Memory, Memory, Memory

[knifeparty]

Are there any tips you might suggest to aid memory retention? One of the main things I find hindering my play is the fact that I sometimes (well, most of the time) have a hard time remembering what I've seen at the table.

I also have a hard time expanding my focus. I'll be paying attention to one player, and before I know it, I'm involved with another player I hadn't been paying much attention to at all due to being focused on someone else.

There's a lot of things to pay attention to and remember, and this leads me to become overwhelmed and I end up losing all my focus completely.

Is there something I could do to simplify these things at all?

Cheers.

-Patrick

[tsearcher]

Well, if you are playing on the internet, you could check out the software forum. In general, you can start by just concentrating on the players seated next to you. Those players have the most impact on you. It's much easier to remember a few things than a lot.

[deacsoft]

Much of it just comes with experience.

[Zele]

You might be interested in this book:

Mindfulness

[Kapsylen]

Sounds like a tracking software could be a good idea. My pick is poker office.

[mvdgaag]

I've had the same problem. What I'd do is act like everyone is a descent tight player. I observe the players around me. I pay special attention to loose players to my left and tight players to my right, because they have most influence on my decisions. If someone at the table is especially loose I'll try to keep an eye on him and adapt to him as well.
You'll see that if you start small you get better and better and know what to look for. After a while you'll have an easyer time to remember, because it falls into mental patterns.
Start observing the one player to your left and start adding players that are in a lot of pots, especially around yourself. Try to determine who's the fish and who to avoid.

GL

[Josem]

stop smoking pot.

[ItzMrFish2U]

There is a book called "The Memory Book" which I found very helpful in academics. It has some applicability in poker. It was recommended to me by a brain surgeon and member of MENSA.

The Memory Book

[nuclear500]

If you're talking about a single table, you've got a ways to go...and thats me talking, not some pro.

If you're talking about multi-tabling - well, stop multi-tabling until you can manage a lesser amount of tables.

You may be trying to remember to much about a particular player, just remember small things, like "ATsC UTG" or "trash in position" and even the wonderful "calling station"

You don't need to remember specifics unless a big, slow played pot comes up and big hands are shown down.

[ItzMrFish2U]

Cut out the fat from your diet, do cardiovascular exercise, practice all the time (practice remembering license number, recite them backwards, then progress to memorizing the last 2, 3 and 4 license plates you saw ect.) Eat your leafy greens. Do brain teasers every morning. Do some Yoga, meditation and controlled breathing.

All these things will help you sharpen your mind and memory but there is no better substitute than getting practice at poker. Try remembering peoples hands. Come up with mnemonics based on the players appearance, give them nicknames.

Come up with easy to remember phrases for specific hands. Make sentences using that phrase indicating how that player played the hand.

EX: Guy with glasses = Glasses Ace King = Alaska. Bet all the way to the river = "Better" river.

Depending on the table you probably only need to keep close tabs on one or two of the players.

So rather than having to remember player the player in seat 4 played AK all the way to the river betting every round unimproved. It's "Glasses. Alaska. Better river." Now if you visualize all three images you've stored the information as images and can recall it much faster than had you stored it as a long descriptive sentence. If you practice these types of conversions when you're not at the table you can become very quick at this. The authors of the book suggest coming up with codes for all the cards in the deck. I think this is overkill and defeats the purpose.

There are limitless number of things you could be watching for. The basic questions you want to be able to answer about the players are: Starting hand requirements? Aggression? When/if they fold or bluff? Try honing your memory and observational skills towards being able to answer these questions.