49 
- What are Notes?
- Why Take Notes?
- Tips for Taking Notes in Poker
- Opponent Image
- Betting Tendencies
- Additional Observations
- How to Take Notes on Online Poker Players Properly
- Top 5 Poker Note Taking Tips
- #1: Use Abbreviations
- #2: Include Player Positions and Post-Flop Actions
- #3: Know When Not to Take Notes
- #4: Keep Your Notes Organized
- #5: Make Note Taking a Habit
- HisHands and Statname – the Best Software for Extracting Additional Information
Taking notes is an essential skill in poker that allows players to learn from their/others’ mistakes and gain a significant advantage over their opponents in the future. In this article, we’ll look at the importance of notes and how they can improve your strategic thinking, decision making, and overall results in the game. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced poker pro, understanding the importance of note taking can help take your game to a whole new level. Let us explain why!
What are Notes?
While it may seem obvious, one of the most explicit differences between playing live poker and playing online is the lack of physical interaction between players. Whether it is verbal communication, body language, or lack thereof, these types of physical display can often provide “tells” on how a player acts when he has a strong or weak hand in a given situation. These can be used and give an advantage to those observant enough to notice them. However, in online poker, they are virtually non-existent. So how can you maintain some sort of edge over your opponents?
The easiest way, aside from all the new technology, is to simply take notes. Notes are a way to record information on your opponents. These are small comments about other players that you can make in almost every room. Here, you can type valuable data about your opponents’ strategies and their behavior in certain situations.
Each poker room offers some form of note taking. The best part is that the notes you create on online poker players are saved forever and will be available any time you play against a specific player again.
But why do you need them? At least so that when you sit down at a table again, you don’t have to play against complete unknowns, about whose game you know absolutely nothing, but opponents you have already studied, to whose style of play you can adapt without any difficulties. After all, sometimes knowing how your opponent will behave in a given situation can help you make you a lot of money.
Why Take Notes?
Many may ask, “How do notes compensate for the lack of physical interaction?” The simple answer is that they don’t. There is no substitute for being able to see your opponents. However, to make up for this, you must now pay attention to aspects such as betting habits or hand ranges, writing them down instead of observing physical cues.
There are three main criteria for taking notes on your opponents: accuracy, conciseness, and dynamic updating. Despite the fact that basic ideas of note taking in online poker are obvious to many players, not all people actually follow them. Very often, they write in their notes, say, one word aggressive, without specifying in what situation exactly the player can be aggressive. Others go to the opposite extreme and write entire pages of text about just one opponent, where they describe in detail the situations and actions.
Tips for Taking Notes in Poker
It’s important not only to take notes, but also to do it efficiently: the information should be useful, understandable and applicable in the game. Here are some tips:
Opponent Image
The first thing you should record is your opponent’s tendencies, or their “image at the table.” Players come in different types, but the most common are:
- Tight (T) – cautious;
- Loose (L) – plays a wide range of hands;
- Maniac (M) – aggressive and unpredictable;
- Passive (P) – not active, mostly calls;
- Aggressive (A) – very active, bets and raises a lot;
- Calling Station (CS) – a player who often calls down.
Those can also be combined:
- TA or TAG – tight-aggressive;
- LA or LAG – loose-aggressive;
- TP – tight-passive;
- LP — loose-passive.
Such notes on online poker players will help in the future, as many decisions at the table depend on what range of hands you assume your opponent has, which you can derive from the player’s type.
Betting Tendencies
Another important aspect is to keep track of your opponents’ betting patterns. Here are a few key points:
- How much does a player raise preflop? This can be recorded as PFR (Pre-Flop Raise);
- Specify the position: early (EP), middle (MP), or late (LP);
- What bet size do they choose based in Big Blinds (#x BB). For example, a bet of 3 Big Blinds (3x BB);
- Does he continue to bet on the flop (C-Bet).
This will help you match it with information about your opponent’s hand range. For example, if a player raises 5bb with pocket kings but 3bb with pocket tens, you will be able to more accurately determine their range in the future.
Additional Observations
In addition to image and betting habits, it is useful to record other details:
- Does your opponent chase draws? Does he do it at the wrong odds?
- With what hands is he willing to play for stacks?
