Questions about adjusting to live play

I have read this forum for a while and this is my first post as I have some specific questions. I'm a U.S online player and a winning player at microstakes/ play money cash games and tourneys as well as home games and wanted to play live more so I went down to a local pub and played a free roll MTT.

My questions are about information. In an online game things like your chip stack, the players stacks at the table and in the whole event and even the bets are put in numbers on the screen. I do not use HUD statistics software online.

I felt like during the tourney I was playing in the dark. The only thing I felt truly aware of the whole time was my cards and position. And even though I play in home games the whole chip counting aspect was abysmal, especially since I was unfamiliar with structure/denominations. What are some ways I can adjust/ acquire this information quickly? Would it be weird if I had a little notepad with the stack sizes written down and the action?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Live, you don't need to know the exact stack of your opponents. Most of the time, you can estimate roughly how much your opponent has. And when it does come to it, just ask how much they have left. Depending on the casino, the player doesn't have to answer, but the dealer will have to.

Live I think important thing is patience. You're gonna be seeing a lot less hands than you do online, so you might push with marginal hands that you normally wouldn't.

Effective stack size is what's important. That is, the value or threat of your opponents stack. The most important thing is to know your stack size. Let's say you have 10,000 in chips and you heads up against an opponent. You can estimate or ask his stack size. If he has more than you then it doesn't matter exactly how much he has your playing for potentially all your chips. If he has less then estimate or ask. Estimations within about 5% are usually fine, if he has 5250 or 4750 really doesn't make a big difference.

Thanks a bunch. The next time I played I final tabled and busted out 6th place in a 3 table tourney.