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Using Live Hand Records

In Poker Plays You Can Use, Hand 11 shows me completing the small blind in a multi-way pot with Kh5h. It is checked to a player I have been studying for a while.  He bets on a board of 9h9dTd from the last position. I check-raise. I did this because I knew he never bets out on the flop with trips or a boat. With this knowledge, I am able to fold him out of a Ten on the turn.

How did I know that he always slowplays his big hands on paired boards?

I knew because for about ten hours I wrote down every hand he played into a sheet like this:

Live poker hand record sheet, eight seats
Live poker hand record sheet, nine seats

Here is how it would be used.

So at a $2-$5, I am on the button with AK, I raise two limpers.  One of them calls.

$72 in the pot and the short stack is about $700, for a Stack To Pot ratio of 10.  The board is 4A9r (as opposed to monochrome or two suited) The Villain check-calls $50.

King on the turn, no back door flush. Vilain Check-folds to $150 bet.

I used these shamelessly at the tables.  No one ever even asked what I was doing.  I don’t think most players even noticed.

I then went back and reviewed every hand I saw my target play.  I got a good sense of his range,  and tendencies.  I was able to go back and confirm that he would bet paired boards, but not with trips or a boat.  As you see from the book, I was able to exploit this pattern once I noticed it.

Doug Hull
Doug Hull
I am a poker player and author of the book "Poker Plays You Can Use". Contact me if you are looking to improve your live poker game.
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