Making Notes On Players

There are lots of comments about assessing other players game style. I'm wondering what top tips people have for doing this efficiently. I know most software has option to actually make written notes in a tab which can then be reviewed.

I've made notes about people if they exhibit obvious tendencies like ridiculous calls of over aggressive play.

I'm wondering what people note - in written fform and mental form whilst at the table.

What are the top considerations when assessing anothe rplayer - based on actual evidence in play - not hallucination.

Also at what point in a tournament does it get more valuable to use this. Early on there's quite high turnover and table movement is rapid.

i think making notes on players is useful when you play a lot of the same sit and go's or cash games where you'll ever meet them again. i usually have 4 labels which stand for passive/agressive and tight/lose

Cool thread. I wonder about taking notes myself. I need a better system. I just started taking notes on hands people play and bet sizes, but reading my own notes are confusing

If you are looking for a good, free, and efficient way to take live poker notes, I suggest you download the Poker Notes Live Mobile App.

We've got an official Cards chat support thread here with plenty more information:
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...icial-poker-notes-live-support-thread-233202/

Robbie

Robbie Strazynski said:

If you are looking for a good, free, and efficient way to take live poker notes, I suggest you download the Poker Notes Live Mobile app.

We've got an official Cards chat support thread here with plenty more information:
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/pok...icial-poker-notes-live-support-thread-233202/

Robbie

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Oh, that could be really helpful! Will try this app on CC freerolls!

Great!

notes can very helpful to me,,and have worked very well

5 different colors on Bovada. I use them to label as follow...ORANGE-seems to have some poker skill will occasionally makes plays at pots in position. RED-supper aggressive donk that plays a lot of pots and loves to float any part he catches. YELLOW-average donk not to wide here or there plays some floats some mostly aggressive with made hands post flop. Green- Easy to read pre and postflop will bet draws sometimes and cbets regularly but usually gives up on turn. BLUE-Easy str8 forward player similar to GREEN but takes it even further by never cbetting or betting draws, will just call down top top or even set, and check folds everytime he doesnt hit flop.

The free eBook Polished Poker Vol. 1 (get it here: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/polished-poker-vol-i-study-group-227214// , download link towards end of first post.) has a reasonable shorthand system in Chapter 5, and how to classify styles, I base my note taking on this.

ATC = Any Two Cards
SOOT = Any Two Suited ( I use ATS)
LAF = Leads and then Folds to raise.
...... and so on.

A system like this is useful when you don't have much time.

i personally note down the strong and weak hands of the players apart from their playing style...insense do they limp often or do they bluff often and at what position they do that.
I fond noting down the villians strong hands and weak hands gives us a lot to play them...

i use the options some pokerrooms have to make notes to players in that i will say agressive, lose, and some times complet idiot te last one is for people who play 7 2 or something

Noted for the notes!

I've never really thought of taking notes on the playing styles of other players, i've always just jumped in and played (not that this hasn't worked for me) I feel that I can benefit from this! thank you to the above posts explaining the different methods of noting!

Peace out!

it actually helps, i put notes on other players but i do that only if some players are conspicuous in their style in play...so just when they are aggressive or tight, and yes it is more helpful in late stage of tournament.

Is a little hard to take notes in tournaments because sometimes we can be wrong. And wait until they finish the tournament early in order to take notes, because in the initial annotations to any player that we may be wrong

always take notices.maybe in future will be usefull

this is a great thread! I think it's good to take notes constantly because even if you never see that person again, it sharpens your senses and keeps you alert.


The main things I note are:
how often they VPIP
if they defend their blinds
if they "defend" their button
How do they react to a 3bet preflop?

in addition, if I see some of these things I'll make a note

when I get to see their hand, I note what position they opened in and for how much (usually only if it seems odd....like they opened for 3x UTG with J8off)

When they make a big river bet and I get to see the outcome of the hand, I make a note if it was a bluff, donkey bet, value bet etc.

If they are tricky/capable of slowplaying or trappy I make note of that and the method they used.

missjacki said:

this is a great thread! I think it's good to take notes constantly because even if you never see that person again, it sharpens your senses and keeps you alert.


