How do YOU review your play?

Alright, I think one of the weakest spots in my overall game is my lack of reviewing my hands/play after a session. I know most successful players will go back through PT and look at hands they play and to be honest i don't too much else about it.

I feel like i have a pretty solid game for a beginner other than this. I have a solid style of play, I read books, watch videos, read forums, etc... but i really want to patch this hole in my game that i think will improve it a lot.

So what do you guys do after your sessions? What stats do you go back and look through? Do you look at specific hands or opponents?

thanks in advance

I would do some sweat sessions with others from the forum. I've just started and it's already improved my game tons.

I think that would be great... but do they go as low as 10nl? :\

also where do i set something like this up?

DKnight10 said:

Alright, I think one of the weakest spots in my overall game is my lack of reviewing my hands/play after a session. I know most successful players will go back through PT and look at hands they play and to be honest i don't too much else about it.

I feel like i have a pretty solid game for a beginner other than this. I have a solid style of play, I read books, watch videos, read forums, etc... but i really want to patch this hole in my game that i think will improve it a lot.

So what do you guys do after your sessions? What stats do you go back and look through? Do you look at specific hands or opponents?

thanks in advance

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I review my play after every session and sometimes more. I filter my hands so I can see my biggest losing hands and see if I could improve how I played them (sometimes it's just luck). Then I look at my session stats and check my aggression numbers (too many to mention). I look for a balance of all my stats to make sure I'm not too aggressive or not too wimpy. It takes practice viewing stats and recognizing leaks in your game. It might help to have a friend look at your stats to see if they spot something that you might miss. Another pair of eyes can help.

DKnight10 said:

I think that would be great... but do they go as low as 10nl? :\

also where do i set something like this up?

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by "set something like this up", but you could get a friend to sweat you and there are numerous ways to do it. Then you can chat about stuff that comes up as you play.

The problem with looking through your own hands IMO is that many poker players are reluctant to self criticise... If I were you, think back of key hands post them on CardsChat and ask other members advice on how you should play in that situation much better than Poker Tracker or Poker Office.

Not sure what you mean by "set something like this up", but you could get a friend to sweat you and there are numerous ways to do it. Then you can chat about stuff that comes up as you play.

Click to expand...

I dont have any friends lol, atleast not any that play 10nl.

The problem with looking through your own hands IMO is that many poker players are reluctant to self criticise... If I were you, think back of key hands post them on CardsChat and ask other members advice on how you should play in that situation much better than Poker Tracker or Poker Office.

Click to expand...

I've been meaning to do this for a while, I haven't really done it because i butcher some of the hands so badly it will seem like a joke if i post them.

I know the value of going over sessions, but I don't do it nearly enough. When I do, I either look at the hands containing big pots, or I'll pick a session, and go through every single hand.

Your first decision is almost always the most important, so I focus on preflop action a lot. I try to be objective. For instance, I may have made a big mistake limping with a small PP in front of a shortstack's BB, flopped the set, and took his stack. Regardless of the result, I consider the play a mistake, and make a mental note to be more mindful of these types of situations when they come up again. Also, in medium-sized pots, is there anything I could have done to win more without too much risk?

I also take this opportunity to get some real numbers on those draws I took. Since I multi-table, I have to make decisions very quickly. Using pokerstove, or the PT pot odds, I'll see if I made the right decisions based on the odds. Making the right plays not only increases the amount you win, but also decreases the amount you lose.

As much as I'd like to blame the cards or random chance, I find that my poor sessions usually contain more mistakes than my winning sessions. And as good as you think you are, there's always room for improvement.

But, it's not all disheartening. There's a great feeling when you replay a hand you've forgotten, only to find that you played it perfectly, as if you'd known exactly what cards your opponent held. That's the kind of positive reinforcement that keeps me plugging away at this game.

I just started doing the whole books and videos thing... IDK why I never though of looking back through my hands and where I went wrong or right. I'm going to start trying to get into a habit of that.

I go over my hand histories after almost any game I play. Especially critical hands, but I try to go over every hand. Was I aggressive enough when the blinds were moving up and I was in position? How did I act considering the stacks behind me? I'm absolutely brutal on myself and try to think of how I could have played the hand differently even if I won the hand. How could I have made more? What was a better value bet I could have made that might have been called? Or... how could I have lost less on a marginal hand that I may have mistakenly bet for value. What did he do in those hands that should have tipped me off of what kind of holding he had.

Constant evaluation of your play is one of the most important ways to improve your game, and hand histories dont lie.

I look through HEM, find hands where I think I did something non-standard or particularly well/poorly, and I post them in the hand analysis section for other opinions & discussion.