- Does he understand the fundamentals of poker: position, relative hand strength, basic betting principles?
- What hands does he play and from what positions?
Try to determine a range and write it down. These observations will help you get the most out of the game: make your opponent pay too much with a draw, or fold in time if he shows aggression with a strong hand (nuts).
How to Take Notes on Online Poker Players Properly
Despite the wide range of poker software, you should not ignore note taking. Notes in poker will help you gain an edge over your opponents, and using abbreviations will make the writing process quick and easy. Note taking is the best thing to do if you cannot use physical “tells” to analyze other opponents.
For convenience, we provide a list of terms and their abbreviations that will make it easier to take notes:
- Small Blind: SB;
- Big Blind: BB;
- Cut Off: CO;
- Under the Gun: UTG;
- Hi-Jack: HJ (next to CO);
- Button: BU or BT;
- Early Position: EP;
- Middle Position: MP;
- Late Position: LP;
- Continuation Bet: C-Bet;
- Pre-Flop Raise: PFR;
- Bet Size Pre-Flop: #xBB (the size of the bet in big blinds, for example, 2x BB or 4x BB);
- Loose Aggressive: LA or LAG;
- Tight Aggressive: TA or TAG;
- Loose: L;
- Tight: T;
- Passive: P;
- Maniac: M (aggressive and unpredictable);
- Calling Station: CS (a player who often calls down).
Using these shortcuts will help you quickly capture important information without distracting yourself from the game and will increase your efficiency during your online poker sessions.
Top 5 Poker Note Taking Tips
Just like you need tips and tricks to play poker successfully, it helps to know how to take valuable notes. Here are a few key points to help you improve your note taking skills:
#1: Use Abbreviations
You won’t have much time to write or read notes while you’re playing. Make them easier to write and read by using abbreviations. For example:
- BTN — button,
- CRAI — check-raise all-in,
- UTG — first position at the table (under the gun).
If you’re a beginner, only use abbreviations that you’re familiar with. You can see the full list above — feel free to print it out for your convenience.
#2: Include Player Positions and Post-Flop Actions
There’s no point in saying that a player 3-bet a strong hand without including their position or where the initial raise came from. The meaning of this note will vary greatly depending on the player’s position.
It’s also important to take notes on post-flop actions, such as when a player makes a big continuation bet. In order to understand your opponent’s strategy or approach, you need to write down more details about their notable actions.
#3: Know When Not to Take Notes
Avoid taking notes when you’re tilted. Tilt is an emotional reaction to events at the table that can affect your play. For example, a bad loss can result in distorted notes.
Emotions can make it difficult to objectively describe your opponents’ behavior, making poker notes less useful. Try to focus on the facts and events to keep your notes as accurate and valuable as possible.
#4: Keep Your Notes Organized
Your notes should be organized so that you can easily reference them. Create separate sections for:
- Preflop;
- Flop;
- Turn;
- River.
You can also sort players by skill level, passiveness or aggressiveness, or by how often they appear at the table.
#5: Make Note Taking a Habit
Taking notes regularly will help you develop a better poker strategy. It may seem like extra work, but recording events and facts helps you not rely solely on intuition or emotion.
Don’t trust your memory either. Set aside a special notebook or app for taking notes that you use every time. Get into the habit of checking your notes before you start playing. Sort your notes by date, player, and position so that you can easily navigate them during or before your next poker session.
HisHands and Statname – the Best Software for Extracting Additional Information
You can find a sufficient amount of auxiliary software for keeping notes on the Internet: NoteCaddy, Hand2Note and others. In the end, we would like to move away from the usual format and talk about an alternative — HisHands and Statname.
HisHands provides access to an extensive database of hand histories for various poker rooms, which allows you to analyze your opponents’ games in more depth and supplement your notes with relevant information. A huge plus is that the service provides the cost of a package of ready-made hands in just 4 minutes — just contact the manager in Telegram, Skype or WhatsApp.
No less relevant service is Statname. It is the largest statistics platform for NLH and PLO players, accumulating data from millions of online players. With its help, you can get detailed statistics and analysis of opponents, which helps to create more accurate and informative notes.
Overall, integrating these tools into your note taking strategy will allow you to make more informed decisions at the table and improve your overall game performance. GL!
