Main Question: When you’re analyzing a hand in a post session review what aspects of the hand are important to find out (like SPR and hand ranges) and how do you identify if the hand was played correctly or if there’s a leak?

As a beginner, there’s plenty of hands I’d like to review that are not thread worthy but are important to look over and see if I’m using fundamentals correctly and approaching the hand in the right way but I'm not sure how to start.

1) What parts of the hand should I know or calculate?
Here are the things I can think of:
- Effective stack sizes
- Review reads/notes/history on the villain
- SPR
- Villain’s range on each street and your equity
- EV calculations

Here’s an example of a hand I was trying to review:

Bovada .02/.05 NL
SB $1.18 (23.6 BB)
BB $3.59 (71.8 BB)
UTG $7.27 (145.4 BB)
UTG+1 $4.95 (99 BB)
Hero $4.75 (95 BB)
MP2 $0.58 (11.6 BB)
MP3 $4.47 (89.4 BB)
CO $7.89 (157.8 BB)
BTN $4.79 (95.8 BB)

Villain just sat down a couple hands ago so no reads

Preflop: Hero dealt JcJd
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, 3 folds, BTN calls $0.20, 2 folds

V range {22+, A2s+, K9s+, QTs+, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s, A9o+, KTo+, QTo+} equity – 66.73%
2) Even if I had reads, how can you be confident that you have an accurate range for V and it’s not really wide or tight?

Flop: ($0.47) 7c5s6s (2 players)
Hero bets $0.35, BTN calls $0.35

Equity – 63.75%

Turn: ($1.17) 9c
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.55, Hero calls $0.55

Equity - 54.21%
Thought V’s range at this point would have flush and straight draws, sets, 2 pair, over pairs, middle and bottom pair, and a couple over cards. Called b/c I felt like V would bet his entire range if I checked b/c I “showed weakness”

River: ($2.27) 5c
Hero checked

Equity – 61.19%
Equity vs V calling range – 18.55%
Seemed like a pretty obvious c/f

3) How do I know if my thought process through the hand was on the right track?
4) Is this a spot where I would do an EV calculation or should I just do those when there’s an AI? Is it even realistic to do one on the turn or flop?
5) Do you use EV calculations throughout the hand to see if other lines are better than the one I took?

Your thought process is pretty good. It's all about ranges and equity.

One thing to do is remove QQ+ and probably AK from villain's calling range pre-flop. Also discount A9o. Even ATo is iffy.

If villain's calling range is JJ-22, AQs-A2s, AQ-J, K9s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 54s that's still a bit wide, as cold-calling 14% of the time in that spot is a bit too much, although it might be quite typical at 5NL.

The equity calculation will still be fairly accurate nonetheless when you have a decent overpair. If you had AK by contrast, you'd be an underdog on that flop.

The tricky thing is working out villain's continuance range vs a flop bet. I think most players are folding most overcards on that board, although some will float. The turn is a pretty bad card for you, but check-calling is OK because villain can bet with worse, including a bunch of pair+draw combos. You're never way ahead though.

You can do an EV calculation on the river, but it should be a fold if villain bets big.

When you've gained experience of doing equity calculations like this, you can start thinking about not just how you play one hand (like jacks) on this board, but how you'd play your whole range. When you can visualize a whole range, you can immediately see things like "This (wet) flop strongly favours the player in position" and plan accordingly.

You're already thinking more deeply about how to play a hand than most beginners, so that's good.

Thanks Arty, that helps alot. I've asked something like this in another thread but it's still kinda confusing. (i hope this makes sense) When doing an EV calculation on the river when its my action do I make a tree that looks something like this:
-betting X
--FE%(V fold)
--% for V to call
--% for V to raise X
------equity for me to win = call
------EV calc me to go AI
------equity I would be beat = fold
--% for V to go AI
------EV calc to call AI
-Betting Y
--EV calc of V fold
--EV calc of V raising X
--EV calc of V going AI
--EV calc of calling
-Betting AI
--etc
-Checking
--EV calc V check
--EV calc V bets X
--etc

Looks long but it seems other than betting/calling AI, the tree will get really complicated. Does that sound about right?

What about combos? should i find those? and how does that differ from my equity?

The EV calcs can get pretty complex, even when just looking at the river.

