A little guide about notes

Umm ok, im gonna give this a try to write a little guide about notes. Thats the part of the game that I have working hardest to improve for awhile and I have really progressed on it alot. So I'm gonna write down here what I look for on opponents.

Note: These notes REALLY help out in later stages of an MTT where its alot of stealing going around and nice blinds. So let's get it started.

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Preflop:
Raise size and position

Alot of players don't know this about themselves but they raise X amount when they have a strong hand and Y amount when they have a marginal hand or even weak and is just trying to steal the pot. If you can work out which is which, you’ll have a lot of guidance when deciding whether to play a marginal hand like AJ against a raise from this player or just throw it away immediately. This goes for the miniraise too, you need to make notes if the min raise for this particular player mean "come on call me" or "I don't want you guys in the hand and I am not willing to bet more than this".

If I see a particular player makes a min bet then folds to a raise preflop, that is going in my notes. One time is nothing but next time he min raise and the blinds are big I may try to raise him. The more I got on him on Min Raise = Fold the more likely I am to raise him with junk.

About position I am always writing notes about how often someone is raising pre-flop and from what position. Is the player likely to raise from CO or Button. Will they raise their blinds? Is the player aware of their position. If I don't see a player raise much pre-flop and he suddenly do from early position thats a warning sign.

This info will also give you an idea of how frequently someone raises, and when. If they’re raising three or more times a round, you can play with much more marginal hands than if they raise once every two rounds.

Starting hands.
Whenever I get to know their hands they have been raising preflop with, that's a note too. If I see someone raising with KJ UTG I will type that down that he opens with marginal hands from bad positions so an UTG raise from this person won't be taken as serious in the future. I may play AJ vs him.

Limpers action after a raise
If I am ever to raise with a couple of limpers behind me, I have notes on them telling me how often they will give up a hand after limping. I use this:

L/C (limp/call the raise)
L/F (limp/fold to raise)
L/R (limp/re-raise the raiser)

And when I see a limper limp and call a raise I'll add one to L/C +1. You get the point.

This is very useful since any player that limps and re-raises is dangerous because it almost invariably indicates strength and an unpredictable and possibly educated player.

If someone limps and folds to a bet I will be out there raising alot against him every time he limps. Not in the beginning but as the blinds grows... You see how all of these notes adds up to getting a huge stealing advantage over other players late in the tournament.

Raiser's action to a raise?
Same method here with...
Raise/Fold
Raise/Re-raise
Raise/Call

If I have two-three on Raise/Fold I may throw in a raise against him if I have the slighest thought of him trying to steal the pot. If he has alot of Raise-Re-raise I will never raise him unless I got a premium hand (AA,KK) since he is probably gonna re-raise me and I push when it's my turn with my AA or KK here. No im not folding KK here preflop.

This note is really sweet when trying to trap someone if you pick up AA. If every time he bets out he won't step out of the pot you are safe to raise him since he will most likely call you or even push. If he has Raise/Fold tho, you may want to just call him and get him on the flop instead.

When the flop comes
Betting after the flop
We can see a pattern here with continuation bets aswell. Some players seem to always make the same cb after the flop if they miss it and if they hit it, they make a whole new other bet... Aha. Some don't make a cb at all so the pot is yours without a fight.

1/2 CB
Pot Sized CB
No CB
Check/Raise

Those are the ones I keep track of here.

If a player checks alot and then mucks when he don't hit is my favorite. This of course gets harder to use aslonger the tournament goes on since the player gets more advanced but if you're up to someone weak, the pot is yours.

1/2 CB. Ever seen him betting out 1/2 of the pot just to fold to a re-raise. That's a note right there. Whenever he make a 1/2 bet next time, try to re-raise him again even if the flop missed you too. If he make a 3/4 or pot sized bet tho, be really cautious. The flop did hit him.

Pot sized CB: Same as above. Whenever the pattern don't fit the player, it's gonna be a raise from me.

