount of math. He even hired a coach for a while just to work on his turn check-raising ranges. And after a few years of practice he got really good at it.

Nowadays Bob might be one of the best players in the world at check-raising the turn. He has a well-balanced range against unknown players, he's calculated just how to maximally exploit the weaknesses of known players, and he's developed a strong system of notes and HUD stats so he always knows which is which. It's no fun to play the turn against Bob, because you never know if he has the nuts or 74.

And yet every week Bob deposits a couple hundred dollars online and plays $25 NL until he loses it. He never fails to lose it. Why?

Because Bob never learned not to play 74 in the first place.

He doesn't care. He doesn't want to read about any other part of the game, and when anyone tries to teach him about them he ignores it. He even fired his coach after a few sessions when the coach wouldn't stop trying to get him to play better preflop. It's the turn that turns Bob on, and it's the only thing he ever thinks about.

Despite all the effort he put in, Bob loses every week because he got so caught up in the complexities of the system that he never bothered to get any good at the basics.

Don't be Bob.