How do you keep track of players' tendencies live

[JH1]

I've signed up for a new poker league in my area at a local resteraunt/lounge and I am wondering how you manage to keep track of players' tells and ranges and the other kind of stats you would want when you're playing live. I usually just play online (currently winning at 25NL and some 50NL if that means anything) other than our monthly home game as the nearest casino is about an hour and a half drive from here.

I find it fairly easy at our home game because it's always the same people, but I think it will be much tougher to do so in this league. I obviously have PAHUD for online which helps and I would really like to make sticky notes and paste them to their forheads live but I don't think that would go over well [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Any tips on how you guys do this on a regular basis at the B&Ms would be great, books to read as well, or just general live play tips that online players wouldn't necessarily know. This is a point based tourney running once a week for 8 weeks with ~60 players. A lot are probably going to be drinking as well considering that it's sponsored by a beer company.

[SNOWBALL]

the more you play live, the easier it gets.

One thing you can do is to narrate all the action to yourself, whether you are in a hand or not. It also helps to have archetypes in your mind for how people play in the game you are playing. That way, you can just compare specific players to eachother.

One thing I do is ask myself "who is the tightest player here?"
"Who is the one least likely to bluff?"
"Who will I basically never fold against?"
etc etc
Once you answer those questions, put people on gradations.
A method like this is described in the psychology of poker by schoonmaker, but there's no reason you HAVE TO follow that by rote

[SpleenLSD]

My PDA has a mini version of excel. I keep track of my time and +/- and I also keep notes about hands and players so I can read or refer to it later. Some regular players I know well enough that I remember their tendencies, but sometimes a player will stand out and I'll make a note of them in case I sit with them again.

[SellingtheDrama]

I'm always thinking about how I want to play against a certain person based on where the button is.

I tend to key on how many hands someone plays - how they enter the pot mainly. Also for people that play alot of hands, when they tend to exit the pot (eg they'll call anything on the flop, but will give up on the turn - don't bluff the flop, wait a card).

[JH1]

Hey thanks for the advice, last night was the first night of the league. I get there and find it is going to be 6-max tables and I'm normally horrible at 6-max online.

The thing about giving people archetypes and thinking about how I want to play against them and what relative position I am to them really helped.

I was a little nervous at first and managed to basically sit out the first 1/2 hour because I was pretty card dead. Caught a few good hands in the next 1/2 hour and started to up the agression.

Also quickly read Caro's book before I went which I found extremely useful. The guy that won last year was shaking like a leaf every time he had a good hand.

I actually found this much easier than playing online. Is that normal? ie. people stacking off lighter: example - I had A5o in BB and the flop is 522r, turn is T and river is an A. I bet the whole way through and stack a guy that was at the final table last year who had A6o. Another example - I turn a straight flush and stack a guy holding AJ when an A hits the river. Do people fall in love with Aces live or do they just think people bluff more live or what is going on here?

Found it extremely easy to take down my table compared to online.

[pfapfap]

For tournaments, do whatever you can to be seated at one of the main tables. The final table, if at all possible. That way you only have to adjust to one or two new people at a time, rather than have to keep readjusting to whole new groups of people over and over.

[JH1]

Thanks. I'll try to do that if possible. Yesterday we had to draw a table number from a bin to see where we would start. The format may not change to playing through all 60 players until the playoffs though. Right now we are just playing one table - sort of like a 6 max SnG and getting points based on how we finish. Points get you prizes and extra bonus chips to use in the playoffs.

[allbad]

These free-roll tourney leagues are good for getting used to the mechanics of playing live and that's about it. Don't expect their play to reflect casino players with actual money in front of them.

[davidlong14]

take notes in a small notebook

[otter]

I take notes in a palm pilot and/or cell phone.