LiveHands Blog
Strategy guides, hand tracking tips, and insights for serious live poker players.
Shaun Deeb Called the POY Format Broken. It Just Put Him in Position to Make History.
Deeb spent most of the Las Vegas summer trailing. He leaves it leading the Player of the Year race he publicly criticized — and one leg from a title nobody has won.
WSOP Player of the Year: How the Race Works and Who's Leading
The WSOP Player of the Year race now spans three festivals and a full calendar year. How the scoring works, who leads, and what's left to play for.
WSOP Main Event Attendance Is Falling. It's Not Who You Think.
We tracked 60,000 WSOP Main Event attendance records across nine years. The decline isn't who you think — it's a first-timer collapse.
What Are You Really Buying Into?
Joe McKeehen argues rising rake is quietly breaking the economics of small buy-in tournaments. The math backs him up — and points to a structural fix that benefits the players it affects most.
WSOP Main Event Structure Analysis: What the Blind Levels Tell You
A detailed breakdown of the WSOP Main Event blind structure — starting stacks, level duration, escalation pace, and what each phase means for your tournament strategy.
Shaun Deeb Thinks the New POY Format Is Broken. He Has a Point — and a Problem.
The WSOP overhauled its Player of the Year scoring for 2026. Shaun Deeb says it overweights big fields. The math says his real complaint is that it stopped underweighting them.
How to Submit Poker Hands to Your Coach (The Right Way)
How to send hands to your poker coach in the format they need, how many to send, and how coaches can turn a live student's hand histories into a diagnosis.
How to Set Up a Poker Study Routine Around Your Live Sessions
A poker study routine built around live sessions: a 15-minute post-session review, a weekly study block, a three-question framework and a simple study log.
How Many Hands Do You Need to Find Poker Leaks?
Learn how many hands you actually need to identify poker leaks. Practical sample size guidance for live players working with smaller databases.
Best Poker Books for Live Tournament Players
Seven poker books that sharpen your live tournament game — from satellite strategy and short stack play to bluffing, mental game, and theory.
Results-Oriented vs Process-Oriented Thinking in Poker
Learn why process-oriented poker thinking beats results-oriented thinking for long-term improvement. A mindset shift that changes how you review hands.
Poker Hand Notation: A Quick Guide to Shorthand for Live Players
Learn standard poker hand notation and shorthand symbols for positions, actions, and hand descriptions. A quick reference for logging live hands at the table.
How Many Hands Do You Actually Remember After a Live Session?
Most live poker players remember only 3–5 hands from a full session. Learn why memory decay works against you and how to capture the hands that matter.
Choosing the Right Poker Analysis Tool for Your Skill Level
A practical guide to choosing between PokerTracker 4, Holdem Manager 3, Hand2Note, and other poker analysis tools based on your experience, goals, and platform.
Who Owns Your Poker Hands? A Guide to Reading the Fine Print
Most poker players tap 'I agree' without reading. Learn what poker app privacy policies actually say about your hand data — who owns it, who can sell it, and what rights you have.
Tournament Poker Preparation: How to Use Hand Data from Past Events to Play Better
Learn how to prepare for poker tournaments using hand data from past events. Review by stage, position, and opponent to find your edge.
Paper Poker Journals vs Hand Tracking Apps: Which Is Better?
Paper poker journals, including SplitSuit's, vs hand tracking apps: speed, data quality, export, and cost compared, to find the best way to record live hands.
WSOP 2026 Complete Player's Guide: Schedule, Travel, Structures, and Tips
Everything you need for the 2026 World Series of Poker — 100 bracelet events, schedule highlights, Main Event structure breakdown, Las Vegas travel and lodging, dining options, and practical tips from experienced attendees.
LiveHands: The Live Poker Hand Tracking App Built for Speed
LiveHands is a mobile hand logging app for live tournament poker players. Log hands at the table between deals, review them in detail, and export to PokerTracker 4, Holdem Manager 3, and Hand2Note.
Card Room Etiquette: The Unwritten Rules Every Live Player Should Know
The unwritten rules of live poker card rooms, from protecting your hand to tipping dealers, plus the phone rules at TDA, WSOP and EPT events. A practical guide for players new to live tournaments.
The 8 Most Common Leaks in Live Tournament Poker
Spot the 8 most common leaks in live tournament poker and learn how hand data reveals each one. Fix your biggest weaknesses faster.
What Is SPR in Poker and Why Does It Matter for Hand Review?
SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) shapes every postflop decision in live poker. Learn how to calculate SPR, what the key thresholds mean, and how to use SPR to sharpen your hand reviews.
Fastroll vs LiveHands: Which Live Poker Tracking App Is Right for You?
Head-to-head comparison of Fastroll and LiveHands for live poker hand tracking. We break down speed, export formats, pricing, and analysis tool compatibility.
Online to Live Poker: The Complete Transition Guide
Moving from online to live poker? Learn what skills transfer, what's different, and how to avoid the most common mistakes online players make at the table.
Bankroll Management for Live Tournament Players
How many buy-ins do you need for live tournaments? Practical bankroll rules, variance reality, festival budgeting, paying for buy-ins and cashing out, staking, and when to move up or down.
How to Read Tournament Structures Like a Pro
Learn to evaluate poker tournament structures before you register. Analyze starting stacks, blind levels, escalation pace, and plan your strategy by stage.
How to Find Your Poker Leaks Using Hand Data
Learn how to use hand data from tracking apps and analysis software to find and fix systematic leaks in your live poker game.
How to Review Poker Hands Effectively: A Step-by-Step Process
A street-by-street process for reviewing poker hands, with a worked example: when to review, which hands to pick, and how to turn analysis into action.
The Data Gap: Why Live Poker Players Are Flying Blind
Online players get automatic hand histories. Live players get almost nothing. Here's how the live poker data gap holds back your game — and what you can do about it.
Best Live Poker Hand Tracking Apps: A Complete Comparison for Serious Players
Compare every live poker hand tracking app—LiveHands, Fastroll, Pokerscope, and more—on speed, export formats, pricing, and features.
How to Get Live Poker Hands into PT4, HM3, and Hand2Note
Import live poker hands into PokerTracker 4, Holdem Manager 3, and Hand2Note: format requirements, manual and auto-import steps, and fixes for common errors.
The Live Tournament Player's Guide: Everything You Need Before, During, and After the Event
A comprehensive guide covering tournament selection, bankroll management, logistics, and building routines that keep you performing at your best through long tournament days.
How to Improve at Live Poker Tournaments: A Data-Driven Approach
A comprehensive framework for improving at live poker tournaments through hand tracking, structured study, and data-driven leak identification.
The Complete Guide to Tracking Live Poker Hands
Learn how to track live poker hands effectively, from choosing the right method to integrating captured hands into analysis software like PokerTracker 4 and Holdem Manager 3.