xOneCoolHandx
Legend
Bronze Level
I was having a discussion with my league teammates about the value of note taking. With a lot of players using HUDs and others wanting to act "organically" and still others who multi-table so much that they don't have time to focus on individual opponents, I have come to think that I am the only player left who takes notes on the other players at the table or if anyone else still does it and if they see the value in it?
Personally, I think this is one of the greatest tools in online poker. There are very few "tells" that you can get from the online game. Yes, I do know there are others, such as timing tells (which I fool around with the throw off my opponents from time to time, but generally I have a system where I wait the same amount of time before taking any action to combat this tell). For me, recording that a certain player likes to raise from the button 80-90% of hands in an unopened pot and will cbet no matter what comes on the flop is terrific information that I can use (that is not necessarily evident from the info you gain from a HUD...or at least not specific) to combat that player. And the best thing is, that when you save it, next time you play that player, you have a great idea of how he (or she) is going to play.
You can track all sorts of information through note taking. I have a personal system that I use to detect where other players seem to have leaks in their games that I can exploit. I also have abbreviations for certain things (CB for cbets when player has raised preflop and then cbets the flop every time). I even take notes on myself and when I successfully run a bluff or when I make a bad play (yes, it happens...more than I would like actually LOL).
I think that taking notes, updating notes as the other players adapt to different tournaments or adjust to different levels of tournaments; or finding differences between the way they play different tournaments and cash games gives me a real advantage when I am playing against these people. I would like everyone else's perspective.
Personally, I think this is one of the greatest tools in online poker. There are very few "tells" that you can get from the online game. Yes, I do know there are others, such as timing tells (which I fool around with the throw off my opponents from time to time, but generally I have a system where I wait the same amount of time before taking any action to combat this tell). For me, recording that a certain player likes to raise from the button 80-90% of hands in an unopened pot and will cbet no matter what comes on the flop is terrific information that I can use (that is not necessarily evident from the info you gain from a HUD...or at least not specific) to combat that player. And the best thing is, that when you save it, next time you play that player, you have a great idea of how he (or she) is going to play.
You can track all sorts of information through note taking. I have a personal system that I use to detect where other players seem to have leaks in their games that I can exploit. I also have abbreviations for certain things (CB for cbets when player has raised preflop and then cbets the flop every time). I even take notes on myself and when I successfully run a bluff or when I make a bad play (yes, it happens...more than I would like actually LOL).
I think that taking notes, updating notes as the other players adapt to different tournaments or adjust to different levels of tournaments; or finding differences between the way they play different tournaments and cash games gives me a real advantage when I am playing against these people. I would like everyone else's perspective.