Checking the flop
What does this mean? For some players, checking the flop means they usually hit something. Let's take notes on which ones that does this on a regular basis. What player checks and folds? How often do this player check/raise? It should all be in our notes.

Draws
Is the player usually leading the betting when he/she is on a draw? Some players prefer you to do the betting and just calling if they got the odds. For the players that lead with draws you should try to scare them away once in a while with your hand. It can be alot more profitable deciding just what kind of draw they are on and if you don't think it hits call them down to the river where you but out a small raise and hoping he will call you just because he is curious. That is risky tho since he may not have been on a draw and is now pushing... Why didn't I just call... But you should know the player well in the later stages to determine if he just dont want to be outplayed here or in fact has a hand.

Last thingy now. This should go into the Turn/River category that I am still working out but bleh, im taking it in here now too.
Small bets

Seen a player folding to a small bet on the river/turn since they suspect the other player is trying to milk them? Use this to your advantage and try a bluff with a small bet once in awhile. Also, when you have the nuts, don't bet small with these guys, bet somewhat large (pot sized bet for example) since they are much more likely to call that than one of the milking bet.

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I need ALOT of opinions on this little guide. Took some time to write down and I am looking to perfect it within the next few weeks during my small break from poker.

What do you want to see in the next version?
What can be better?
What don't you agree with?
Your english suck.

Thanks for reading this [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[AWLurch]

Great post. I was actually about to post for some suggestions on Online Note Taking. My only beef with Note-Taking in MTTs is that the player turnover rate is so high. Of course in rebuys this is a bit different.

I look forward to your Turn/River Section. I assume this is much more effective in SNGs, specifically higher buy ins, where you tend to come across the same people more freqently.

Overall great post,
-Lurch

I love this post, my notes were nowhere near as in depth as this, my notes were more like "plays xx in x position" or "limps with monsters" or "unbluffable (basically they will call down with ace high or middle pair etc)" or "loves to see flops" etc etc etc.

Boy, am I glad my betting patterns make it hard for people to see what I am doing (my continuation is the same whether I hit or miss, by design), if everyone took the notes you took, I'd have to be much trickier.

I am going to try to use this, as for suggestions...

A note I take is how often certain players will call a check raise, or how often they like to chase down drawing hands (or even if they will take bad odds to do it).

Also, I'd probably add taking notes on players that call down bets that were just trying to take down a pot and got to a river (I always check the instant hand history now to see what people muck, gives alot of information that I never bothered with before, like if they will call down with ace high or sometimes worse).

Still, these notes would work great for the sng's I've been doing recently, and would definitely be a big help in the bubble and beyond where attacking the blinds becomes very important. Can't wait to see the finished version!

Not just certainly SNG. I use it the most in later stages of MTT. Most of the times, I already have notes on a player I meet on the bubble or past that.

Let's say an MTT have lasted 2 hours and you have been at your table for around 30 mins now, that is around 30 hands and that should have given you information about atleast 4-5 people, the rest are just supertight players that you should watch out but for the most, you have something on these too. So from 30 minutes and + and I have somewhat control over my table. When I am not in a hand I check out that my reads are correct when it gets to showdown and most of the time they are. Really helps when I am about to resteal, bluff and value bet [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks I'll take those into consideration. The check/raise calling is a really good one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

"...be a big help in the bubble and beyond where attacking the blinds becomes very important."

Yea thats the goal with this. These notes are the main reason I tend to go really deep into my tournaments.

[FishInAPhoneBooth]

I like to make a note of their stack sizes for the starting hands.

[ansky451]

this should be stickied. nice post.

nice post with lots of good information. I will also note the type of tourney ($,rebuy etc...) and date. some notes become outdated as fish become sharks and peoples style of play changes (if my note is over a year old, I play a little more cautiously in that regard)

[madmisha]

Great post, very helpful,
I think a line on how often someone defends the blinds would also be useful,

Thanks

[SossMan]

very nice.