need tips for memorizing starting hands chart

play play play

word pad it and have it open? thats what I did with the sss chart I still remember it and I only used it a month or so a year ago

Hi,

1) Print it and have it next to you
2) Play, play, play more
3) Use your printed charts (for every hand)

You´ll memorize it in short time and make less mistakes while learning it.

Good luck!
Ondra

Hi belayd,

Nice to see that you have questions regarding all topics.

I can also agree with the rest of the members that if you print it out and play it will eventually be easier. It takes time and you need to be patient but surely worth it.

Good luck
Ingrid

Thanks for all of the responses.

Is it better that I print it out or that I pull up the pdf and refer to it on my computer?

Hi belayd,

I personally printed it out. Easier because you don't need to keep clicking on the screen and you also have a chance to make notes on the paper if you need to. I mean try it out and see how it fits you best.

Ingrid

i copied the images of the 3 charts and pasted them alltogether on Mspaint. Saved the file and kept it open during play. Only took about 3 days before i stopped opening it when i played. It really doesnt take long You are only playing AK,AQ,AJ,A10 AA-22 and the more marginal hands as your position becomes late.

my printer had stopped working so I had to write it all out on paper, this really helped me to remember it too!!!

I prefer to have it on the wall too as it seems easier than clicking back and forward on the pc.

I did print out the starting hands chart (for some reason it works better for me in grayscale) and used it for about 100 hands of single-tabling 2NL on Party. At first I kept getting confused about suited and unsuited hands but quickly grasped several principles that the basic preflop play article does not mention:

1) unsuited cards where the lowest card is weaker than T are never played

1a) unsuited aces less than AT are never played (bears mentioning separately)

2) connectors are not played unless low card is at least a 4

2a) unsuited connectors lower than JT are never played (bears mentioning separately)

3) in early and middle position you play only pp and AK

I made a couple of errors getting confused whether my cards were suited or not but cleared up that problem by switching to a four-color deck.

I had some issues figuring out bet sizing but eventually settled on counting the actions as they went around the table: "Fold so still raise 8 cents, call so raise 10 cents, fold so still 10, fold so still 10, call so raise 12" and so on. It worked well when I did it out loud (but would probably be embarrassing if I were playing live ).

EDIT: I also found it helpful to say to myself when the cards were about to be dealt: "Okay, I'm now in MP2" or whatever position I happened to be. It prepared me nicely for reading the hand chart after my cards were visible.

During the session I had a VPIP of about 15 and a PFR of about 8. The curious thing is that I went to showdown only twice because the opponents kept folding to my raises. I also folded every single one of my blinds. But since the sample is so tiny I'm not going to pay much attention to them--or to the 49 leaks that Leak Buster found in my game lol.

After four-tabling badly for about 8K hands, I found single-tabling so relaxing that I think I could keep it up for 10 hours. I stopped playing this time only because the table died and I wanted to check the results. After about five sessions or so I'll try configuring the HEM HUD to see whether it helps.

I was VERY hampered by not having read the postflop play article yet. The preflop strategy was like gold, but postflop I sometimes found myself floundering. So I'm going to read the postflop play article before I practise the starting hands chart any more.

Incidentally, I asked about PokerStrategy's beginner playing system in the fora on both Cardschat and DragTheBar but people are being evasive. Nobody seems to want to talk about it. They're too busy screaming at me as to how PokerStrategy cuts off my rakeback. :p

No point to try to memorize that chart, when "you need to play those hands" and "you don't need to play those another hands". Print it out, play with the chart, and try to understand WHY you are making a call, a raise or a fold. After some time you'll find the starting hands chart not necessary and you'll be able to adjust it to your own needs, abilities and, of course, opponents.

Yep the types of hands noted aren't mentioned in the bronze SHC - and with good reason. The chart is designed for those with very little, or no, Poker knowledge - therefore "tight is right".

I felt it was overly tight when I started with it, but now I'm greatful that I stuck to it. Suited connectors, one gappers etc., are very difficult to play as they are often read dependent. So they're outside the range of a basic level SHC.

In response to your original question, I found that both play and review helped me memorize the SHC. I'm now using the Silver charts, and it's the same again, play 30-60mins, review 30-60mins. Any dodgy hands get posted in the Hand Eval forums for review by a professional.

Anyway, best of luck!

Originally posted by Bliausmas
No point to try to memorize that chart, when "you need to play those hands" and "you don't need to play those another hands". Print it out, play with the chart, and try to understand WHY you are making a call, a raise or a fold. After some time you'll find the starting hands chart not necessary and you'll be able to adjust it to your own needs, abilities and, of course, opponents.

The basic preflop play article does a good job of providing general information as to why to play certain starting hands and fold others. It doesn't use any math, but I'm sure it's heavily math-dependent. No doubht the more advanced articles discuss the math and more complex concepts. I look forward to going through the whole article series.