Reinventing your poker game part 2
Having hand histories is a big advantage
Next step, and admittedly this is a controversial one, but since you can be sure others are doing it, you too need to at least consider taking advantage of getting hand histories on other players. There are a number of different hand history selling sites where you can purchase hand histories. It is well worth doing this, so you will already have a lot of information that you can study via your poker tracking software on many of the opponents that you are likely to face. Information is of vital importance in the game of poker.
Once you receive your hand histories, you will of course need to import them into your poker tracking software. You can import them into an existing database or if you really want a fresh start, you could even create a whole new database. When creating a database it’s not a bad idea to have a reference to the date you created it within the actual name of the database, for example I named my most recent database Nov18th2009, that way if you have several databases it’s easy to keep track of the order in which you created your databases should you ever wish to review them.
Emulate the better players
The next step is to look through your hand histories to see what the good players are doing. You will need a large database in order to glean useful information. For those players who use Hold’Em Manager there’s a useful article about this that you can access in the Articles section.
Going through the statistical data alone could take up several articles, but TAG (Tight aggressive play) is still the normal style for most (not all) winning players especially in small stake games, note TAG play alone is no guarantee of success however.
Adjusting your poker game
When reviewing past data, check to see how your stats compare to these winning players and if one or more of your main stats differ substantially from theirs then chances are that there are leaks in your game. Check to see what hands you win and lose the most money with and think carefully about what adjustments you could make to improve your game.
Become a feared poker player
Example say you notice you are not stealing the blinds as much as other players, perhaps you have only been stealing with pairs or 2 picture cards, well don’t overreact and start raising with pure crap, but do consider throwing in medium suited connectors in to your stealing arsenal, you don’t even have to steal with them every time, even a fraction of the time means an increase in your blind stealing and may be all the adjustment you need to make you a more fearful opponent.
Blend the changes seamlessly into your game
Although it’s important that you recognise you might need to change your game it’s also important that you can incorporate these changes into your overall game, i.e. make sure any fine tuning you do doesn’t throw you whole game into turmoil, if necessary experiment at lower stakes than your regular game until you are comfortable that you have achieved the right new balance to your overall game. Then return to your regular stakes better and stronger than before.
Lastly, remember it is a positive action in your part to seek this reinvention, it should be done often, nothing wrong with doing it every couple of months in fact.
Hope this poker article will help you on your way to improving your poker game, keep this article in mind next time you want to via reinvent your poker game!
