Thinking

I read (somewhere, can't remember offhand) where it was written that Poker players should do a good deal of thinking about the game while away from the table.


My question to the forum is this:

Say you're in your typical game, and you sit down for a four hour session. Let's say it's an ordinary evening, that is, you DON'T wind up contesting a hand that torments you so much that you feel compelled to post it here. How many hands do you try to reconstruct later and analyze? Or how many hands SHOULD the observant player recall and analyze after a typical session, given that nothing was too wild?


One per hour? Every half hour? One or two per session?

I cant give you details about the quantity of hands, but since I'm mostly playing online I'm very liberal to request hand histories for analyses. I analyse almost every hand I lost (severe case of result decease), every hand I think I might not have maxed my EV, and any hand where I get the feeling my opponent made a good laydown (i.e where I felt he could read me well). Furthermore I request almost every blind stealing and defense situation. In general..all hands where I dont have a good feeling with.


For live game: I dont play much live, but the times I did the deck hit me kinda cold so I could remember every hand I played. I think normally I would remember about 8 hands, if they impressed me (so again where I dont feel good about). "Advantage" is that I have to travel more than an hour to get home from the game, so plenty of time to think about the evening (I travel by train).


Regards

There is no "should" and this is just a subjective matter. IMnsHO, however, if you cannot routinely reconstruct the mechanics of at least two hands, then you are not paying enough critical attention while you are playing. Alternatively, if you CAN remember the mechanics it probably means you are thinking and evaluating as the hand progresses.


Learning or reaffirming ONE thing per session will give you great results in the long run. Perhaps if you identify such a lesson you can stop looking for others, and try to see how this lesson could have (or should not have) been applied to other hands in the session. This will help you remember it and recognize the applicable situations for it.


- Louie

I do a quick analysis of troublesome hands while I'm waiting for the next deal. Afterwards, away from the table, those hands just come bubbling up in my consciousness and I can do some real thinking ("how smart was the laydown?" "OK, the next time this guy comes back at me on the turn with that kind of board, I reraise ...", etc., etc.) It's nothing I remember practicing; it just sort of happened after I'd logged about 600 hours of casino time. The number of hands you pick apart later is less important than the quality of the learning you acquire from each one, IMO.

i can remember the mechanics of hands 6 months ago. i can remember the mechanics of hands a year ago. i usually remember 60% of the hands i play in a given session (depending on how long i play for, and how well the deck was hitting me...) well enough to reconstruct the next day when talking with my friend who plays too. i go over them in my head the whole hour-long drive home, and i reconstruct them and pick at them for the next couple of days at least. and i always learn something. is this adequate, or should i get a notebook and keep track of every live hand i play? im really bad at taking notes, and i won't bea able to pay enough attention if i am writing everything down.