How can I make manually-collected stats more valuable?

[AmiableFool]

One of the sites I play is very rec-friendly and doesn't allow HUDs. To compensate, I take extensive notes.

I want to know a given player's range from any position, so tracking VPIP is helpful. It isn't feasible to count the exact number of hands they play so I use their shown-down hands as a proxy: if they limp preflop and show down Q7o, for example, I record that they are 50/x from that position.

Unfortunately, there are limits to the usefulness of this information. Maybe they misclicked, or are on tilt, or are exploiting another player. Their actual range can be much different than one hand indicates. To compensate, I try to track how many times I've seen them play the extreme ends of their range, so my VPIP note might look something like:

50/10 MP 3h

'3h' means I've seen them play the extreme ends of their range in 3 hands. This can be tedious and error prone to track in real time, especially while multitabling. It doesn't take into account any improvement the players have made recently or the total number of hands I've seen them play. Maybe they normally play 15/15 and occasionally throw in Q7o because it is their favorite hand.

What strategies do you use to track players without a HUD? What steps do you follow to make the information valuable?

 

[Poker Orifice]

I color code and take notes

 

[Aballinamion]

One of the sites I play is very rec-friendly and doesn't allow HUDs. To compensate, I take extensive notes.

I want to know a given player's range from any position, so tracking VPIP is helpful. It isn't feasible to count the exact number of hands they play so I use their shown-down hands as a proxy: if they limp preflop and show down Q7o, for example, I record that they are 50/x from that position.

Unfortunately, there are limits to the usefulness of this information. Maybe they misclicked, or are on tilt, or are exploiting another player. Their actual range can be much different than one hand indicates. To compensate, I try to track how many times I've seen them play the extreme ends of their range, so my VPIP note might look something like:

50/10 MP 3h

'3h' means I've seen them play the extreme ends of their range in 3 hands. This can be tedious and error prone to track in real time, especially while multitabling. It doesn't take into account any improvement the players have made recently or the total number of hands I've seen them play. Maybe they normally play 15/15 and occasionally throw in Q7o because it is their favorite hand.

What strategies do you use to track players without a HUD? What steps do you follow to make the information valuable?

As our mate Poker Orifice said, make notes with colors on opponents.
There’s a hot thread talking about this same subject, I hope it does help you!

Opponents observation

Hi all , do you have any key tips how to observation better our opponents and put the correct notes and labels on their profile? Trying to improve my game and I am not very good player yet, so how I can understand that my observations are good enough and accurate in a sufficient level ? If I am...

www.cardschat.com

Best regards;

 

[Station_Master]

I am not sure it's worth calculating vpips and pfrs. I would just get an overall feel for how your opponents play, concentrated on hands that have been shown down and betting patterns.

Play a solid game that is theoretical sound plus exploiting the player pool then add the specific reads on top would be my approach. Normally it's pretty obvious if you are playing v a reg or fish