Taking Notes

R

rigor mortis

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Is it worthwhile taking notes on your opponents? The answer is probably yes and no. It can be a daunting exercise playing on line with the huge number of different players taking part, and finding a match. Having said that, there are games with fewer number of players if you care to look, the freerolls on here for example, attract a viable number of entrants to make it worthwhile to take notes.
 
smallfrie

smallfrie

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I just use a color for incompetent (no note) and a color for some type of specific play a bad player used (with note) and a color for a good player (sometimes with note)
 
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duson

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Yes, if you play at the same stakes/same events in the schedule then you should tag and mark people as you play. I've tagged people months ago and the note helped me win hands later down the road because I had an idea of what kind of player they were.
 
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Streetwylde

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I think each to his own. I don't need notes really. It's easy to spot the donks and players from only one hand usually. Some like to take notes others such as me don't.
 
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eutot

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I use a color for regulars so i won't enter in big pots with them unless im nuts.
 
whiskers77

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I used to make notes as long as I was not using PokerTracker 4. PT4 makes already a lot of notes on the players, which I read from time to time. But I do color coding to determine faster my moves, when I multitable.
 
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lokinet

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i do some notes when i realize a specific play. in some event i can spot of the ususally players
 
Inequitas

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Is it worthwhile taking notes on your opponents? The answer is probably yes and no. It can be a daunting exercise playing on line with the huge number of different players taking part, and finding a match. Having said that, there are games with fewer number of players if you care to look, the freerolls on here for example, attract a viable number of entrants to make it worthwhile to take notes.

YES it is very worth while taking NOTES on as many players as you play against... YOU WILL find them on another table at another time in the future...

I've been allowing my Poker HUD [Free Poker Data Base fpdb.exe] To take hand history and display all time stats on all players I come up against... having played over 5000+ hands in the last two months it would be an all consuming task to take notes on every one but my database has it all...

I only place notes on the sites I play if its another player from same country or if they are "Nice" or complete "D*cks" that either bad mouth every one or are likely to ruffle my feathers...

Just with knowing same country notes i realise I've played with same players on many different games...

As The Poker HUD pops up after two hands are played at beginning of game I see at least one player will pop up with some thing highlighted that i should take advantage of or watch out for and that comes with thousands of Hands played against thousands of players...

YES Take Notes or let a Poker HUD do it for you!!!

Poker is still so dynamic that notes will help but wont guarantee a game full of good results so take care to use note only as guides not laws...


Stop when the fun stops or when your player notes tell you too:eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
F

FrothyGoodness

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It's always worthwhile to take notes. Their habits of going all in just to push you off of a flop , the constant single BB raise to feed you into a a hand where they flopped a monster and keep you invested with tiny bets. Notes whether they be online or mental notes are what makes players , if you're not studying the game then you're just giving your chips away
 
WhiskeyFix

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Absolutely.

It’s more important that you know how players will play certain hands almost more than your cards themselves
 
MattRyder

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I take notes all the time. A HUD requires a large sample size to be useful. Noting the same behavior twice only requires a sample size of two and can be very predictive.
 
dbchristy

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I use my HUD, as well at take notes on ACR, AND sharkscope. But all of them are just part of a tool. Even the biggest donks, and greatest players can vary their play. I have learned that the biggest fish can take me out of a game Only time I do well, is when protecting my stack.IMHO:)
 
ACESOVEREZZZ

ACESOVEREZZZ

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Making Notes

Taking notes on players has helped me & well worth the time. I play a lot of cash tables mainly Omaha & Omaha Hi / Lo with a lot of the same players. Over time I have learned a lot on how others play & how I should bet against them or not. Play at ACR and nice they have a tab to make player notes.

Worth the time !!

Good Luck at :2in1: the tables
 
C

chronical

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usually usefull. to know the ranges of your opp... maybe how they paly a draw... so good... if you are not lazy =)
 
J

James24543

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Its worthwhile to take mental notes of players to learn their style of playing. That way you build yourself up to have an advantage of them by getting a proper read of them.
 
H

horseshoebhole

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Still debating

Is it worthwhile taking notes on your opponents? The answer is probably yes and no. It can be a daunting exercise playing on line with the huge number of different players taking part, and finding a match. Having said that, there are games with fewer number of players if you care to look, the freerolls on here for example, attract a viable number of entrants to make it worthwhile to take notes.

Rigor,

I made a post similar to this a week or so ago. Some of the feedback I had received was pretty on par with what I was already thinking. My way was a little out of the box but I only play on Black Chip Poker where there is no real way to take notes on people. I figured out a way that works for me but it is really only if youre playing one or two MTT's. Smaller the field the better. For cash games it can definitely benefit you.

I have a word program that is just titled - Rolodex

In there I add the players name - maybe their games that I see them at most often - and a few notes about their play style blah blah.

Then if im feeling like I cant get a read on somebody I use CTRL + F and search my list to see if there is any useful information.

Give it a shot?

Travis
BCP - horseshoebhole
 
Viper ChipIt

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I make notes of peoples hand ranges when they do something strange, things that dont pair with there HUD. Like a rock with like 10/8/3 stats limp shoving 88 with 25BB, an example of a note i made today. Things that are unusual.
 
Serjo600

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my notes
 

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This Fish Chums

This Fish Chums

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One aspect of note-taking is knowing how to actually make them meaningful. For example, having a note that says, "Shoved with J9o" doesn't tell you everything you need to know. If you think they are shoving weak the next time they shove you could be disastrously wrong. For example, when they shoved with J9o, were they under 10BB and in shove/fold mode? Were they the monstrous chip leader and just trying to eliminate people who had no chance of actually harming them? Were they 3-bet bluffing? If you don't know the answers to questions like these, i.e. if your notes are "out of context" then you may find yourself relying on notes which are untrustworthy.

Another aspect of note-taking is knowing how to use the notes properly. Let's HYPOTHETICALLY say you know for a fact (and are correct) that when this person bets 7.25BBs preflop they have QQ. They bet 7.25BB preflop so you know they have QQ. How do you then use that information properly? Are they also someone who will fold QQ to a big re-raise? Can you push them off their hand with a solid c-bet if the flop hits with overcards?

Simply taking notes is not going to win you chips and could even harm your play if you don't do it properly or don't know how to take advantage of the notes you take.

REQUEST: If a forum person is reading this, could someone write an article on taking notes well and how to use them? I'm no where near good at it (the above info is from mistakes I've made with my own note taking). What I'd like to see an article cover is:

  1. Intro to note taking (what it is and why it's important).
  2. Taking notes on player types.
  3. Taking notes on player activities (this person traps often, this person bluffs, etc).
  4. Taking notes on specific actions.
  5. Taking "partial" notes (notes where you don't end up seeing the hole cards so you are only guessing at what actually happened).
  6. Using HUD information effectively in lieu of or in addition to note taking.
  7. Tips and tricks (apps to use vs. writing on paper, types of notations, etc.)
 
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