Efficient Study

[jippo88]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here after finding the site a few weeks back. I've played poker live for a couple of years and started my journey into online play with $50 on stars a few months ago. I've got up to $400 and am now grinding 10NL. I've been reading through the beginner's digest stuff but am feeling overwhelmed.

I understand the very basic stuff i.e. importance of position/aggression, pot odds, implied odds etc but i'm not sure how to best spend my study time to improve my game. What do you all feel are the most important core concepts to really grasp that will help me improve?

[Chusko]

If you have a program for keeping track of your hand history, it's very helpful to review it. Look at the hands where you got hammered and figure out if it was bad luck or bad play. This is probably the easiest question to answer but there's a lot of questions you can ask while reviewing. Am I value betting optimally? Am I being too passive or loose? Am I really bad at folding AA when it's obvious that I should? This list can go on for a while....

[NightGizmo]

I run a filter in PT3 that shows all hands where I won or lost more than 20 big blinds and then I review them. Remember -- just because you won a big pot doesn't mean you played it well. Also, don't just run through them quickly -- take the time to evaluate your actions on each street and determine if it was correct or not.

[jippo88]

Seems like i will be investing in Poker Tracker then lol. Figured i'd have to at some point. Thanks for the advice guys. Been reading lots of the digest stuff today and slowly trying to get it to sink in by taking notes etc.

[2Cord McCord]

Seems like i will be investing in Poker Tracker then lol. Figured i'd have to at some point. Thanks for the advice guys. Been reading lots of the digest stuff today and slowly trying to get it to sink in by taking notes etc.

You may want to do a trial of HM2 before you purchase Poker Tracker. Just to see which one you like better. Everyone has there own preference, so try both before you spend the $50-$80. I also recommend using the Leak Buster software with your database. It will help you understand your stats, where you are missing opportunities, and give you training videos and advice on how to start correcting your play. It's a great way to get the most out of whichever database you choose.

[jippo88]

I've been using HM2 but i'm a little confused in regards to the popup on the hud. It lists numbers but then also has numbers in brackets next to them. For example it will say:

PFR-EP-7 (28)

I understand this is how often an opponent is raising from that position but what's the difference between the two numbers? Couldn't find an answer to this anywhere, i'm probably being really thick lol.

[Icanhastreebet]

I've been using HM2 but i'm a little confused in regards to the popup on the hud. It lists numbers but then also has numbers in brackets next to them. For example it will say:

PFR-EP-7 (28)

I understand this is how often an opponent is raising from that position but what's the difference between the two numbers? Couldn't find an answer to this anywhere, i'm probably being really thick lol.

bracket number is number of hands you have on that particular stat. The more hands the more accurate the stat. Once you get over 100 hands for this stat the bracketed numbers will disappear. Hope this helps.

[jippo88]

Ahh that would make sense lol cheers for that. Great bit of software, definitely adds much needed info to the thought process.