More General help Please

[larsjones]

I can honestly say that this forum is great. I love how asking a really stupid question gets a serious answer. That said:

One of my biggest leaks online is not noticing things like betting patterns. I have no idea how I make the decisions I do, and lots of times am surprised when I'm right. I guess it's a conglomeration of unconcious experience gained from playing hands.

What kinds of notes should I be taking? How often do you take notes? Do they help?

For instance:
If you're approaching the bubble in a 180(my favorite tourney), do notes help you to determine whether to call when shoved to you? Is it REALLY just a guessing game? How can I get better at this point in the game? In 180's, I bust 32nd ALL the time. In other tournaments, I bust as a result of not putting my opponent on a hand accurately, or gambling in a bad spot(which is of course, my fault). What sort of help can you guys offer, if any? If this needs to be in a MTT forum, I apologize.

[hockeyav]

Do this little exercise while you're playing to help you learn who plays what a little better:

When you start your 180 tournament pick two people out at your table (easiest is sometimes the person to your immediate right and left), to watch play every hand. Take notice on what hands they'll raise with, when they're raising with these hands (position), what kind of hands they're willing to call with, and how they act after the flop with certain hands (will they call down draws without the odds, or will they play middle pair aggressively).

Do this for every table you play at for each tourney. As you start to catch on to how two players are in one tourney, move up to three in the next tournament. It's a gradual process but I think it'll help you learn to put players on hands a little bit better.

[Nairb]

I used to get pissed when someone responded to a question like this with "Get Pokertracker" but once I did all they were saying made sense. It is very affordable, 55USD and you can download a free trial for the first 1000 hands. Look it up and I assure you you will recoup the initial investment.

Other than that hockey gives good advice and that is how I used to do it. Harrington suggests the same thing, to pay more attention to the player on your right and the two to your left and work up from there.

However IMO there is no better way than PT which shows 100 times the information you can gather with notes.

[sharpyetblunt]

[ QUOTE ]

For instance:
If you're approaching the bubble in a 180(my favorite tourney), do notes help you to determine whether to call when shoved to you? Is it REALLY just a guessing game?

[/ QUOTE ]

you have to determine whether you are ahead of your opponents range or not. Is the player loose? has he been playing a lot of hands, what hands has he shown down? take notes when you see him shove with small pocket pairs, or anything to help you determine what kind of hands he would do this with. Then decide if your hand is ahead of most of what he would shove with. Or if you really want to make the money then wait for a better spot. Of course the bubble is a good time to amass chips though as everyone gets tighter.

[larsjones]

I have pokertracker, and I have PAhud. I guess I'm an isdiot, because I've prettymuch only used Pokertracker to track my own tendencies(which are pretty damn rockish for a guy my age, I think) and to drive my PAhud. What other things should I be focusing on? I'm not intending for this to turn into a "teach lars to use pokertracker" thing, but the fac t that I'm misusiing what is apparently a good too irks me.

[Rek]

Sounds like you are caught in the trap of just wanting to make the money.

Thing to do at bubble time is get aggresive when you are to act. Forget note taking at this point because the dynamics have altered so much. Nobody wants to go out here and only huge stacks will start calling unless you are up against somebody with a monster hand.

Yeah, you will bubble out of a few but you will also accumulate a lot of chips in other games and go much deeper in the money that will more than compensate for sneaking into the money sometimes.

Be brave and try it. You will see improvements in your results.