[MrStretchie]

I also find taking copious amounts of notes helps. (When playing online.) Every time you see a player do anything and get to see their hand (or even when you can deduce it by their actions throughout), make a note.
"pfr ajo" raises pre-flop with ajo
"b/f f bp" bet-folds (bets, folds to raise) flop with bottom pair
etc
You could write out the whole notes, but after you've done a bunch the shorthand becomes inevitable. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
At least for me, this helps in two ways. First off, when I'm playing against these specific players it allows me to have a much better idea of what their actions mean later. Average players don't generally alter their play.
Second, once you've made a note about a specific action enough times, you get used to people doing it, and you get used to it coming from a certain type of player. Then you basically just have to recognize that player X is one of 'those', and you'll be able to read him pretty well.

Hope that helps. I'm still getting there myself, but I'm convinced I'm on the right path. I've also found it's easier playing SH, as you'll see more hands showed down, and have less players to concentrate on. But you need to be good at SH play to avoid dumping a bunch of $$ there..