Hello,

I'm putting this hand here as an example because recently I started asking myself is the way I review my hands is really the 'proper' way of doing it. Do I get anything out from my analysis and does it improve my game?

When I’m looking back and think about the time I spent reviewing my hands a lot of the time it’s just like ‘aha I should bet here’ and that’s it, next hand.
But did I get anything out of that, did my game Improve? Does it matter that I spend 10 minutes going through a hand and at some stage when I will be playing and I will encounter a similar situation at the table a light bulb will light up in my brain and I will make a better decision?

After some time I just started to doubt that the work that I do away of the tables makes me any better at poker. I started searching around the forums and looking for coaching videos about this topic: how to do ‘it’ to get better.

I looked at some hand review videos and they give me some insight how do review my hands but they are also lacking something for me. I think I’m looking for a vid about how to do a hand review instead of reviewing few hands. Something like a framework of what to do, what questions should I ask myself, how to draw conclusions and improve.

So I picked a random hand from the ones I have marked for review this week and just do a review of it maybe you guys can tell me if I look at the right things when I review a hand, maybe I’m wasting my time on things that don’t matter, is my thought process good and is there anything I’m missing.

Some of the concepts I take into account when I review my hand:
1.Ranges (duh)
2.How the board hits mine and villains range, range advantage.
3.In what category my hand falls into when it comes to strength.

My open range:
22+,A2s+,K2s+,Q5s+,J6s+,T7s+,96s+,85s+,75s+,64s+,54s,A2o+,K8o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T9o,98o

Villains possible CC range:
22+,A2s+,K2s+,Q3s+,J6s+,T7s+,96s+,85s+,74s+,64s+,54s,A8o+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo,T9o

The amount of nut hands like 2 pairs and sets is around the same, when it comes to top pairs, same with draws. Noticeable difference is only when it comes to top pair hands and I have them 10% more than villain. Not sure if that is much but I think that makes me have a slight range advantage on this flop.

When I think where my hand falls when it comes to my whole range I think it's a medium strength hand that wants to pot control and see a showdown. I have stronger Ax hands that want to build the pot bigger, also I don't want to bet all of the Ax type of hands because if I check that would mean I don't have any top pairs on the turn after the action goes x/x. Ah is actually very nice here and gives few more options because if the villain will want to see a free turn with his potential flush draw we have a chance to outdraw him to the nut flush on the river.

Together with this I would check all the middle pairs and strong draws for example KhTh, a hand that can improve to nut flush, straight on the turn or strong 2nd pair.

I bet all my sets, 2p+, TP hands from A9+ or A8+, and balance that with weak flush draws and gutshots with backdoor flush potential (Kh9, Kh8, Qh9).

This might be a lot of weak flushes to bet so maybe I would choose the best ones like that draw to a Q, T high flush + some weaker ones with backdoor straight draw like 6h4h, 4h3h.

Feels like this is a sound strategy, so I did the right thing with my hand here.

On the turn I think I made my first mistake. The 3 didn't change anything, it feels like a complete blank, It didn't change the strength of my hand, I still consider is as a mid strength hand that wants to pot control and see a cheap showdown and I would call if villain would bet.

This is how I see my range on this turn:

Few hands improved on this turn (A3, 33) into very strong holdings that I will bet here, so I should choose some bluffs to balance it out. After giving it some consideration the weakest flush draws seem like the best candidates (all the Qhx hands). And I would check the rest of the range here.

I don;t think that reviewing the river has any sense, I played my hand in a wrong way on the turn and found myself in a really bad spot on the river. I could go a little deeper into my review and consider what I would do vs turn bet or what would be my options if action would go check/check and see how my range would look at As river.

But I think I made my point already, and I hope someone will go through this wall of text and see what I do right and wrong and give me some advice.

Did I improve my game from doing this review? I feel like I did, I shouldn't have bet that hand on the turn and I came up with an idea of betting strong top pairs and leaving the weak ones in my checking range to somewhat strengthen it, also it will help me not value betting into stronger top pairs and I have to think about the strength of my hand at every point in the hand and how it corresponds to my whole range.
Will it make a difference in my next session? I hope so!

If you did read to this point I would like to thank you, hope you had a good read and leave a comment.