Every player starting to play online poker sooner or later will find out that most poker sites allow taking notes on other players. Believe it or not, the proper response to this discovery may save you a lot of money without putting too much effort. If you wonder which is the best online poker site – we have described the most popular poker rooms in this article.
Funnily enough, the art of note-taking is still neglected, even by many experienced players, let alone the newcomers to the poker game.
This article will show why taking poker notes is worth your time and how you should approach this topic.
Why should you bother with taking notes?
Whether you’ve just started playing poker or are an experienced player, you will likely play most of your games at similar stakes. So whether you play $10 Spins, MTTs with an average buy-in of $50, or NL100, after some time, you’ll have an idea of how the population in your games plays.
Of course, different players have different approaches to Texas Hold’em. Still, there are things that are considered standard plays for the overall population. If you pay attention and keep on studying your average opponent and their perspective, you will become better and better at playing optimally versus players you encounter on a daily basis.
Once in a while, however, you’ll most likely stumble upon players and plays that will be unorthodox and abnormal, making it hard to react on the spot. That’s where the poker notes come in handy.
Notes are a great way to write down any plays by your opponent which are far from the usual tendencies of the player pool or are very specific to a player. A few examples are:
- There’s an occasional limp/reraising at early levels in Sit & Go’s you play. Most players do it only when having queens or better. You catch someone on limp/reraising with pocket threes.
- You’re an NL10 regular. You are aware that most of the time, check-raises on the rivers are extremely value-oriented. So, it’s worth noting when you see someone check-raising a big bet on an AA33A with a bluff.
- You are a high-stakes spin & go pro. After some games at the new limit, you’ve noticed that certain recreational player open-limps the button with weak hands, shoves medium strength hands, and minraises very strong hands. You write that down.
This list can go on, but we hope you see our point.
When to take poker notes?
Notes can be a precious tool against other players. After all, you are characterizing something that they most likely do wrong. However, a few conditions must be met for notes to serve their purpose.
First of all, a note should be about something that’s valuable information. If your opponent opens T7s in a spot where T8s is the worst hand to be opened, that’s not necessarily useful information. If, on the other hand, someone is opening 72s in the same spot, it’s definitely worth taking note of.
Secondly, it’s good for the information you use to be measurable. If you’re deep in a tournament and you’ve been playing next to a person who raised your small blind limp every time in the last five orbits, that’s something you can measure. Of course, it’s possible that your opponent had a hand every time, but that’s highly unlikely.
Thirdly, you can take notes on unusual behavior. So, if you’re playing a cash game session and suddenly a player who was raising every hand they played decides to limp and shows aces at the showdown, that’s also worth noting.
How to take poker notes correctly?
The important thing about poker notes is that they need to be cohesive and understandable. Over time, you’ll probably find a way to take notes that work best for you, but we have a few guidelines for a start.
Our first advice is to keep notes informative. It is tempting to write down that someone is a terrible player who can’t even spell poker, but it won’t be helpful information a month or so from today.
Our second advice is to write down the game you’re playing. If someone is goofing around on NL10 cash games, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be so loose at a $100 tournament.
Our third advice is to keep the notes as short as possible. While playing a lot of poker tables at once, time is a very valuable resource. Use abbreviations, which luckily are pretty easy in English.
In fact, it’s quite common to use shorter versions of poker terminology. Every position is easily abbreviated to respectively: UTG, MP, LJ, HJ, BU, SB or BB.
It’s also easy to do the same with actions, and here are a few we use ourselves:
Check = X
Call = C
Check-raise = x/r
Check back = xb
3bet = 3b
4bet = 4b
On the flop/turn/river = OTF/OTT/OTR
Flush draw = FD
Top pair/top kicker = TPTK
Top pair/good kicker = TPGK
Moreover, you can use the first letter of a suit to note which card had which suit.
This list could go on much longer, but the point is, that you need to find a way that lets you write down short and easy-to-decipher notes.
What should poker notes look like?
Let’s look at a few notes taken at a real poker table.
One of the most common examples: You are at the semi final-table in the $10 tournament and out of a sudden you see a player limping on UTG at 15BB. On the showdown, you see aces. You can make a quick and simple note:
MTT11
Open limp AA @ 15BB @ UTG @ SFT.
Let’s take a look at another hand. You’re playing a $55 MTT, and your opponent limps and calls your raise from the button. On the A32 mono, they lead with a pot, you call. The action is the same on the offsuit T. On another offsuit T, your opponent checks, and you check back to see flopped flush with 85s. Here is what you can write down.
MTT55
L/c 85s; pot, pot, x paired river w flopped flush.
These are a couple of examples of how you can write down the precious information your opponents gave you. Of course, every poker player will have their own way of taking notes. The key is to start taking them and making them better over time.
You can also take notes at a live poker game
Although not as helpful, you can take advantage of poker notes even in live poker rooms. That is especially worthwhile if you have a casino nearby and visit it often. Live players often have obvious betting patterns and behaviors, especially at lower limits.
It can be many different things: from betting big only with strong hands to calling pretty much every sizing with a flush draw. If you notice some patterns, you can write them down on your phone between the hands you play. They might come in handy next time you play against your local regulars.
Almost every professional poker player playing online takes some form of notes
The reason is quite simple, it’s a lot of free information, which can easily translate into boosting your win rate in the future. While taking notes seems like hard work for many players, it’s definitely worth doing. Just give it a try.
Taking good notes is one of a variety of things you can learn from our broad community of poker players. If you’d like to push your poker career forward, you’re in the right place.
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