Reviewing Sessions

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 31 July 2009 / Leave a comment

One of the most important aspects of being a successful poker player is how you behave during the down time when you are not playing.

Being able to take time out and look closely at how you are playing is essential to keeping your game both as tilt free as possible, as well as helping plug leaks, and see where, when, and how you play well.

Most players don't bother looking at their losing sessions due to wanting to forget about them as quickly as possible, and often do not even look at their winning sessions due to believing that any win must mean that they are playing well. Both these stances can be very damaging to your game, as it is essential to look at losing sessions closely to identify exactly what went wrong and fix it, and it is equally as important to understand why and how a particular winning session went that way.

Often when playing, many of your choices are made on gut instinct, and in the heat of the moment conventional logic goes out of the window. Although this is perfectly healthy when at the table, it is critical to look back and why you felt a specific way about a hand and think it through logically. Gut instinct is not something that can be taught per se, but it can definitely be honed through critical analysis. Looking back over the big hands you played closely can really help aid your instinctual decision making processes in the future.

Although it is often tempting to think that the game ends the minute you leave the table, most of the very top players are constantly reflecting on how their recent sessions went, and trying to use the information available to them to improve their game for the next time. Although sifting through hands can be frustrating and painful - particularly after big losses - it is key in refining your game and improving it. Most players completely ignore the wealth of information that their own play leaves in its wake - do not become one of them.

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