Effective Note Taking

[Milky]

Hello all,

I was thinking of putting this in the "internet gambling" forum but I think it's more applicable here since I only play SnGs.

My question is how do all of you SnG players take notes on people? Do you have a template you use or do you put in whatever information you can gleam in no particular order? The reason I ask is that I recently switched from Pacific Poker, where you can't put notes on anyone, to Party Poker and was wondering if anyone here had any tips on note taking. Also, what signs do you look for early on from your opponents etc? Any help would be much appreciated!

[VarlosZ]

I just jot down whatever I think will be helpful the next time I see the player -- usually, this is just how he played a particular hand, but sometimes I can make a generalization about his play.

A plurality of my notes have to do with how players use mini-bets and mini-raises -- Do they consistently mini-bet their draws? Do they like to mini-raise on a bluff (representing a monster)? Etc.

On PartyPoker, I get a lot of use out of the note "dumb aggression" -- that is, a player who bluffs against opponents who clearly have big hands. This has helped me make some very nice calls.


Abbreviation helps. Examples:
MB - mini-bet
MR - mini-raise
TPTK, TP2K, TPmK, TPnK - Top Pair (Top, 2nd, Medium, No) Kicker
EP, MP, LP - Early, Mid, Late Position
ES, MS, LS - Early stages (of the SNG), etc.


To tell the truth, I only rarely get to use my notes; I might change one play for every 100-200 notes I take. Taking notes, however, does give me a reason to pay closer attention to the game, even when I'm not in a hand. Best of luck.


Regards,
Jer

[Gator]

Here are some of my notations
* WO - means player plays weak openers i.e. A5u from early position -- I try to distinguish this from solid players that like to see a lot of flops when blinds are very low
* Can Lay Down a Hand - to designate a strong player that will not sacrifice all his chips with moderately strong hand (i.e. I infer he layed down top pair to an all in bet)
* Idiot - calls all in preflop bet with something like A8s (usually up against a pair of Queens and sucks out!)
* Solid Regular
* Aggressive - Keep on Right (may or may not be strong player
* Strong/Strong Aggressive/Solid Regular - To Designate strong players
* Will Bluff missed draw on river
* Plays any two - i.e. sees 35% of the flops
The above are some of the key things I make notes about - would love to see what others say.

[VarlosZ]

A couple others:

Conspicuous overbet -- a player who bets more than the size of the pot only when bluffing (except for some unusual and/or all-in situations, of course).

Capable of awful calls -- so I know not to get fancy w/ monsters.

Does not understand pot odds -- helps w/ all-in play and decisions on the turn, mostly.

[Hood]

This seems like a good article on it, though I don't use it:
http://teamfu.freeshell.org/player_notes.html

Don't think it's specific to SNGs though, or infact no-limit play.

[Milky]

Yeah I had read that article before posting here. I wanted to see what others used as systems because while that system seems pretty good, it's just not my "style" I guess... Thanks for the input all.

So far (played about 30 SnGs on Party) I think i've done a decent job at taking notes on people but I feel my notes are a bit too generic (I'll usually start off someone's notes as "loose?" or "loose/weak?" and go from there. I'm just looking for more specific things to pay attention to that will help me in the future.

[compsolv]

While this applies somewhat more to Ring, I find it worth mentioning here.

You are going to run up against players that are so bad - you should consider adding them to your Buddy List. In subsequent sessions - you can seek them out!

[Milky]

I've started doing this however I doubt it'll help me much in the long run (it'd be different if it was ring play like you said). Does anyone that plays SnGs find this useful?

[BigJohn043]

I think the usefullness is dependent on the level. At 50 or 100, you are seeing a lot of the same players and it can be very usefull. At 10, I have played 60+ SNGs and have only seen like 5 players more than once. They are also generally players that are learning so a note that is a month old has limited usefullness....