New exercise to practice hand reading!

Today while I was in the shower (I do my best thinking there) I was bemoaning the fact that I still suck at thinking about opponent ranges when I'm playing. I do give it consideration when I'm reviewing hands, but it's still something I'm not great at. What I need is practice.

Then it occurred to me that with most opponents, the information I have to work with is very limited. I may have stats like VPIP, PFR, maybe a note or two that they're a calling station or have some sort of bet sizing tell. But there are a lot of gaps in the information, and that makes hand reading difficult. I know, that's something you have to get used to and learn to deal with. But when practicing a new skill, I prefer to start off at the easiest level possible and work my way up. So to practice hand reading and thinking about ranges, I want to have the most complete information possible.

My database isn't very large. I might have 1,000 hands on a few guys. A lot of information can be gleamed from this, but I desire more. I want to practice this skill against a player whose game I know inside and out. Fortunately, I know of one such player, and I have a ton of hands on him: Myself!

So I load up HEM and go to my hand histories. Next, I close off the column that shows my hole cards, the flop cards, the turn and river. Then I sort my hands by largest pot size. From here I can simply right click a hand and copy the HH to my clipboard. I found one hand converter that allows me to hide the Hero's hole cards; it just so happens to be FTR's converter.

Unfortunately, this also hides the Hero's identity. However, there is a column in HEM that allows me to see what my position was in the hand. Because of the care I took in closing off the columns, I can paste a HH to the forum knowing nothing about the hand except for the pot size and my position; and the fact that I played it.

Now I'm ready to practice hand reading! I'll do this in real time and see how it goes.

In this hand I am in the CO:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (9 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 ($19.25)
MP1 ($10.77)
MP2 ($25)
MP3 ($31.70)
CO ($39.42)
Button ($26.80)
SB ($75.55)
BB ($22.61)
UTG ($71.75)

Preflop:
UTG bets $0.75, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.75, 2 folds, CO calls $0.75, 1 fold, SB calls $0.65, 1 fold

I know I don't 3-bet a ton, which is probably a leak. I'm flatting here all day with 22-TT. Occasionally I'll also flat with AQo+ and JJ, but I 3-bet them fairly often so we can discount that somewhat. I think it's pretty safe to discount QQ+ entirely, as I'll 3-bet those 100% of the time. I play very nitty when I don't have initiative, so much of the time I'll fold hands like AJo and KQs here.

Flop: ($3.25) 4, 6, K (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, CO bets $2, SB calls $2, UTG calls $2, 1 fold

Even on a board this dry, I am almost never c-betting here in a 4-way pot without at least top pair. My range here has to be very narrow. It's pretty much just 66, 44, and AK.

Turn: ($9.25) 10 (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, CO bets $6, 1 fold, UTG raises to $14.25, CO raises to $36.67 (All-In), UTG calls $22.42

I double barreled, which is consistent with AK. But then I shoved over the 3-bet. Lately I've been trying not to play for stacks with TPTK unless I have a read, especially when this deep. That may or not be the case here. But for the most part, I think my hand is weighed a lot more heavily toward sets.

Wow, having this much information is pretty amazing. Could I really have narrowed down my range to 2 hands?

River: ($82.59) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $82.59 | Rake: $3

Results below:
UTG had K, K (full house, Kings over fours).
CO had 6, 6 (full house, sixes over fours).
Outcome: UTG won $79.59

Yes! That went very well. I know this is a very simple example, and maybe hand reading is absurdly easy against a player you know so well. But it's a starting point. By simplifying things as much as possible, I can get very comfortable with the basics. Once I feel that I have mastered hand reading against myself, I'll move on to reviewing hands against opponents that I have the most information on. Then work my up from there, with less and less information available.

I may post a few more hands later. But feel free to try this yourself. No peeking!

This is the kind of analysis I have people do for their opponents, and themselves, in hands where they have trouble. It's good stuff.

I can see this potentially being even more useful in the future once I move up to a level where you have to be mindful of image and perceived range.

i always remember the hand when i try and do that and im like OH YA I HAVE THIS.....instead i filter PT3 for hands that i was not involved in and went to showdown and i just try and narrow down the 2 peoples range street by street in the biggest pots....works pretty well though a shit load of the time you are like "wtf how did they show up with that"

Sounds good, but are you not missing the reads you had access to when you actually played the hand? I mean the output of the converter does not show you the stats of your opps, and surely your plays/ranges differ depending on these stats? Is there not also an option to hide your hole cards in the HEM hand replayer? I'kll check that later on.

I also have that problem that I tend to remember my big pots, esp as my volume is really small.

that's a really good idea, gonna check that out

Originally Posted by daviddem

Sounds good, but are you not missing the reads you had access to when you actually played the hand? I mean the output of the converter does not show you the stats of your opps, and surely your plays/ranges differ depending on these stats? Is there not also an option to hide your hole cards in the HEM hand replayer? I'kll check that later on.

I also have that problem that I tend to remember my big pots, esp as my volume is really small.

At first I did try to run hands through the HEM replayer, but unfortunately, it's not possible to hide your own hole cards. I hear that PT3 does have this feature.

So you can't get villain stats through the replayer, lest you risk peeking at your hole cards. I do believe it's possible to copy the HHs with stats included, but I haven't checked if the PTR converter can process the stats.

When analyzing this hand, I was just assuming that I was readless against all opponents. Admittedly, that is a flawed way of doing things.

Another issue with this method is that HEM highlights every hand in red or green, which denotes whether you won or lost the pot. That can taint analysis too.

switch to monochrome display & use a bit of masking tape / post it note?

very nice idea defz going to start doing this