When people play poker online, they often have one goal in mind: to become good enough of a player to beat the strongest competitors out there. While learning new skills like bluffing can prove to be useful, you also have to take the time to analyze your play to get better at online poker.
There are three ways for you to keep track of your poker play and learn from it:
- Keeping manual records
- Coaching yourself
- Using statistics apps
Let’s take a look at how those three analysis methods can help you become a better poker player!
How to Learn From Your Poker Games
The first thing you can do is keep strict records of every game you play: at what day and time you play, which online venues you visit, what the stakes are, how much money you win or lose, and of course – how many games do you play at once. Keeping track of this information will give you an insight into whether you play better in specific circumstances or not. For example, maybe you will notice that you have better results on days when you get to play at an earlier hour.
You can also include info about your opponents in those records, trying to discover whether any of the regulars you compete against have gambling patterns you should know about.
If you are ready to invest a bit more energy into recording your games, you can also keep track of the hands you got to play that day, and see where things went south for you. If you notice you make bad decisions in certain scenarios, you can work on that specific skill and start winning more often!
The second thing you can do is take up the role of a poker coach. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars to get a stranger to tell how to improve your poker play, you can do the job on your own. Read poker guides and make a list of the skills you want to acquire, and keep it close by when you play. Every time you place bets, try to focus on a specific skill you want to improve and see if it helps you win more hands when you implement the desired changes.
Last but not least, you can use various apps to keep track of your sessions without doing the heavy lifting yourself. Those apps provide you with different information that can prove to be useful, including your average duration of play, net profits, and more.
The provided info can help you learn whether you’re playing too aggressively and losing money as a result, or maybe it will show you that you’re too timid of a player. Either way, with the help of those apps, you will be able to manage your bankroll properly and always place bets you can afford.
Remember!
While critiquing your poker play is important if you want to improve, don’t be too hard on yourself when you make mistakes. If you only focus on the fact you lost, you won’t be able to see the unique opportunity at hand: now you have a chance to learn from every single game, and do better on the next hand!