Luvepoker
Lost in the twilight zone
Community Guide
Today I'd like to talk about taking notes. Many players do not take notes or think it's not worth the time because they won't see these players often enough or again others will lean on a HUD to take care of what they need to know. But not all sites allow us to use a HUD and even though it is beneficial to have one if you're going to play live you need to really pay attention and take notes mentally on the players. So today won't be a question and answer type post I'm going to talk about the type of notes I take. I think they'll also be great if you all join in and put down what you think would be helpful or what you use. It's not about using the right time at notes or anything like that it's just anything that you can use that will help you play the game of poker.
So the other night I was playing it a hand I was in a big line with king queen of diamonds. Under the gun has limped and the next player jammed all in. This was for about 15 big blinds in total or about half my stack. While I had to worry about the under the gun limper here's one of those players that limped a lot and folded a lot as well and he was also a short stack even shorter than the jammer. Normally with king queen suited I'm willing to call a short stacked jam but this was one of those days where we were in the money I was going deep I hope but even more I made the decision in this hand after taking a lot of time off my clock. The reason I did this was not because GTO says I should or shouldn't it was a read on the player but it was also my notes on the player that helped me make the decision. This post isn't going to be about what happened next but I did get to see the other two players go to showdown and my read and thanks to my notes play was correct. While it's truly rare to predict what somebody has exactly if not for my detailed notes on this player I would have doubled him up and become a short stack. And for the record the only had left that I put him on after taking my hand and blockers into account and his play was pocket rockets.
So what kind of notes do I keep. It really depends on the player and how they're playing. That's it's also starts in various ways depending on what I see from the player. I could have post flopped details but no preflop. I could have a note of an odd and he played. I want to keep my notes in order but the timing of when I add the notes could be out of order.
My first line is the type of player he is. It could be tight it could be loose it could be aggressive or some type of combination of the group. There are also times where I'll have a player listed as loose slash changing because I've noticed his play is not as it used to be. This lets me know if he's changing or did you just have a run of great cards that night.
My second line is usually preflop. I'll put his raise size life is a limper. Also put in tendencies and I see him do when he makes one of these plays. There was only one player I had three bet often because he always folded to a three men unless he had a big hand you can put any type of notes you want. Whatever would make sense for you. I will also add into this line the hands he plays and how he played then if it's not a standard played hand.
My third line is for post flop. I will put down bet percentage of the pot, I will estimate how often he continuation bets. I will also post hands that he plays oddly in my opinion.
My 4th line is usually the longest but it's usually a lot of notes on hands or things I've picked up. I don't know how many times I've had a new player who did something so consistent and that was randomly just do something and always have the same face that type of hand. I will also put in hand types based on position. Now I'm not talking about pocket pairs or hands like that, I'm putting hands that really should not be played in possession that will help me later on. Take Jack 10 off suit. This is the hand that you can open raise from the button pretty much anytime you want but if you're 100 big blinds while more deep and they're under the gun and a nine handed table this is a hand you don't wanna play. These are the type of hands that I will put into this line with this information if. you're ever trying to figure out a player type this could be really really helpful. Let's say you're at a table for players you never played before. Most people know of hands you need a good hundred hands to get an idea of what type of player he might be when it comes to VIP yetif you're watching the hands that they show down, you may be able to get it quicker idea of how loose they could be. So say the new player is under the gun plus one and he opens up his first hand and somehow gets to the river and shows 87 off, right there you could have a pretty good indicator that he's a loser player. Ohh yeah she could miss click sorry miss read the hand I think how many times you see a player do that the first time and then a little while later we see him raise something even worse in just two hands over a very short period you can almost quickly decide he's a loose player based on the hands he did have.
So don't be afraid to write notes on players. You never know when they will help you and how much they can help you or save you. Especially when you see a note that says you've never seen him raise before. Well now I know he does raise aces .
So the other night I was playing it a hand I was in a big line with king queen of diamonds. Under the gun has limped and the next player jammed all in. This was for about 15 big blinds in total or about half my stack. While I had to worry about the under the gun limper here's one of those players that limped a lot and folded a lot as well and he was also a short stack even shorter than the jammer. Normally with king queen suited I'm willing to call a short stacked jam but this was one of those days where we were in the money I was going deep I hope but even more I made the decision in this hand after taking a lot of time off my clock. The reason I did this was not because GTO says I should or shouldn't it was a read on the player but it was also my notes on the player that helped me make the decision. This post isn't going to be about what happened next but I did get to see the other two players go to showdown and my read and thanks to my notes play was correct. While it's truly rare to predict what somebody has exactly if not for my detailed notes on this player I would have doubled him up and become a short stack. And for the record the only had left that I put him on after taking my hand and blockers into account and his play was pocket rockets.
So what kind of notes do I keep. It really depends on the player and how they're playing. That's it's also starts in various ways depending on what I see from the player. I could have post flopped details but no preflop. I could have a note of an odd and he played. I want to keep my notes in order but the timing of when I add the notes could be out of order.
My first line is the type of player he is. It could be tight it could be loose it could be aggressive or some type of combination of the group. There are also times where I'll have a player listed as loose slash changing because I've noticed his play is not as it used to be. This lets me know if he's changing or did you just have a run of great cards that night.
My second line is usually preflop. I'll put his raise size life is a limper. Also put in tendencies and I see him do when he makes one of these plays. There was only one player I had three bet often because he always folded to a three men unless he had a big hand you can put any type of notes you want. Whatever would make sense for you. I will also add into this line the hands he plays and how he played then if it's not a standard played hand.
My third line is for post flop. I will put down bet percentage of the pot, I will estimate how often he continuation bets. I will also post hands that he plays oddly in my opinion.
My 4th line is usually the longest but it's usually a lot of notes on hands or things I've picked up. I don't know how many times I've had a new player who did something so consistent and that was randomly just do something and always have the same face that type of hand. I will also put in hand types based on position. Now I'm not talking about pocket pairs or hands like that, I'm putting hands that really should not be played in possession that will help me later on. Take Jack 10 off suit. This is the hand that you can open raise from the button pretty much anytime you want but if you're 100 big blinds while more deep and they're under the gun and a nine handed table this is a hand you don't wanna play. These are the type of hands that I will put into this line with this information if. you're ever trying to figure out a player type this could be really really helpful. Let's say you're at a table for players you never played before. Most people know of hands you need a good hundred hands to get an idea of what type of player he might be when it comes to VIP yetif you're watching the hands that they show down, you may be able to get it quicker idea of how loose they could be. So say the new player is under the gun plus one and he opens up his first hand and somehow gets to the river and shows 87 off, right there you could have a pretty good indicator that he's a loser player. Ohh yeah she could miss click sorry miss read the hand I think how many times you see a player do that the first time and then a little while later we see him raise something even worse in just two hands over a very short period you can almost quickly decide he's a loose player based on the hands he did have.
So don't be afraid to write notes on players. You never know when they will help you and how much they can help you or save you. Especially when you see a note that says you've never seen him raise before. Well now I know he does raise aces .