Poker Study Routine: Hand History Review & Improvement Framework

Key Takeaway

Your poker skill is built away from the table, not at it. Combining 30 minutes of active study (hand review, solver drills, weakness analysis) with 60 minutes of play will accelerate your growth far beyond players who only grind volume.

The Golden Ratio of Study Time

Divide your study time into 70% active learning + 30% passive learning.

• Active learning (70%): Hand history review, solver drills, range analysis — activities where you think and analyze
• Passive learning (30%): Watching poker videos, reading strategy articles, podcasts — activities where you absorb knowledge

Passive learning alone does not improve your game. You can watch 100 hours of content, but 30 minutes of analyzing your own hands produces greater growth. Use passive learning as a gateway to discover new concepts, then internalize them through active study.

Hand History Review: The 4-Step Framework

The best time to review is immediately after your session, while your memory is fresh. Analyze each hand street by street.

Step 1: Preflop

• Did your open/call/3-bet decisions align with your position and range charts?
• Did you account for stack depth and table dynamics?

Step 2: Flop

• Was the reasoning behind your c-bet/check decision clear?
• Did you understand the interaction between board texture and villain's range?
• Was your bet sizing appropriate?

Step 3: Turn

• Did you recognize how the turn card affected both ranges?
• Was your barrel/check/fold decision consistent with your overall plan?

Step 4: River

• Was the logic behind your value bet/bluff/check decision sound?
• Were your pot odds calculations and range estimates accurate?
• Did you evaluate the quality of your decision regardless of the outcome?

The key to effective review is evaluating the process, not the result. Find mistakes in hands you won. Acknowledge correct decisions in hands you lost.

How to Use Solvers Effectively

Solver tools like GTO Wizard should be used to understand "why this action is optimal" — not to memorize solutions.

• Drill approach: Select your action in a solver-presented spot. When wrong, analyze why the solver prefers a different line
• Pattern recognition: Focus on patterns across board textures and positions rather than individual hands
• Bridge to practice: Consciously apply patterns discovered in solver study during your next session

Solver study works best at 3-4 sessions per week, 20-30 minutes each. Focusing on a single spot (e.g., BTN vs BB flop c-bet strategy) is far more effective than jumping between multiple spots.

Weekly Study Plan

Day	Activity	Duration	Details
Monday	Hand review	30-60 min	Street-by-street analysis of marked hands from weekend sessions
Tuesday	Solver drills	30 min	Practice the week's focus spot (e.g., 3-bet pot flop strategy)
Wednesday	Solver drills	30 min	Deepen the same spot or practice on varied board textures
Thursday	Solver drills	30 min	Focus on your identified weakness spot
Friday	Weekly recap	20-30 min	Summarize the week's learnings, select next week's focus spot
Sat-Sun	Play + apply	Flexible	Consciously apply study learnings, mark hands for review

This plan is a template. Adjust it to fit your schedule, but maintain a minimum of 4-5 study days per week.

Weakness Discovery & Focus Cycle

Two Methods for Finding Weaknesses

• Data-driven: Analyze HUD stats, win rates by position, and profit/loss by spot type for objective insights
• Subjective: Record decisions where you felt uncertain during play. Spots with high uncertainty are your weaknesses

Setting Priorities

You cannot fix every weakness at once. Prioritize using two criteria:

• Frequency: How often does this spot arise? (Higher frequency = higher priority)
• Dollar impact: How much do you lose when you get it wrong? (Larger impact = higher priority)

The 2-Week Focus Cycle

1. Select your highest-priority weakness
2. Study only that spot intensively for two weeks (solver drills + hand review)
3. After two weeks, assess your improvement and move to the next weakness

Depth over breadth is the principle. One spot at a time, mastered thoroughly.

Balancing Play and Study

Adjust your play-to-study ratio based on your skill level.

Level	Study Ratio	Play Ratio	Reasoning
Beginner	50%	50%	Foundational concepts are top priority. Equal play experience also needed
Intermediate	30-40%	60-70%	Core concepts established; build experience through volume
Advanced	20-30%	70-80%	Fine-tuning edges; high volume reveals subtle leaks

Beginners need more study time proportionally. Grinding volume without fundamentals only reinforces bad habits.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Problem	Correction
Watching videos and calling it study	Passive learning has limited impact on improvement	Maintain at least 70% active learning
Results-oriented review	Skipping won hands, only analyzing losses	Evaluate decision quality regardless of outcome
Memorizing solver outputs	Context-free memorization fails in real play	Understand the "why" behind each action
Scattered weakness study	Working on multiple topics simultaneously	Focus on one weakness per 2-week cycle
Volume without study	Repeating the same mistakes endlessly	Invest at least 30% of your playing time in study
Pursuing the perfect plan	Spending time planning instead of doing	Start with an imperfect 30-minute session today

Summary & Checklist

Source

This article is based on content from Smart Poker Study / SplitSuit Strategy.