Last night I played a short 5NL cash session focused on opening hands online w/ a SmartPokerStudy.com reader w/ the screen name rocrivers.  Super cool guy, but I can only imagine now that he thinks I'm a crazy LAG donk b/c of the style I was playing.

Over 296 hands last night I was playing a 41/31 game.  YIKES!!!  That's obviously not normal, and not anywhere near optimal or even sustainable.

The reason I played this way was b/c this week I'm studying poker openings.  If you've ever read any of Tim Ferris' works you know that he talks about the Minimum Effective Dose, or MED.  This is the smallest amount that you can do that will yield the maximum benefit.

One of the MED's that's worth devoting study time to is poker openings.  Opening, or raising when first to act or even over a limper or two, is one of the most common plays we make in poker.  Almost every hand we get the chance to raise it pre-flop, so knowing this play inside and out should greatly increase our overall skill level.

I'll post an article or two and a few podcasts on this topic soon, but for now, here's the Focus Session video I made while playing with rocrivers last night.

Focus Session w/Emphasis on Opening Hands

If you record your own Poker Focus sessions, I'd love to see one.  Email me (Sky@SmartPokerStudy.com) a link to it in YouTube or in Dropbox and I'll give it a watch and share with you my thoughts.

Please let me know what you think of it in the comments below, and check out my other videos on YouTube.

Until next time, study smart, play hard and make your next session the best one yet!