How to find your leaks?

Are my stats correct? Why am not winning as much as other players? What do I do wrong? This article will help you to answer these questions.

Introduction:

Again and again you will find threads in the forum with titles like "stats-check" or "what do I do wrong?" The author of the thread wants to find out what his leaks are through his statistics. I think - especially with beginners - this is not very helpful.

Firstly, statistics will only be significant once you have a very large amount of hands - rarely beginners have the required sample size, hence the variance can only be attempted to be explained in most cases.

Secondly, there is not much point in noting that for example the "aggression factor is a little to low". What does this mean for our game? Which hands should we play less aggressively? The statistics won't tell us that.

In this column I want to introduce three auxiliary means that could really help you to find your leaks. You neither need a huge sample size, nor a special program to acquire statistics - you have to invest some time, but without the will to learn you can't become a good poker player.

1. Post sample hands

Posting sample hands is probably the most common tip you'll get in most of the threads mentioned above. Nevertheless many players only post a lot of hands from games where they made their greatest losses. Although you will see many hands that were played the wrong way you will miss many leaks as you have only put up a very small part of your hands for discussion.

It is much more sensible to save hands or make notes while you are playing about hands you are not sure about. After the session you can take the time to analyze those hands further. If everything is alright you put that specific hand away. Often you will find very interesting hands that you are not sure about even after the analysis. These are the kind of hands you would want to post in the forum! Describe why you took this specific action in the hand. Did you have reads? Was your goal to get a call or a raise? Why did you play passively rather than aggressively?

This will enable the handjudges to follow your decision making process and find possible mistakes. Obviously ascertained questions are always welcome. In total you should describe why you played the way you did as well as you can.

2. Answer sample hands

Many amateurs don't want to comment on sample hands - you might give an answer that is completely wrong. Surely you can give some advice that is not correct, however, there are handjudges and experienced users that will post their view of things as well. Answering other sample hands has two advantages in my opinion. Firstly, you will see many critical hands and the difficult decisions coming with it. You can benefit from experiences of other players while not having to lose a big pot on the table before starting to think about these situations. Secondly you will be forced to explain your line: "Why is a raise in this position better than a call?" You will soon notice if you mastered the situation correctly or if you were unsure and should read the strategy articles again.

3. Watch coachings

The third tip is visiting the free coaching sessions offered by Pokerstrategy. An important factor for your learning success is how you participate in the coaching. Many users leave teamspeak running alongside other programs. The tables the coach is playing at are open, however, you spend the majority of the time surfing the internet or doing other activities. Other users watch the coaching like a movie. They watch the tables and listen to the coach. This can be entertaining but won't get you to discover your leaks. The most important thing to do when watching a coaching is to listen and watch actively. Every time the coach announces a hand you should decide for yourself how you would play the hand. Then you can compare how the coach played the hand and how you would have played it. In case you would have played the hand differently you can always ask the coach about why he chose this particular line or if your line would be as good.

Conclusion:

These three described methods have one thing in common: You have to put in some effort, by describing your thought process or through thinking about every hand in the coaching. Your effort will be rewarded by being able to recognize situations in which you have always made bad decisions up until now. Only if you get to know your leaks you will be able to work on them and therefore improve your game.

Good luck at the tables!

If you would like to discuss this article you can do it here:
» Thread: How to find your leaks?