Hello, I want to ask you, mostly confirmed players, if it's not a secret, what is your way to develop your game? For example after a session of poker, you played X hands, do you analyse them? How? Do you look hand by hand? Or you use some statistical data to analyse?
I think it would be very usefull for those who are ready to work on their playing.
Hey there Oranaro, this is a great question
I'll outline a few of my preferred methods for studying and then share some videos that may help
So you want to look at your process of developing in a few steps
#1 Learning New Concepts
#2 Implementing and Understanding (Practice)
#3 Review and Reflection (Deep Understanding)
#4 Seeking Feedback (Deeper Learning)
#5 Free Play (Developing Intuition)
So for step 1 it's all about learning new concepts, getting your fundamentals in place so that you have a basic grasp of the game and a strong enough strategy to play without making major mistakes.
My video series for beginners is great for that
http://gripsed.com/win
And also the Free cardschat course is a great resource for that.
If you prefer to learn from books than video I just put up a brand new book
That covers All the keys concepts to win at poker
http://gripsed.com/book
I find a lot of value in getting a basic strategy, a basic approach so that I can hit the tables with confidence that I'll be getting myself into winning situations and setting myself up for success. It helps me feel like i'm using my time efficiently when i do play rather than wasting it. (Kind of like going to school or getting basic training before starting up a job.
#2 Is all about putting what you've learned into practice. This is where just getting on the tables and playing lots and lots of poker is very valuable.
The important thing in this step is to just play, to get your practice in, and to not worry about being perfect or fear if you are making mistakes. In my experience when I was worried about making mistakes I froze up and didn't make plays, try things, and get learning experiences.
This part of the learning process is all about just getting comfortable playing, having fun, getting experience (like XP in video games) and having reference experiences. The more you play, the more you'll start to see how all the things you learned fit together and you'll develop that understanding, that 'oh i get it', those 'a ha' moments.
Now as you're playing if you want to get extra value you can mark hands in pokertracker that you're confused about. The program offers the feature which allows you to tag hands for review later which is great. There's no need to rush to get the answer, the important thing is to simply note 'i'd like more information about how to play this situation' and later on you can go to the review section
#3 Review is when you start to get a deeper level of learning. This is where you go back on a day when you are fresh, when you are in a calm state, and pull up your sample of hands you curious about.
I like to break my hands down into the following categories
-Preflop hands (use pokercoaching charts & raise your edge charts to check my work)
-Postflop spots (use solver tools like piosolver & rangeconverter to check my plays)
-Multiway or Nonstandard spots (reach out to friends, post in forums to get ideas)
For preflop spots I'm mostly just checking if my ranges are lining up.
Am I playing looser than the charts? if so, did I have a good reason to do so?
Am I playing tighter than the charts? if so, did I have a good reason to do so?
Preflop Spots
By checking in with charts post session you can very quickly get your ranges right up to the line and ensure you're playing as many hands as you can profitably. Whenever I'm way too tight or way too loose I spend more time looking at those spots, not just the hand I had marked, but the entire range suggested for that stack size, in that position.
The great thing about the charts is you have all the answers in front of you. It's just a matter of taking the time to absorb the information, and the more times you repeat the process the more you'll remember the exact ranges and learn what 'the line' is for each spot.
Postflop Spots
This is where having tools is a total gamechanger. Fortunately there are many subscriptions services available which will give you access to solver databases for $50-$100 a month. It may sound like a hefty investment, but if you're serious about improving your game it is extremely inexpensive. And with the hours of study you can get in over a month you're probably paying less than $1/hr to access a full database of solutions.
I'm a fan of rangeconverter for my subscription service.
The great thing about the solvers is you can plug in your exact spot, see what you did, see what the solver did and then start to get insights into why. Once you can express 'oh, this is probably why the solver made this play' then you're really developing your poker mind.
If you don't have access to solvers you can go thru hands on your own and ask 'why did i play this hand as i did, could i have got a better result if i played it differently?'. And again, just by going thru that process of asking questions and coming up with answers you'll be expanding your poker mind.
So much of this is about learning, being willing to see other perspectives and play outside the box, and that's what going in the lab does. You use situations you got into and start thinking about all the possibilities and the merits of each.
Pokercoaching has some really cool 'quizzes' where coaches like myself brak down their full thought process on all options, if you wanna try them out and see what i'm talking about go here
http://pokercoachingoffer.com
Unorthodox Spots
Most solvers only deal with headsup situations, and thus when you have a multiway spot you can't really use the solver to get insight. But, you can use the exercise I mentioned before to start thinking about the merits of making different plays.
After that you can share the hands in question with friends or forum people to get other perspectives. Now, it's not about just accepting what anyone says as right or wrong, how could you know? The exercise is again all about just getting more ways to look at a spot, and opening up your arsenal of possible plays. It's all about learning.
The more perspectives you can get, the more things to think through. But again don't fixate on what's the 'right' play. Just try to conclude 'why does this play seem like it would work better than another play' and learn to answer that why.
Having a study group is great, cause you'll get a lot of smart people who are all working hard together sharing their best ideas.
#4 I kind of already worked into the above. The important thing with getting feedback is only selecting a few hands you're really curious about, otherwise you'll likely feel overwhelmed with the amount of info that comes to you and not be able to process it.
Whenever I try to get "ALL the answers" I feel overwhlemed. Whenever I try to just learn a little bit more each day, then I can actually process what comes to me and get better each day. The former leads to feeling anxious and worried. The latter leads to feeling confident and in control.
#5 Play play play.
If you repeat the process above, maybe spread over a week. You'll be steadily improving and want to practice more. You could break your week down in a few ways
Play 1 day, study 1 day, day off and repeat
Play 1 day, day off, repeat 2x and then study the last day
In my experience studying new material in the beginning was important, and as I got better playing a lot was important. Review always has it's value, the question is how much time you want to invest in playing vs studying.
Ultimately the choice is yours and you can feel into it. I've pretty much given you my entire study flow here for how I work on my game.
My current approach is
-Watch 2x 1 hr videos per week
-Play 2x sessions a week (one short, one long)
-Do a full day review
-Share most interesting hands with coaches
-Repeat!
Hope you'll find an approach that works for you, and build the confidence you desire!
Go out there and Get Stackin!