You still have to estimate a fair bit, based on villain's likely range and how he is likely to play it. If you were playing at Galfond's stakes, then this sort of thing would be very useful, and I know that the likes of Galfond and Haxton use spreadsheets to "solve" some river spots.
In the micros, I think you'd be better off just gaining experience and a feel for it. With practice, you just kind of "know" that your hand works best as a bet-call, bet-fold, check-call, check-fold etc.

re: Combos. With Equilab, you can count the precise number of combos to find out how often you're ahead/behind. It's just a bit fiddly to select the right suits.
It's beneficial to look at a handful of hands this closely, so you can see how different turn/river cards can massively alter the strength of your hand/range, but with the almost infinite possibilities for board runouts it's not like you can "solve" poker by running a bunch of calculations on a few specific spots. You have to actually play sometimes.

You might be better off just spending 20 minutes a day on the Equilab equity trainer and Scenario analyser, so you can visualize hands/ranges, instead of doing lots of complex maths that might not help your game all that much.

Pretty much just using the same thought process as I do in game and see if I'll come to different results.

Thought process of course includes all of the list you mentioned in your list, mostly focusing on ranges, but not really doing many equity calculations because I think I got quite good "feel" for it, by just thinking about "Nuts to Air" ratios for villains ranges, probably should do the equity calculations more.

Thanks Arty! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any steps.

I wanted to do a separate post, but this thread is really close to what I wanted to ask.

Sorry if it's a derail, but taking a step back, how can someone get to the point of the OP? I wanted to ask more of a level question about it, but that's the premise. If you've read the books (basic poker concepts), worked with a coach (mostly HH, so spot based play), watched the video (macro version of coaching, but doesn't go over tools and concepts like the OP here), etc. what can one do to take the next step and start progressing to a higher level of thinking? Really, just a simpler version of the OP, how do you learn to learn or what steps should one take to learn properly and on a higher level...if that makes sense?

I feel like I'm just behind the OP on the thought process meter. I've obviously went through books, this site, coaches, training videos, etc. so I have a good starting knowledge base, but because of all the various types of study feel scatter brained opposed to on a linear path of improving or feel like I'm progressing on a good path because of all the various styles and concepts.

I guess I'm asking how to learn. I think I asked a while back but got very elementary responses like "read the site". When I first came here around 2004 thought processes were better, but really complex for me at the time and now HH's are things like "fold pre" but not really expounding upon concepts and thought processes.

Hope this post isn't too erratic, I just don't know how to properly explain the aspect of knowing the basics and even having success at the tables, but how to close the gap between that level and higher thought process levels like some of the posts here and top pros that know how to analyze on a higher level.

Thanks for any and all help.

Sorry again if I derailed OP, just looking for a similar answer but more basic.

@Backdoor... for me, my growth as a player took a leap forward when I started to think in terms of ranges instead of specific hands.
Firstly, by thinking of what ranges I was targeting with my valuebets and bluffs (i.e. I was putting villain on a range, instead of just considering the absolute strength of my own hand).
I learned this thru a mix of experience, and playing with Equilab.

Once I'd got used to that, I started thinking about how I'd play my whole range in each situation.
I was helped in this respect by watching Matt Janda's videos where he writes down every combo in this range using flopzilla and notepad.

Thanks Arty, I'll probably throw this same post as it's own thread down the line just for more opinions.

I'll look up both the things you mention, so thanks for that.

Working with a pro I was alright with spots and some of what the OP here mentions like effective stacks, etc. for MTT's. I haven't really played since Black Friday and the whole Merge/Lock nonsense, but recently started playing 1/2NL live and have the post flop leaks that most get switching from MTT's to full ring, but mainly noticed I am a level 1 or 2 thinker that happens to have some knowledge of spots pre and some post flop tricks.

I almost feel like I took a step back playing live cash.

Thanks again.

A quick tip:

Playing the lowest limits of live will definitely not improve your overall game, because in order to make good profit, you actually usually have to dumb down your game.

For example yesterday I had this giant ubersuper whale playing who actually thought he was poker pro or something and was playing with VPIP 80 and just bluffing us 24/7 wwwith total crap like 72o because "he didn think we had anything". So this made me to play with 100% value range post and preflop because there wasn't ever any point in balancing ranges because I had 0 FE if he was in the pot, of course my value range were pretty much anything higher than bottom pair postflop, but still it wasn't really any fun playing when you could make +EV decisions by just spamming x/call with any made hands.

