Proper note taking

JOEBOB69

JOEBOB69

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I never bothered to take the time to take notes before.Now i'm understanding the + side of good note taking.My questions are as follows.

1-Could some of you all give me some examples of good note taking,like notes they have on other players.
2-Should i be taking notes on players as a generalization of there over all play?Or should i be taking notes on what the player does or is capable of in certian spots?EX button raises your bb you have kk you 3bet he 4bet shoves an shows j9.
3-Where are you keeping the notes on Pt3\HEM or on the site it's self?
Thx,JOE
 
acky100

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Sounds like a good idea for a thread, i could probably improve my note taking too, usually i just note anything that stands out, which isnt too much when playing 12 tables at once but things like; Called all streets with top pair weak kicker (so i can value bet these people) and called reasonable sized bets to the end with mid pair.... etc, also some people will always call on a draw and stuff... i definately think i could be more observent though and i wonder what everyone here does against regulars? like do you go through your 100's of hands history and make detailed notes? is that a good idea?
 
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Big_Rudy

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...do you go through your 100's of hands history and make detailed notes? is that a good idea?

I wish. Seriously, I always INTEND to do this, but never actually get to it. If I had the time/patientience, I'm sure it'd help my game a lot. I currently 6-table on a laptop and with tables always jumping to the top of the stack, there is little time to take any meaningful notes in real time. If I'm lucky I'll make 5-6 notes from a 1-2K hand session. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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QTipDTB

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Yeah, this is a great topic. I'm actually just finishing up a book on it. It should be released in a month or two. Notes are extremely important in playing poker. For one thing, taking notes just keeps me focused on the game. Secondly, of course you're compiling information to make accurate assumptions about the player's strategy. Now, it's this last part that is tough for beginning players. They're not necessarily sure what to take notes on or how to use them. The thread kcanuck linked looks like a great resource, so be sure to check that out. A big part of it is always to be thinking about what a person's play actually means. If you see someone always limp/reraising with their huge hands preflop, what does that mean about their hand range when they just open raise? If you see someone not cbetting with hands like top pair, what does that mean about their range when the do make a cbet? How can you best take advantage of their range when you notice patterns like these?

You just constantly mull these things over and you begin to find notes that mean something to you instead of just copying what other people are doing.
 
JOEBOB69

JOEBOB69

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I read the article and it was good,but seemed a little out dated.A ton of that info i can get from my HUD.Points that stuck out were CR with open ended st8 draws and\or flush draws in\oop.I would still like a few ex: from the likes of WV,Chuck,Enty,Belgo,an other regs that know what they are talking about.
 
dj11

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I read the article and it was good,but seemed a little out dated.A ton of that info i can get from my HUD.Points that stuck out were CR with open ended st8 draws and\or flush draws in\oop.I would still like a few ex: from the likes of WV,Chuck,Enty,Belgo,an other regs that know what they are talking about.

You will probably want to use abbreviations that makes sense to you. Personally I didn't like AG's abbreviations, nor the few I saw that Rex used. I have my own.

When I got PT, I changed and started dating my note entries, and allowed PT to do the ugly stuff. Between the 2, I can get a fairly useable picture of what is happening dynamically, and what might happen in regards to some particular players.

However in my case I have never stuck with one game for all that long, and many of my notes now have very old dates. But even that can tell me that the player has had time to improve.

Point being that no one can really give you a great note taking system. It has to work fast for you.

In the other thread AG did point out things that are important to consider and that is what note taking is about, what to take note of, not how to take notes.
 
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TinaPete

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Sounds very interesting...I just take mental notes...works for me never make things too compilcated...smiles....watching all play is good, but the best weapon is your hand...good luck at the tables
 
slgalt

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Not that I do it right, but I think style of play and obvious betting patterns are things to focus on most.

Also be careful to observe how the player is playing currently, someone who might be quite early in a tourney or maybe multi tabling might play very different later.
 
DaveE

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I read the article and it was good,but seemed a little out dated.A ton of that info i can get from my HUD.Points that stuck out were CR with open ended st8 draws and\or flush draws in\oop.I would still like a few ex: from the likes of WV,Chuck,Enty,Belgo,an other regs that know what they are talking about.

Lol, I'm not in the same league with these guys but aliengenius really knows his stuff. It's too bad he's not posting here regularly any more.
 
JOEBOB69

JOEBOB69

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Yeah i've read so many of aliengenus post an close to all of them are very enlightening.
 
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Big_Rudy

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Yeah, this is a great topic. I'm actually just finishing up a book on it. It should be released in a month or two.

Thanks for the "tip" about the upcoming book, QTip. I'll definately be looking for it since note-taking, or lack thereof, is one of the real weaknesses in my game.
 
WVHillbilly

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I just color code until I see something worth noting (usually a pattern or something I think I can exploit). I rarely take notes on really bad players I just color code them (all the same color). Regs get another color and good regs (guys I'll avoid sitting to the right of) another color. I'll make notes about the last two groups and they're mostly about how they behave in bigger pots with and without a hand, if they always cbet after 3betting, if they check big hands to induce turn bets, things like that.

I'm a 16-tabler though so I don't take as many notes as I probably should but I do use the color coding for my table selection.
 
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