I'm going to vote for a different one, though, one that is unique to online poker and the ease of jumping in and out of games it offers.
#2: "Don't play online when you know in advance you only have a short time (like 10-20 minutes) to play."
Why should this seemingly innocuous decision be such a big mistake? It's because it almost inevitably leads to a violation of one of those classic poker cautions, "don't play too many hands."
PATIENCE, YOUNG SKYWALKER!
Winning poker, or even losing-slowly-enough-so-that-it's-worth-it-for-the-entertainment-value poker, requires patience. You have to be able to throw away rotten starting hand after rotten starting hand. One of the single most difficult concepts for beginning players to grasp is that in poker, everything is relative. Your own hand might improve, but opponent hands can improve, too.
Oversimplifying this concept, let's suppose you and I are the only two players in the hand, and that I start out with a better hand than you. There are four possible scenarios:
1) Your hand improves, mine doesn't. You win.
2) Your hand improves, but mine does also. I win.
3) Your hand doesn't improve, and mine does. I win.
4) Your hand doesn't improve, and neither does mine. I win.
In other words, if you start out trailing, you can win only when you improve AND your competition doesn't. That's the main reason why you should not play too many starting hands.
If you sit down for a 15-minute poker session, you'd have to be one player in a million not to succumb to the desire to play more hands than you should. You've only got 15 minutes, after all. What fun is it to fold, fold, fold? You jumped into the game for 15 minutes because you wanted some ACTION before you had to go do something. You certainly didn't jump into the game for a short session because you wanted to practice your patience.
As you might have guessed, I'm writing from experience on this one.
Now, it's true that you're unlikely to lose enough in 15 minutes to really hurt your bankroll. You could even get lucky and win…which could be the worst thing that ever happened to you, even worse than losing in your 15-minute session, because it could lead you to think that playing lots and lots of hands can be a winning form of poker. If THAT happens, you could lose a fortune, in your longer sessions.
Online poker's easy access is one of the nice points in its favor. A sweet taste is one of the nice points in ice cream's favor. Too much ice cream isn't healthy. Over-using online poker's easy access isn't healthy for your poker bankroll—both during the short session, and in longer sessions you'll have later.
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When you play poker, give the game all you've got or get out. That is not only the best way to win at poker; it's the only way you and the rest of the players can get any fun out of what ought to be fun.