One hand I squeezed with AA, this whale V and one other flats OOP, flop QJ4hsh and he just open shoves 2-3x pot with ATo. And at this point I actually didn't have that strong of read of him.

Yeah, it's one of those things where I wanted to play full time again, but my local casino ditched their nightly so I decided to jump into 2/3...just looking to pick up a buyin or two a day in the evening when Joe Blow is there after work blowing off steam or Johnny Alcoholic is splashing around.

Agreed you're not going to really grow your game. Every now and then someone waiting for the 5/10 game or a good Omaha player would sit down waiting for a seat. I was good enough to beat the game, but didn't have the roll to lose monster pots in high variance situation....ex. KK < AJs on a QK7hh flop....something like this.

It's harder to analyze (and remember pots, especially after an 18 hour session) in live games. I started playing Bovada as sngs and lower mtt's were my bread and butter. So I'm hoping to track when I have a roll to play, but I can tell there is a learning or level discrepancy and I can't analyze or think in terms like regs or even some of the higher level players here. I'd like to take the time off to improve and find out how to learn and get better educated instead of trying a bunch of methods at once...just build a learning system or path to actively get better. I feel like I can talk poker with anyone, but don't know all the concepts nor can I explain certain things that high level thinks intuitively grasp.

I could not disagree with this more. I play 5NL on Bovada, the lowest limit on the site and sometimes some 1/2 live. Most of this will be referring to online play, but I think the principles are the same whether its online or live.

I believe that to succeed you need to master the fundamentals first because they are the basis of the advanced plays. Parts of the advanced plays use the fundamentals: you can’t resteal from the SB if you don’t know why someone steals from the BTN. Playing in the micros is where you start building that foundation, because where floating may not work in the micros, the fundamentals will. Wait until the next level to practice floating.

Also the micros provide a safe place to learn new things because you can make mistakes or experiment with new plays and not worry about busting your roll or getting exploited by better players. This is the place where you can learn basic math, get comfortable with ranges, get to understand position, etc. You need to already know those if you’re going to win at the next level. If you already know all the fundamentals and your BR allows it, by all means, move up, the micros aren’t for you, but some people still need to work on them.

The purpose of this thread was to get advice on how to identify which skills needed work and to get the tools I needed so I could fix them on my own. For example, everyone says the micros are all about value betting – that’s all you need to do. Well last night, I hit TPTK and was ready to pound this dumbass fish for 3 streets expecting him to show up with middle pair, but I ended up value towning myself. That showed me that I haven’t yet mastered that skill and need to work on it and there’s no way I’ll make it in the next level until I’ve done that. Hopefully now I can think about that hand critically and approach it in the right way so next time I won’t make that mistake.

@Backdoor – I don’t think high level players intuitively grasp things. I think they’ve worked really hard, studied a lot, and have a lot more experience than most people.

@doctor – I think its insulting and arrogant to say, especially in the BQ forum, that you have to dumb down your game to play the lower limits - not everyone has a PHD like you.

I'm talking the difference between live and online poker, I'm not bashing online micros like NL5 or even NL2, because everyone has to start from somewhere. But what I've gathered is that the 1/2 live game I've been playing for couple of months now, actually probably is easier than NL5 or even NL2 online.

It's just kind of boring sometimes when there are only max 2 okayish players playing and rest are just either drunken droolers or massive nits who have it 100% of the time when they make even one bet postflop. And I've noticed that most of the okayish players aren't even looking to get in pots against me because rest of the table is so much softer.

part of what i was trying to say is that if 1/2 is easy/boring for you then move up to 2/5. If you're not ready for 2/5 then work on the parts of your game at 1/2 that you need to win at 2/5. I believe that you can definitely keep growing in the lower levels.

Don't have higher than 1/2 where I live and neither would I have a bankroll for higher yet.

What about getting online? Like Bovada or something?

Yeah of course I'm trying to improve my game all the time and I play online, just pointed out the fact that live cash games (the games I play) have pretty much no similarities with online poker and can be beaten with quite little knowledge of poker to my experiences.

I remembered, another thing to add on the list should be fold equity which I'll need to do after I range the V. It seems like everything should basically stems from the ranges I use. If anyone can think of anything else let me know. Or if someone wants to talk about how you play around with ranges or something you do that people may not know about that would be great too.