How to Properly Study a Poker Video

Posted by icemonkey9 on Aug 18, 2010 in Goals | 1 comment

I've been doing a lot of studying in the poker department lately and I thought about sharing my new way of learning from videos with the people that read my blog.  For most of us, what we do to learn to play better is watch some video we download (friend at a forum or from a training site) or read some strategy article.  We watch, we yawn, we soak it in and hope it sticks.

Honestly, it was that mentality that got me a 2.8 GPA my first semester in college.  Sure, you get a passing grade and you do a hell of a lot better than most of your drunken fraternity brothers, but you know you are capable of so much more.  So how do you study better?

What I do might work for you but I know it worked for me.  In university I graduated (small brag) with a 3.75 GPA so hopefully my studying techniques can be applied over to poker.  In theory it's the same thing - you watch, you take notes, you learn.

So with any training video (for example) what I do is put it in an appropriate notebook.  Oh yeah, this means you're going to go to the local office supply store and buy:

• 100 page memo notebooks. Hopefully you can find them for a $1 each.
• A set of very nice flow-point ball-point pens.  But get the colored ones.  The pack I got was $3 and it came with 2 black, 2 blue, red and green.  Perfect!

That's it. So about $5-$10 depending on what you get but compared to the money you put on the table to play poker, it's seriously nothing.

So, we have a notebook dedicated to specific topics.  For example I have one aside for coaching sessions that I have.  I have another dedicated to all the Heads Up NLHE cash game videos I watch.  I also have one dedicated to Full Ring NLHE.  Each "entry" in the notebook states the name of the video, where it came from, the author and the publish date so that way if I need to go back and reference the video it'll be very easy.

From there I color code notes and constantly stop and play back the video for crucial concepts and specific key hands.  My color coding works:

• BLACK: General notes, general topics, general concepts
• BLUE: Specific word-for-word instructor "tips"
• RED: Hand data (your hand, villain, board, flop/turn/river with betting action)
• GREEN: Hand ranges, HUD data

The color coding of the notes makes it a LOT easier to read and frankly, less likely to ignore because it's not all one mundane color.  It has life, it has key concepts automatically highlighted for you. For me, I'm 100% more likely to re-read these notes rather than if I had just typed it out on my computer and printed them out.

Once I finish off a video, which will take about 2x the actual length of the video, I put away the notes. That's right, I do not re-read them.  I wait about a half-day or 24 hours and then re-read them, and if necessary, making more notes in the margins.  At the end, I ask myself 3 or 4 questions I might have and look to the forums or friends on AIM to get their opinions.

After that, it's time to repeat the process with the next training video.  It's not an easy way to study, but for me, it works.  I don't have great short term memory and I'm notoriously lazy in the brain. But this is a way I learn and a very interactive way for me to watch the video to make sure the concepts sink in.

So feel free to try it out and hopefully you'll start learning better.  Just don't tell the fish!