The main things I note are:
how often they VPIP
if they defend their blinds
if they "defend" their button
How do they react to a 3bet preflop?

in addition, if I see some of these things I'll make a note

when I get to see their hand, I note what position they opened in and for how much (usually only if it seems odd....like they opened for 3x UTG with J8off)

When they make a big river bet and I get to see the outcome of the hand, I make a note if it was a bluff, donkey bet, value bet etc.

If they are tricky/capable of slowplaying or trappy I make note of that and the method they used.

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Sounds like lots of notes. But they're worth it, I just came across someone I had notes on - "likes to put pressure on, loose all ins A7 unsuited etc.." And there he was all in on 3 out of 5 hands. Got caught out in the end though.

I think I need a nomenclature that I can adopt because they are unwieldy to write and long to read otherwise. But it needs to be good so it's consistent from the outset otherwise notes can be confusing.Will read the PolishedPoker link Henryminute posted up the thread.

Awesome thread!!!

Generally, I don't take notes because it leads me away from focusing on my game. Most of the time I mentally learn and adapt quickly to table trends (as in who plays how on a certain table at a certain time) and use that. I tried taking notes only to notice that I was loosing hands because instead of concentrating on the game I was trying to profile players. Just my two cents (chips).

luismacedo20 said:

Is a little hard to take notes in tournaments because sometimes we can be wrong. And wait until they finish the tournament early in order to take notes, because in the initial annotations to any player that we may be wrong

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Just to let you know if you're planning on using a mobile phone/tablet for live note taking (for example with the Poker Notes Live app), pretty much every single tournament director will forbid the use of all electronic devices during tournament play.

dont take notes on things like VPIP. thats a ridiculous waste of space since its info you can gain, way more specificially, from your HUD.

note things like the kind of hands villain has shown up with after 3bing to defend his blinds, what he had when he 4b 2.5x as opposed to 4b shoved, etc.
ie things that your HUD wont tell you

be sure to note the relative player positions in each note. there is no point noting that somebody called 4b AI with JJ if you do not mention that they were BB vs SBs 4b. without the relevant positions, your note could actually trick you into thinking that villains range is wider than its actual value, etc.

etherghost said:

Generally, I don't take notes because it leads me away from focusing on my game.

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This is terrible advice. you should be able to develop shorthand that allows you to quickly take notes, mid session. ill still take notes while im 18 tabling- they are that valuable.

here is an example i just grabbed from someone currently at one of my tables, hope it helps.

flat AQo OTB v CO open, backraise over SB sqz- call off shove 100bbs
3b/5b/call 6bAI with JJ BvB
3b AK OOP: whiff flop, one and done
paired flop(dry): x/r/f (big sizing) in BB vs BTN cBet OTF

gl

great thread! cause actually I started to use them just few weeks ago... And I think my notes sucks I think I am too much specific sometimes in them and that can be very contraproductive in future If I will solve some situations regarding to them...

I find notes more helpful in cash games personally simply because you are at the table with the players for an extended period of time. I do have some notes from tournaments though but they are generally for more fishy players reminding me to bet for value more and and not to try bluff players that can't fold. lol. Its hard to beat them when they don't know what they got.

notes are very key be it a quick 3 words or detailed paragraph..try and keep track and detailed as possible..nothing wrong with as much info as possible

color coding on stars is great.

Notes cou,ld be smthng like:

called all in on flop with TPTK or TPGK

plays FD aggresively on flop

chases gutshots with huge bets(get value)


etc etc.


It only takes a second to write this stuff down. If you put it into your everyday routine, youll have notes on alot of people before you know it.

For example when im playing zoom on stars ,everytime a new table pops up,i usually have notes on at least 2 people. So my daily note taking has accumulated bit by bit.

I make notes of players when I think that Im likely to meet them again. I like to write in the software and I sort them out like "Donk", "Calling station", "Agressive" and so on. In other words, I make notes of players that I should watch up for or the players I can suck out