Improving your game by self-analysis

The top poker players share one thing in common: They spend a lot of time thinking about poker away from the table. They ruthlessly critique their own play after the fact and use this process to improve their game. Online play offers two ways that make it easier for you to develop this habit.

First, request your hand histories after each session and go over the interesting hands in your head. Think back to your mental state that led to your decisions. Was your estimate of what cards your opponent held a good one? Did your opponent react in the way you expected? Was there anything about the play of the hand that surprised you because of some bad assumptions? How could you have played the hand better?

Second, use one of the hand history analysis tools such as Poker Tracker (see our section on useful tools). Take a look at your preflop folding and raising percentages. Are they what you think they should be or does your play need a tune-up? Examine your win rate in various situations. For example, how are you doing in the blinds? Are you defending too loosely or folding too often? How do you do when you start with a big pair? Compare your results to those of other players. Are you doing worse than average in a certain situation? Why? It takes a lot of hands (10,000 is a good start) to do some of these analyses, but if you play frequently they add up soon enough.