No Clue How to Study.

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PapaDoc13

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Hey guys.

I've really been struggling these last couple weeks at NL2, and I'm trying to study more, but I keep getting the same fundamentals. Tight is right, Value bet relentlessly, table selection, BRM, blah blah blah.

It does not seem to be working. Actually, when i loosen up, I tend to do a tad better.:mad:

But anyways, I finally got DriveHud, but I have no idea how to study hands or what I should be looking for. How do you guys study your past hands to improve?
 
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hunter1993

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Also, what is the best way to record hands during a live cash game? I've wanted to study but its just so hard to keep remembering them and write them down. Does anyone have a easier way to record them?
 
chicopaw

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request ur hand history from client and use a replayer to review
 
Kiddk88

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I replay my hands in Poker Tracker4. I'll also ask others what they would of done in that situation and make adjustments accordingly.
 
DougPkrMonsta

DougPkrMonsta

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There's many ways to study but you should also reinforce your learning with lots of play to gain experience.

Post some hands where you are unsure what to do and get feedback from more experienced players. Analyze your play and that of your opponents to identify weaknesses.

Read all the strategy articles offered by CardsChat - there's so much good information out there!

Find some new poker books or watch some poker videos or live streams on Twitch.

Good luck to you! :D
 
HennieP

HennieP

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For cash games tight is usually right except if everyone else is also playing tight. Then you loosen up and start getting into more pots with more marginal hands. You don't want to play recklessly but whenever you have position and you know your opponent will likely fold if he misses the flop and someone bets it's fine to see some flops with marginal hands and make some semi bluffs if you miss the flop it looks like your opponent missed too.

The thing about poker is that your cards are but a small fraction of the equation. It's not what you have that's important but what your opponent thinks you have and what you think your opponent has. It's a game of reading people first and having the best hand second.

The table you play at is also very important. If you get the feeling that you are outmatched then get up and find a new table. There is no need to struggle against superior players and lose. Find a table where the players are your level or lower and make some cash.

As for studying previous hands, you want to look for bad decisions that you made. Of course you need to know the difference between a bad decision and a good one first. This is something that will require some studying on your part. Read some poker books, watch poker training videos and post hands for discussion. Here's a short list of things to look for.

1. Was my hand within the accepted range for my position? In other words if you opened in UTG position with 67s you made a mistake. If you opened with the same hand on the button however it was solid play. Your calling range should tighter than your opening range but you also need to look at pot odds. If someone raised and was called by say 2 other players and action falls to you it might be okay to call with 67s and see a flop. Against only one opponent who raised though its better to fold.

2. Was my bet sizing correct? You always want to open with a 3 to 4 x BB raise. After the flop you want to keep bets reasonable (50% pot or so) if you're betting for value (getting more money into the pot). If you're semi bluffing or the flop is great for drawing hands that you don't have a piece of then make your bets bigger (75% to 150% pot size) to try and take it down or drive out drawing hands.

3. Was my play EV+ or EV-? This one can be a bit tricky at first. Sure you can just run it through an equity analyzer but its better to understand why a play is profitable or not. To put it very simply you take the number of outs you had and multiply it by 2 if you're going to have further betting after the next card or no more cards are coming, or multiply by 4 if no further betting will be made and you still have 2 cards to come (all-in situation on the flop). So multiply by 2 for 1 card and by 4 for 2 cards. Then subtract the pot odds (the bet you're making in relation to the size of the pot). If the result is more than 0 then it's EV+ (profitable). If it's less than 0 it's EV- (not profitable). Keep in mind that equity is a long term consideration. You can make all the correct decisions and still lose or make a bad one and win but in the long run these decisions will either lose you money or make you money.

4. Did I play the river correctly? If you has the best hand did you bet the right amount to entice a call but still add a decent amount of chips to your stack? If you were the caller, did you get the right odds to call? If you made a semi-bluff or a cold bluff did you bet big enough to not get called?

As you can see there are so many things to consider that it's impossible to list them all in a forum post. Read some books on position, pot odds, equity and hand ranges. I can suggest "Harrington on Holdem" as a good one to start with.
 
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PapaDoc13

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Thanks guys this is a lot of good info!
 
vov4ik

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You need to learn more about how to play hands on which you have had mistakes, most of all you watch video lessons of professionals, and remember and then play and so that you could win, I was trained on video lessons
 
Doubledunk

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How many hands do you have in your DriveHUD?

have you tried filtering it? its easier to see the spots where you made the mistakes if you do that. also having a heatmap on your opponents helps in ranging them.
 
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PapaDoc13

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How many hands do you have in your DriveHUD?

have you tried filtering it? its easier to see the spots where you made the mistakes if you do that. also having a heatmap on your opponents helps in ranging them.



What's a heat map?
 
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Rational Madman

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Tight is right but value betting is utter nonsense.

You should bet AS MUCH AS you are willing to lose to a bad beat and AS MUCH AS you would believe the other would call assuming they are losing to you.

This is the way you decide when and how much to bet, do not bet proportional to your actual hand's strength ever, literally never ever think like this because you become a TAGfish who is so easy to read.
 
Masi2197

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You think that a poker player has been champion only studying books and pages, they may help you a little but your expectation and the analysis of your hands won and especially the losses will give you your own game
 
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