The 2+2 Forum Archives: Beginner's Guide to Self-Analyzing SNG Hands

This post is a beginner's guide to using PokerTracker and PokerStove to analyze individual hands.

I've noticed a lot of new 2+2ers looking for help with their game. One common theme is that players are marginally profitable at their current level, but even after thousands of SNGs they don't find their game improving. They aren't sure what mistakes they are making and are basically playing the same way day in and day out.

As a student of poker, and a relative newcomer myself, I thought I'd share some of the techniques I've used to help analyze and improve my own SNG play.

I started studying poker in November'05. I've been playing and studying poker (in equal parts) full-time since then. I began at the $5+1s on PartyPoker with an initial deposit of $200. Since I started 10 weeks ago, I've grown my bankroll to its present value of $8k. I've moved up through the $10+1s, $20+2s, $30+3s and am currently playing the $50+5s. Once my bankroll hits $11k, I'll move up to the $109s. Well, enough about me and onto the guide.

How to Analyze Your Hands with PokerTracker and PokerStove.

NOTE: If you don't already have them, you'll need PokerTracker (www.pokertracker.com) and PokerStove (www.pokerstove.com). This guide assumes that you have already configured PokerTracker to automatically store your SNG hand histories. It also assumes that you've been playing SNGs for a while and have a basic understanding of poker.

1) Launch PokerTracker (PT).

2) From the menu, select File->Tournament Player Statistics. Click on the "My Stats" button in the top-left corner or select your screen name from the list of players on the left.

3) Click on the "Preferences" tab.

4) In the "Tournament Dates" option box, click on "Specific Date" and double-check to make sure it is set for the day you played the SNGs that you want to review.

5) Click on the "Tourney Notes" tab.

6) In the "Tournament Detail" portion of the screen, click on the "Tourney #/Name" column heading until it is sorted in ascending order.

7) Double-click on the first line, which should be your first SNG. It should turn bold to let you know it's been selected.

8) Click on the "Game Notes" tab.

9) Click on the "Get All" button located in the top right. This will make sure all the hands in the SNG get listed in case there were more than 100 hands.

10) Click on the "Game #" column heading until they are in ascending order.

11) Single-click on the first line to select it, which should be your first hand.

12) Click on the little green "r" button located in the top left. This launches the replayer with your first hand selected.

13) Once the replayer has launched, use the left and right arrow keys to step through the hand. You can also use the F, T, and R hotkeys to jump directly to the Flop, Turn and River respectively.

14) Ensure that the "Known hole cards" option is selected in the top-right corner, in the "Show" option box. If you haven't already done so, you should launch PokerStove now.

15) To advance to the next hand, click on the symbol that looks like the play button on your VCR, located in the top left corner of the window. It's basically a triangle pointing right, and it should be to the right of the white text box with the Game# in it.

16) Watch each hand play out. Since you have the benefit of seeing the known hole cards in advance, you can quickly get a feel for the different types of moves that other players make. Make a note of what works and what doesn't work. Just watching all these hands play out allows to absorb a lot more information than what you get when playing, and can help accelerate your learning curve.

17) When you get to a hand that you put chips in with, and if you can also see your opponents hole cards, input the known starting hands into PokerStove. Type in your hand in the Player 1 box and type in the other players' hands in the boxes below. Select "Monte Carlo" below the Evaluate button, then click the Evaluate button. Look to see what your Equity% is relative to the other cards. This gives you an idea of their relative strengths to each other.

18) Step forward through the hand until you get to the flop. Make a note of which hands limp vs. raise preflop, and what people call preflop raises with. Once you see the flop, input the three cards into the "Board" section of PokerStove, then click Evaluate again. Notice how the flop affects the equity% of the different hands in play. Make sure you understand why they change the way they do. If one hand increases in value by quite a bit and you can't immediately see why, take the time to find out.

19) Advance through the flop round and make a note of who bets what, and why. Ask yourself what mistakes people are making.

20) Advance to the turn, and input the additional card into the "Board" section of PokerStove, then click Evaluate again. Again, note how the card affects everybody's equity. Advance through the turn bets and see how people play the turn. Are they bluffing? Are they just calling with the best hand because they are afraid someone else's hand is better?

21) Advance to the river and notice everybody's betting pattern. How often do the people you play against bluff on the river? How often do they push with only one pair? How often do they turn over a busted draw?

22) If you learned something new from this hand, jot it down in your poker journal. You can make a reference to the Game# if you wish to review it later. You can also add this hand to your "Favorites" in PokerTracker by clicking on the "Add Hand" link towards the bottom of the replayer window.

23) Repeat steps 15-22 until you finish the SNG.

24) Loop back to step 7 and double-click the next SNG. Continue reviewing SNGs until you've reviewed all your SNGs for that session. Make a note of any common themes you've noticed in your play. One mistake I caught in my play early on was that I was too passive on the turn when I had the best hand, and was giving away too many free cards to people who were drawing.

25) If you see two or three mistakes that you are making a lot, put them on a sticky on your monitor and look at during your next session. Try to focus on correcting these mistakes until you find you aren't making them anymore. When you review this next session, hopefully you'll find that you aren't making those mistakes any more. You should also find other mistakes or less critical mistakes that you didn't focus on the first time around. This is a very iterative process that I used for weeks. Keep working on whatever are your most critical mistakes at the time, knocking them out one by one. When you can't find any mistakes in your play on your own, then it's time to post questionable hands to 2+2 and seek out the advice of more experienced players. This is also a good time to hire someone to review your hand histories.

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