Up until recently, when I started to do research and write about purchasing hand histories, I never considered buying hand histories for myself. I didn't have a reason to - or at least I didn't think I did. To me, buying hand histories seemed to be a waste of money and figured that if I wanted hand histories, I could just play and collect them myself using my heads up display (HUD).
However, as I've been doing all of these posts and video reviews, I have given more thought as to why I might buy them and more importantly, how I'd benefit from purchased hand histories.
And so that's what this article is about. Below, I give my thoughts as to why I might consider buying hand histories and the benefits of doing so.
Benefit #1: Find Regulars
A big benefit to buying hand histories is finding out whom all the regular players or "regs" are. This is a benefit because your strategy will (should) change significantly between a reg and a random player. For example, in a sit and go if a random player shoves like 7 big blinds, I'm only going to isolate with my mid aces or better and something like pocket 8s or better. However, if a regular player shoves, I'm able to isolate as wide as my mid kings, some queen-x hands and possibly all of my aces (this is simply because I'm aware of the "reg" whom I assume has a clue on how to play +EV).
In short, knowing if someone has a clue is a ton of knowledge in itself. And you can quickly reap this benefit by purchasing hand histories.
Benefit #2: Table Selection
A benefit to buying hand histories and finding out who all the regs are is being able to table select around them. You just pass money back and forth while paying the rake when you sit at a table full of regs. However, when you know who they are, you can focus on finding and sitting down with all the fishes.
Benefit #3: Review Winning Players' Games
A benefit that I'm sure most people haven't thought of is being able to review other winning players' games. While you cannot (always) see their hole cards, you can still get a feel for how tight/loose they are, how often they steal, their bet sizing and other things. Every so often you'll see these players show down a hand and then you can go back through the entire hand and dissect it street by street or play by play.
Benefit #4: Learn Basic Strategy
Something else I thought I could benefit from by buying and reviewing hand histories is learning basic strategy. Take sit and go's for instance. Many players when first starting out have no clue about the push/fold aspect when you're around 10 big blinds or less. They make the mistake of raising with <10bbs and then folding. However, by purchasing and reviewing hand histories you'll notice that a majority of winners are in push/fold mode when they're short stacked. You might also notice that a basic strategy amongst winning players is that most raise when they're first to enter a pot as opposed to limping in. These are just a few of the many basic strategies that you might pick up when reviewing purchased hand histories.
Benefit #5: Have Stats on Everyone
An obvious benefit of buying hand histories is having tons of stats on everyone. Instead of having to wait 10, 20 or 30 hands to have an idea of how tight/loose someone is or how often they raise verses limp, you'll know all of this from the get go with purchased hand histories. Having these stats right away will mean your decisions will have more defined reasoning or reads behind them as opposed to being vague, if not somewhat unsure.
Benefit #6: Stats Are More Relevant With Large Samples
Not only will you have more stats on everyone when you buy hand histories, many of the stats you have on players will be more relevant. What I mean by this is that if you have 100 hands on someone, their stats and ultimately your decisions can be skewed by such a small sample. However, if you have 1,000 hands on someone, then their stats will reflect closer to their actual tendencies. The more hand histories you buy, the more stats you'll have and the more accurate your stats and decisions are.
Benefit #7: Easier to Play Different and/or New Games with Small Samples
If you like to play multiple games or want to try a new game, you can buy hand histories so that you can review how the game is played, the basic strategies that is implemented and have the stats on your opponents when you sit down to play for the first time. So even though you'll technically be new and may not have a big edge in the games you're sitting down to play, with purchased hand histories you'll lessen your learning curve and increase your chances of being successful.
Final Thoughts on Benefits from Buying Hand Histories
Anyway, I guess the point is that even though I never considered purchasing hand histories in the past, you can bet that with all the benefits I listed above I would definitely consider buying them now. The cost is relatively small, especially when you compare it to the money that you'll either save or make by using purchased hand histories.
You may also want to read: The best places to buy hand histories
So, what do you think? Are there any benefits that you can think of that come from buying hand histories? Let us know in the comments below.
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