Note taking = Really, really boring...

[BigDan9]

[ QUOTE ]
Note taking.

Learn the importance of taking notes, especially taking notes on regulars in your games.

Your notes should be structured in a way that you can quickly glance at them and gain valuable information about how they play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just stealing something from RyanCMU's thread and keen to see what other people think and do when it comes to making notes on players.

Note taking is definitely one of the less exciting aspects of playing good online poker, up there with 5c/10c limit games. But good notes, as most of us know, are absolute gold dust.

It took me a while to get into it but, once you've got your own "bible" going (mines a standalone Word document) it develops its own momentum.

As Ryan said in his thread, easy to read notes are best. I've been developing a few acronyms on key betting patterns which you see in so many players, particularly the weaker ones (see below) which can be read in the short amount of time you often have.

I've come to understand how, sometimes, a single note you took weeks or months ago makes the difference between a 'standard' fold and a great call (or vice versa), or a bet/raise that wins you a pot, worth many, many BBs.

I'm sure this is basic stuff to most, but I'm interested to hear how other people put their notes together. What kind of information do people find most useful? I'm making my own system up as I go along and I'm sure there are better ways of doing it...


MINCR = Likes to c/r the minimum (on the flop or turn, with a big hand)

MRWAA = (a donkey who min raises w AA/KK pf)

TBWU/D = (a donkey who makes tiny bets when unsure of his marginal hand and/or drawing - ie bet the $hit out of the guy)

QCNM = (a quick check means not much - ie another reason to bet the $hit out of a guy)

[Split Suit]

also important i believe is when notetaking (esp in the client) is noting what game u played them at. a note taken from a $26 MTT most likely isnt applicable when i play them in cash games

also, good to see if 6max players are at FR, and things to that effect

[diebitter]

shorthand is very useful, but to be honest, if I make notes I'm one/two tabling, and that means I have the time and patience to be quite verbose and descriptive. This in turn builds a much better picture of a player than shorthand does. To some degree, you have to guard against shorthand making you think the guy plays the same all the time, and makes your playback a little more mechanical than it should.

I hope this makes sense. I'm not saying there isn't a place for shorthand, you just need to take care it doesn't make your responses botlike.


I think a great balance is shorthand at the top, longhand below - so if you have time to read the verbose stuff great, but at the very least you have a quick and useful snapshot.

[BotOnTilt]

There was some very good posts on the subject in a well, I think it was Aba20

Personally I have been a bit lazy with notetaking lately, mainly due to the fact that I've been bonuswhoring and I don't intend to play on one site for more than 5k hands, so the only notes I make are like "fishy" for players who play for stacks with crap, "bets heavily with set" "pushed nuts" and "bluffs".

Back when I played NL5 and NL10 I also made a lot of notes on tendencies of players, like c-bets 1/2 pot when missed flop, pots when hit. Those where worth a ton, but they mean that I need to pay a lot of attention to the games even when I'm not playing.

[BigDan9]

Yeah - I didn't mean that all my notes are short-hand. I've got some more detailed stuff in there, too. I agree, they're really good for building up a picture, whereas the shorter stuff is useful for on the spot decisions.

One thing I've also done occasionally is to use Poker Tracker to analyse particular regulars in detail. Just pick a range of hands that WTSD, replay them and get some notes down. That way, you don't have to worry quite so much about taking notes while you're playing...

[SimaoMacaco]

There was a nice post by 1pokerboy in the sticky from a while ago.. i must admit i am so lazy for notes these days mainly as the hud has replaced it.. i think i lose by not taking more notes..

I used to like

*Pairs*
checks turn VBs river, does not overplay, will stack draw board
*Nuts/sets*
3/4 1/2 1/2 raises turn if donked
*draws*
bets IP and OOP - RR agro

anything i deem as exploitable goes here,, anything i deem as exploiting me goes into notes too so i can avoid in future.

[Landlord79]

my most common note is "Overvalues TP"
sometimes "Donk bets = weakness"

[ship_it_trebek]

[ QUOTE ]
also important i believe is when notetaking (esp in the client) is noting what game u played them at. a note taken from a $26 MTT most likely isnt applicable when i play them in cash games

also, good to see if 6max players are at FR, and things to that effect

[/ QUOTE ]


I use the FTP option to make your notes different colors...I used orange for 50 and purple for the 100 so when i see an orange note at my table now, I figure they are either taking a shot or chasing losses.

[Split Suit]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
also important i believe is when notetaking (esp in the client) is noting what game u played them at. a note taken from a $26 MTT most likely isnt applicable when i play them in cash games

also, good to see if 6max players are at FR, and things to that effect

[/ QUOTE ]


I use the FTP option to make your notes different colors...I used orange for 50 and purple for the 100 so when i see an orange note at my table now, I figure they are either taking a shot or chasing losses.

[/ QUOTE ]

also good. i use the colorcoding for player ability. donks get the pink. MTT players generally get that dark blue/purple. and solid regs get bright blue (tho i generally dont use that as much at FR).

i think its extremely important to b able to make solid decisions quickly...and color coding and good note-taking should help that