Range practice

[Kakashi333]

Ok, so I read ISF's post "Backwards Learning Theory of Poker". Yes -- i figured -- I want to learn the fundamentals, I want to learn the concepts behind everything. So I sat down and thought about the game, tried to read up on some concepts. I decided that getting better at hand reading and ranges would improve my game a lot. But, as Spoon hints at in his post "Why poker is simple" (yes, I can't post links. When I try I get the error message: You are not allowed to use [ URL ] bbcode. Someone can tell my why/how?) it's sometimes not enough to just know the concepts. Some concepts require skill to execute.

My point:
Although I understand (at least partly) the benefits of using ranges, I still suck at putting villains on a range, not to mention thinking about my own range. Therefore I'm practicing. I stole the formula for a "range practice session" (from Robb I think), which goes like this:
I look up someone in my database whom I have over 5k hands on (yeah, I bought hand histories -- for the sole purpose of practicing ranges!). Then I click Filters > Misc > Results, and check the boxes for 'Went to showdown', and won or lost more than 10bb. After that I go through the hands, often using several minutes on each street to put villain on a range. I use PokerStove as help. I track my success; how many hands I narrowed it down to (if I was right), how many times I was right.


What I would like advice on is how I can improve this practice session to get the most out of it. Is there anything I should do differently? Anything I can add?

Thanks!

[kmind]

1. I think what you are doing is very good and most new players don't take nearly as much time as you have to study/review the game.
2. If you have $25 to spend (preferably not from your BR) you could buy Flopzilla to help figure out which boards hit/miss your opponent (once you get to higher stakes then you can start thinking more about which boards hit/miss your opponent AND hit/miss your range).
3. Keep thinking about how you can counter your opponent's strategy in every situation. This should help: Weekly Strategy Compilation – Revision of ISF Theorem Poker Blogs. Not only do you have to hand read well but you must manipulate ranges so that you can profit the most overall (Shania). Usually this means putting your strongest ranges when villain will be most aggressive and your weakest ranges when villain will most likely fold or just flat. This is all in that article I linked.
4. Read more of ISF's posts and articles in the strategy section.
5. A lot of players, including ISF, say that PLAYING improves your hand reading the most.