Study Poker Hands
Posted By admin On 02/08/22My name is Sky Matsuhashi and I’m here to help you become the poker player you’ve always wanted to be. Can you imagine moving up in buy-ins and playing for bigger stakes, or bringing home some extra income every month?
Building live poker ranges: In this 5 video series, I break down a hand from the live cash games workbook. I share the ranges that I would assign, why, and follow it all up with an extended Q&A. Building 6max poker ranges: This series breaks down a 6max workbook hand (#27) and showcases. Most players spend time going through their hand histories not knowing what to look for or how to improve. In this 56 minute video I teach you how to study poker, how to improve, and how to get the most from your time off the tables. We go through some hands and discuss what to look for and how to dig deeper and analyze a hand from lots of angles. Step 1: Record hands It is imperative for any poker player who takes the game seriously to record their hand histories. Of course, this isn’t really possible for live players, but live players ought to write down especially notable hands to study afterward. The smaller you open-raise, the more poker hands you can open (by a small percentage). If you raise larger, then generally you should have a tighter range of hands. When playing micro stakes, some coaches advocate a 4x UTG open raise. Then reducing to 3x for HJ, 2.5x for CO and BTN, and then back to between 3 and 4x for SB opens.
I’ve dedicated my life to improving my poker game and I have a lot to teach you. I’m an educator at heart and I love helping others achieve their goals.
I’m not going to tell you that poker mastery is easy… far from it. It’s a tough game and will take dedication, hard work and tons of playing to get to where you want to be.
If you’re feeling like your skills are inadequate or you need to start with a solid foundation, this page will help you.
Starting an Online Poker Journey
You may be intimidated by playing online, or you’re ready and raring to begin an online journey. Either way, I created this humungous page with everything you need to know to start an enjoyable, profitable and rewarding online poker journey. On this page, you’ll learn:
- The benefits of playing online poker versus LIVE poker
- The 5 crucial steps to start your online journey with (site selection, bonuses, rakeback, etc.)
- The 3 critical pieces of poker software and how to get started with them
- How it’s possible to make $$$ everyday with online poker
- The simplest ways to study your online poker hands
- And so much more
Get Your Poker Study On
I’m all about studying in order to improve your skills, but if you’ve been out of school for a while (or never enjoyed it), starting a study routine can be tough. This video is going to help you study the smart and easy way with a simple 4-step process:
If you’re looking for more detailed study guidance, here’s Your Poker Strategy Guide for 2020.
For those relatively new to taking your poker journey seriously, episode #205: 5 Key Concepts for Poker Study Noobies will help you focus on the 5 key concepts every poker study beginner must nail down.
Study Poker Hands Worksheet
Progressively Build Foundational Poker Skills
Study Poker Hands Games
This series of podcast episodes (along with the super helpful show notes pages) worked to help you progressively build your poker skills starting with preflop ranges, taking you through post-flop math and plays, hand reading then ultimately the mental game. This series inspired my 3rd book called Preflop Online Poker and my upcoming 4th book, Post-flop Online Poker.
Start with this episode, then work your way through the rest of the series as you study and put into action the skills I teach you. The show notes for episode 87 contains links to every episode in the series.
Here’s my epic post about the most important skill in poker: Hand Reading. This post has 3 podcasts (#250, #251 and #252 below) and multiple videos all geared to turning you into an effective hand reader. All of the best players use their hand reading skills to maximize the effectiveness of their study time and their profitability when on-the-felt.
A critical topic I discuss almost all the time is exploiting your opponents. But, the first step to this is understanding the 4 basic player types. You’ve got to know what each is, the characteristics of each, indications that someone is one or the other, and their general approach to pre-flop and post-flop poker. With this episode I also made available a Poker Player Types PDF listing many ways to exploit each type.
Poker Resources
We can all use a hand with our studies and poker play, and there are many things I use daily to help me improve my game. I’ll continue to add anything here that I think you’ll find valuable and that will aid you in your poker development. These are the items that make my poker studies and poker play as simple yet efficient as possible. I recommend these to others time and time again.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
Study Poker Hands Printable
Tracking Software Recommendation: PokerTracker 4
PokerTracker 4 is the premier poker tracking software on the market today. I’ve been using it since 2006 and it’s helped me to improve my game tremendously. With its awesome and easily adaptable HUD, I’m able to find multiple ways to exploit my opponent’s tendencies. Quick and easy hand history reviews with a great player and real-time stats make studying my plays and my opponents very effective. Click here to learn more.
Bonus for supporting me by purchasing PokerTracker 4 thru the link above:
Send me a screen shot or forward me your emailed purchase receipt and I’ll send you a full copy of my Smart HUD! All you have to do is import it, set it as your table default, then you’re off to the races. Forward your PT4 purchase confirmation to sky@smartpokerstudy.com.
Range Analysis Software Recommendation: Flopzilla
Study Poker Hands Free
Flopzilla is the most incredible range analysis software available. It’s designed to let you quickly and easily figure out how a range hits a board. Just enter a preflop range and a board and Flopzilla will work out for you how often that range hits hands like top pair, middle pair, a flush draw, a gutshot, etc. The interface is designed to be quick, easy to use and intuitive. This is the perfect software for analyzing hands and improving your hand reading skills.
Screen Capture Software Recommendations: OBS
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Download and start streaming quickly and easily on Windows, Mac or Linux. This is the program the pros, Twitch streamers and I use to record for streams, training videos and for game tape.
Smart Poker Study Resources
I created each of these items to help me track my studies and improve my play.
This Poker Goals PDF gives you all the criteria you need to set SMART Poker Goals. Making better goals will lead to greater poker success.
This Break-even Math Cheat Sheet gives you all the break-even %’s for the different pre-flop plays you’re going to make. Know how often you need your opens, call and bets to work in order to be break-even.
Poker Quantifiables Tracking Sheet – A worksheet to help you keep track of important stats as your studies progress.
Range Review Tracker – A worksheet to help you track the ranging success in your poker studies.
30-Day Challenge Tracker – A tracker to help you incorporate positive poker habits in your life (or any other aspect of life for that matter).
This Leak Plugging PDF contains descriptions of the most common and painful leaks, ways to spot them, steps to fixing and tips on exploiting opponents with this same leak.
This 7 Steps to Poker Book Learning PDF shows you how to get the most from every poker book you read.
Please let me know if there is any other way I can help you improve your game! Just send me an email at sky@smartpokerstudy.com.