Why check before and after a session?
A checklist before sets the plan while you are calm. A checklist after separates what happened from what you decided. Together they give you one page per session, and a pile of those pages shows patterns you cannot see from memory.
What goes on the pre-session checklist?
- Game and length: where you are playing and the end time you set.
- Money rules: your buy-in rule and your stop-loss, written down.
- Three decisions to watch today, taken from your last review.
- Triggers to expect, and the step you will take for each.
What goes on the post-session checklist?
- The time you felt your decisions change, if they did.
- Three hands to review, with the numbers at each decision.
- One change for next time.
Do it within an hour of finishing, while the hands are fresh. Keep to three hands: a short review you finish beats a long one you put off. Run each hand through the matching calculator and write the number beside it.
How should I keep the record?
One page per session, kept in the same place. Paper or a notes file is enough. After five sessions, read the pages together and write down the pattern: the hour your unsure hands begin, the trigger that came up most, the change you made and whether it held.
How do I use the checklists with a coach?
Bring the pages to a session. The review starts from your own notes and hands, so a coach can see in one sitting what you noticed and what you missed. Questions before you book go by email to hello@georgelipoker.com.
What does one page look like?
Copy this layout into a notes file or onto paper. It fits on one page and takes under ten minutes across both halves.
| Part | Fill in |
|---|---|
| Before: game and length | Where, and the end time |
| Before: money rules | Buy-in rule and stop-loss, in buy-ins |
| Before: three decisions to watch | Taken from the last review |
| Before: triggers and steps | One step per trigger |
| After: when decisions changed | The time, or "did not" |
| After: three hands | Price and equity at each decision |
| After: one change | A single line for next time |
Keep the language plain. The page is for you, and a line like "skipped the price twice after the third hour" is more useful than a long paragraph.
Why do session checklists get dropped?
Mostly because they grow. A checklist that starts with seven lines and ends with thirty gets skipped on the first tired night. Keep each half to the lines in the table above, write in short phrases, and cut a line if you skipped it twice in a row. The second reason is that they get filled in only after bad sessions, which turns the page into a complaint instead of a record. A page from a quiet, ordinary session is the most useful one to read later, because it shows what your normal looks like.
What should I do first?
Copy the pre-session list and fill it in before your next session.
Copy the post-session list and fill it in within an hour of finishing.
After five sessions, read the pages together and write down the pattern.
Questions
- How long should each checklist take?
- A few minutes each, short enough to keep up. If one takes more than ten minutes, cut it down.
- Do I need software for it?
- No. One page of paper or a notes file is enough.
- What should I do with the pages?
- Read five together to find a pattern, and bring them to a session if you want a second set of eyes.