Game improvement

[kurosh]

The best way I can think of to improve my game is to see the hole cards of an entire table and know their thought processes as they play. Some commentary on their plays by good players would help a bit too. But is this possible?

I want to get together a couple people and play for play chips for an hour or two. Afterwards, we compile our hand histories to see everyone's hands. Then we talk about why we did what we did and critique each other. Sound good?

[Dov]

No.

Just rail a real game and try to understand why people played the way they did when they show down their hands.

This will give you a much better way to learn hand reading and poker logic.

If you see something you don't understand, post the hand in the appropriate forum where it will be picked apart for you to see the components.

As a matter of fact, read all of the strategy posts and hand dissections in the forum that interests you. This will put you on the right track.

Good Luck,

Dov

[kurosh]

How will not seeing their hands most of the time be a better way? 90% of the time I won't know if my read was right. Were they bluffing? Did they hit their flush? Were they on a draw? It's all speculation.

[onegymrat]

How will not seeing their hands most of the time be a better way? 90% of the time I won't know if my read was right. Were they bluffing? Did they hit their flush? Were they on a draw? It's all speculation.
You can read all the books that you want, but experience is a big element that you just cannot fast forward. You may not get honest and accurate analysis if you are to play with the cards open. Just seeing the others card may distort the actual plays that one would make.

I assume that you play low limits, and therefore, will have a showdown at almost every hand. Why would you say that you wouldn't know what they hold? Try to concentrate on one player in the hand at a time, and imagine the bet/raise/check that they just made, and if you were him, what would YOU be holding to make such a play. Then at showdown, see how your speculation matches his actual hand.

Doing this enough times will help your hand reading skills, as well as improve your own game. There really are no short cuts to mastering this skill. Remember to post some hands in exact detail, and the posters will help you through it. Good luck.

[kurosh]

I don't think you guys understand what I'm saying. We play for an hour or so normally. THEN after the game is done, I can go back and see if in fact my reads were correct.

[Dov]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think you guys understand what I'm saying.

[/ QUOTE ]

We get it perfectly.

[ QUOTE ]
I want to get together a couple people and play for play chips for an hour or two.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a bad idea. You won't learn anything useful from this. Certainly not anything more useful than the suggestions we made earlier in this thread.

If you want to do it, go ahead, but it will be basically a waste of time.

Dov