Spotting Leaks in Your Game Through Hand History Review

Every poker player has leaks—patterns of play that quietly drain their bankroll over time. The difference between winners and losers is that winners actively hunt down those leaks and fix them. One of the most effective tools for doing this is hand history review.

Your hand histories are like a black box flight recorder for your poker sessions. They capture every decision you make, and if you know what to look for, they reveal where you’re bleeding chips.

What Exactly is a Leak?

A leak is any repeatable mistake that reduces your expected value (EV). Examples include:

Calling too often on the river with weak hands
Bluffing in spots where opponents rarely fold
Playing too many hands out of position
Using the same bet sizing regardless of the situation

Leaks don’t usually show up in one dramatic hand—they show up as small, consistent errors that add up over thousands of hands.

How to Find Leaks in Poker

It’s hard to spot leaks in real time. In the heat of the moment, you might justify a bad call or forget the exact details of a hand. Hand histories remove the fog of memory and emotion.

With a replay in front of you, you can slow down and ask:

Was this decision profitable long-term, or just lucky/unlucky this time?
Do I make this same mistake in similar spots?
What would a stronger player do here?

1. Start With Your Stats

Using tracking software (PokerTracker, Holdem Manager, DriveHUD, etc.) and feeding its database with hand histories, is a goldmine. Compare your stats to winning players’ averages at your stake. Some key areas to check:

VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money in Pot) – Are you playing too many or too few hands?
PFR (Preflop Raise %) – Are you calling too much instead of raising?
3-Bet % – Are you defending too tight or too loose against reraises?
WTSD (Went to Showdown %) – Are you calling down too light?
Aggression Factor – Are you passive when you should be betting?

If your numbers are way outside normal ranges, that’s usually a leak.

2. Drill Down Into Specific Spots

Once you’ve identified a stat that looks off, filter your hand histories to find the situations causing the problem. Examples:

Low 3-bet % → Review spots where you faced a raise with playable hands but just called.
High WTSD → Review river calls where you couldn’t realistically win.
High VPIP → Review your weakest starting hands that are consistently losing money.

This turns vague “I might be too loose” hunches into concrete examples you can study.

3. Look at Win Rates by Position

Your position at the table has a massive effect on profitability. Use your tracker to check:

Are you losing heavily in the blinds?
Are you underperforming on the button compared to what’s typical?
Do you play too passively from early position?

Position-based leaks are common and often overlooked.

4. Review Losing Hands First

It’s easy to focus on coolers and bad beats—but the hands you lost money with often reveal leaks. Ask yourself:

Did I play this hand aggressively enough?
Was my call based on logic or frustration?
Could I have folded earlier and saved chips?

Patterns will emerge, especially around marginal hands.

5. Compare Bluffs vs. Value Bets

Many players size their bluffs differently from their value hands without realizing it. Review hands where you bluffed and ask:

Would I use the same sizing if I had the nuts here?
Did my line tell a believable story?
Did I choose the right opponent to bluff against?

If your bluffs are transparent, opponents will catch on quickly.

Common Problem Areas

Most tracking software allows you to filter hands. Start by focusing on:

Losing hands at showdown: Are you calling too light?
Big bluffs that failed: Were they credible, or just wishful thinking?
Hands out of position: Are you overplaying weak holdings?
3-bet/4-bet pots: Are you folding too much or too little preflop?

These filters will highlight situations where leaks are most common.

Look for Patterns, Not Just One-Off Mistakes

One bad river call doesn’t matter much. Ten bad river calls in a week? That’s a leak.

When reviewing, don’t just say “I should have folded here.” Ask:

How often do I make this exact mistake?
Is it tied to a specific type of opponent or situation?
Am I thinking through the math, or just going with a gut feeling?

The goal is to uncover systematic errors you can actually correct.

Turn Observations into Action

Once you’ve spotted a leak, create a specific plan to fix it. For example:

Leak: Calling too often on the river.
Fix: “I’ll practice folding more often unless I can clearly beat at least part of my opponent’s value range.”
Leak: Bluffing too much in multiway pots.
Fix: “I’ll restrict my bluffs to heads-up situations unless I have strong blockers.”
Leak: Over-defending blinds.
Fix: “I’ll tighten my calling range in the small blind against early position raises.”

By writing down adjustments, you hold yourself accountable.

Review, Test, Repeat

Poker improvement is a cycle:

Review your hands.
Spot a leak.
Adjust your play.
Gather new hand histories.
See if the leak is shrinking.

This feedback loop is what turns a struggling grinder into a disciplined winner.

Final Thoughts

Leaks are the silent killers of win rates. The good news is, they’re fixable. By regularly reviewing your hand histories, you can catch yourself before bad habits become costly ruts.

Think of it like this: every leak you plug is money that would’ve left your bankroll—but now stays in it. If you make hand history review a habit, spotting and fixing leaks will feel less like guesswork and more like upgrading your game one session at a time.