Poker (Texas Holdem) - How to remember how a hand was played

General Memory Chat
1

I’ve been playing poker (Texas Holdem no limit) as a hobby for years. I love this game. One skill I would like to improve would be able to review hands I’ve played away from the poker table. In order to do this I need to remember the interesting hands that I played. Right now I can sometimes remember one or two hands (maybe).

The parts of poker hands that I would like to remember are:

  1. Players in the hand stack sizes (money/chips)
  2. Hold cards that I am dealt (2 of them)
  3. Betting actions pre flop (there can be more than one – sizes/amounts/who did it)
  4. 3 community cards (this is called the Flop)
  5. Betting actions on the flop (can be more than one – sizes/amounts/who did it)
  6. 1 additional community card (this is called the Turn)
  7. Betting actions on the flop (can be more than one – sizes/amounts/who did it)
  8. 1 additional community card (this is called the River)
  9. Betting actions on the flop (can be more than one – sizes/amounts/who did it)
  10. Results – Who won and what cards did they have?

I’m a beginner. So any advice would be great on how to do the above. Thanks in advance. - Whit

2

I am not a poker player or anything but I can see where you are getting at. I think you are focusing on the wrong thing. The goal is to win the pot right? SO your efforts should be put towards that. So maybe card counting would be something better to do or learning the odds of texas hold em.

Do you get where I am getting at? I would think who betted what is not really important because that comes to the person and how they act when they have a specific hand.

3

I don’t know how to play that kind of poker, but here are some brainstormed ideas. :slight_smile:

How many games do you want to remember? If a game is a set of facts, you could isolate each game from each other by putting each game in a separate room in a memory palace.

I’m not familiar with the game – is that the number of chips each player has?

If you post an entire game’s set of example data, then I could give you specific mnemonic images and locations.

Is it just two cards? You could use a system like the major system to make images from the cards.

If there are no more than a few, you could chain these into a story and place the story in one location in the room.

Like #2, but use a different location in that room.

If there are no more than a few, you could chain these into a story and place the story in one location in the room.

Like #2, but use a different location in that room.

If there are no more than a few, you could chain these into a story and place the story in one location in the room.

Like #2, but use a different location in that room.

If there are no more than a few, you could chain these into a story and place the story in one location in the room.

Encode the cards into a story and place them in a location in the room with the person who won.

If you provide a game’s worth of data, then I could write up a complete example with mnemonic images and locations.

4

I think this might be the answer. Let me try it out for a while. I’m excited and think this is a great start (if not the answer I’m looking for). Thanks!

5

The information he has listed is very precise, as he said, he’s a pretty avid player. With the information that he is seeking memorized, he can write it down on a piece of paper (more like a notebook) for each player and figure out their betting patterns. He’s looking for patterns. Pretty clever. With each game, all he has to do is reuse the same methods, and after a while, he’ll have enough data on each player to know if they’re bluffing or not. Over the long term, he could probably even apply this to people he’s never even played once he has enough data. I’m pretty sure it goes deeper than this, and hey, I hope it works for him. Poker players use all sorts of tricks, but if he has the smarts to seek out an advantage, more power to him. Poker player = psychologist

6

And by the way, to the OP, this is very possible to do, but it may take a while to get to the point of doing it on the fly. I’d start with just one player at first, and make your way up and seeing if it yields the results you are looking for over, say, 2 months.

I’d also suggest using your house as a journey and each room is player 1, 2, 3, etc, clockwise or counter-clockwise, whichever way you want to go. From there, you can have 10 loci in each room that you can attach links to, each link can be, for a beginner, easily 25 items. So one room, gives you a conservative figure of 250 images, but you can easily add more, as you can attach more than one item to a particular object. So, lets say 3 links each, on 10 items in room 1, each link containing 25 pieces of info. That’s 750 for each room, or 3,750 for five rooms.

All you would have to do is remember where each person sits each session. From experience, I know that people are pretty territorial about their “spot.” So, to start out, you probably wouldn’t have to worry about that. As a poker player, I know you are always looking for a constant (or a tell, if you prefer) Well, the biggest constant here that you can exploit is the instinctual, territorial seating. Probably the one tell that has yet to be exploited in poker. Go get em.

7

I would certainly listen to Josh over myself. You’re fortunate to have his input. However, if you haven’t thought about just doing it one session at a time, and writing down those results in a notebook for each player, do so. The goal here is to obtain data. Analyzing data, once you actually have it, is easy. Getting it through legitimate means (every one of those players has access to this website and these methods) is the hard part. So, think about just keeping a file on each player after each session instead of keeping it all in your head. Once you have analyzed the data, then put it in a form where you can memorize it and apply it to that specific person.

8

I don’t play poker, but I would start by learning to memorize cards. Just being able to do that will change your game incredible. Depending how you learn to memorize cards, you might use the Major Method - something worth doing anyway.

Next, it seems to me that being able to create “vertical” Memory Palaces would be good. For example, when memorizing someone’s name, I often “pile” details about them onto their heads or shoulders going upwards.

So if you’re using the Major Method and card memorization, you can stack this info up on or near the person in question. You’ll know info about the cards that are out, the exact numbers they’ve wagered and other things you need to know.

Keep in mind too that the card table and the room make perfect impromptu Memory Palaces and all the better because they’re right there in front of your eyes. You don’t have to imagine some other place to access the information.

It’s an exciting project you’ve got and I hope you’ll keep us updated on your progress! :slight_smile:

9

Card counting doesn’t really apply to Texas poker. You can’t see the other party’s hand, and the only cards you can see is four. For Blackjack, yes. but how is he supposed to count cards when he can only see his cards and the table cards? With this many cards, you don’t need a memory system. You can just do it old-school.

Essentially, I’m pretty sure what he wants to do is uncover their ultimate tell, which only the greatest poker player would probably, maybe have control over, which is their betting patterns, bluffs, calls and folds, based on whether they win or lose with a high or low hand, It’s a great idea, and I feel like he would definitely gain the advantage. I might actually try this myself. I do like your idea of using the actual person to attach information to.

11

I think theres no easy way to do it, if you want to remember a hand to analize after, you have to keep in attention, to be able to focus on a specific hand to memorize it fastly.

  1. Relative attention to alerts
  2. Full focus on all info about important hands
  3. Reviewing the hand mentally to memorize.

Nowadays a lot of times I can analize a hand in table, that allows me to have a good choose of strategy or changing of strategy, still being at the table.