Studying hand histories

EvilPingu

I occasionally hear players on this site talking about studying hand histories. This is something I know I should be doing but I hardly ever do, besides posting the occasional hand in the Poker Clinic, so a few questions:

1) Do you have to spend time studying hand histories to become a better player, or is it enough to discuss hands in the Poker Clinic, watch training videos, etc?

2) How much time should be given to this? Obviously how many hand histories you have depends on how much you play, but should it be a fixed amount of time every day, or does it depend how much I play?

3) Should you read every single hand history, even the standard hands where you raise with Aces on the button and everyone folds? Or is it better to make note of any interesting hand IDs throughout a session and only read them?

Glenelg

In Response to Studying hand histories:

I occasionally hear players on this site talking about studying hand histories. This is something I know I should be doing but I hardly ever do, besides posting the occasional hand in the Poker Clinic, so a few questions: 1) Do you have to spend time studying hand histories to become a better player, or is it enough to discuss hands in the Poker Clinic, watch training videos, etc? 2) How much time should be given to this? Obviously how many hand histories you have depends on how much you play, but should it be a fixed amount of time every day, or does it depend how much I play? 3) Should you read every single hand history, even the standard hands where you raise with Aces on the button and everyone folds? Or is it better to make note of any interesting hand IDs throughout a session and only read them?
Posted by EvilPingu

Hi A,
I find there tends to be hands I recall from the night before. These are usually (but not always) exit hands! :-(  I ALWAYS have a look at these and try and see if I could have done anything better.  I also spend a bit of time reading the clinic and posting any hands I'm not sure of.  The clinic is excellent in making me realise that there are MANY ways to act in a given situation.

WHOAMI196

1, it depends, its a bit of a geeky thing to do, but i do do-it from time to time esp when i have had a bad session (btw when my main sites was stars i used to religiously check my hh via HEM). By checking you'r h/h you should easily find holes in you'r game that are easily fixable; in game it can be difficult to spot obvious mistakes to fix. So it does help.

2/3. Not sure about time but i like to scan through h/h that i have lost 20bb, and won 20bb in a session. I am able to see if i lost any value with the hands i won, and how i could have minimised the losses etc. and if these involve any regs i try to mentally take note on their betting patters if they were bluffing/value betting etc.

Dazler

my exit hands i mainly look at the end of the day and ones where my betting and calling bets where i end up losing a big amount are the ones i look at. The amount of hands you play are gonna be pretty standard anyways and would take ages to sift through. One thing i always do though is look at the hand ive just lost or won and see what hands people muck during play, this is invaluable information and a lot of players dont even realise you can check it, because when you ask what they had they usualy lie and you can see that its a lie and use this to your advantage. When ever you feel you played something badly or you feel someone bluffs or bets you off the hand always look at the hand history and see what you did wrong! 9 times outa 10 they will do it again and you can make notes on that player.

rancid

I look at big winning hands, big loosing hands
plus

any hands where I wasn't sure at the time what line to take


Sometime I'll find all cash hands where I had lost a certain amount />x and see if there are any leaks/spew

Russ76

hi evilp , i usually go through hand history's of the previous session before playing and i look mainly at the big winning or loosing hands i have only been doing it myself a few months and have been amazed how helpful it is, especially loosing hands you will find they are usually similar sorts of hands like kj  aj  played oop  but you really start to see it by looking through HH more than during play.

tim452

how can you see what your villian was holding  if they fold?

simonnatur

I find watching a session video as a good player goes through his thought processes can be very useful. There's a ton of other useful stuff available for free. At the end of the day though, it's probably hard to beat playing as many hands yourself as possible.

Like most people here, I review at least my biggest losing hands in the session. Lately been 6-8 tabling and build 2 or 3 healthy stacks and am convinced I must be winning a decent chunk of change. Then i go to my account and find i've actually broken even - so review is useful to find out where all the money went lol...

El_Mogul

To reiterate on Rancid and Russ 76's posts I mostly look up the hands where I win and lose a lot. However it can also be good to look up marginal winning hands to see if you could have possibly got more value, as after all, poker is all about minimising your losses and maximising your gains!

Also (although this doesn't really apply to me as I'm currently playing smaller stakes) I know it can be advantageous to discuss hands with regs and people who know a lot about the game, as flaws and leaks in your game might be highlighted. Doing this could also help you to develop counter-strategies and be one step ahead in the metagame!