Taking notes

We all know that the only way to read an online player(without software such as pokertracker) is watching for betting patterns which most of us do, but there is something that is as vital to take into account when it comes to Online reads, and that is notetaking.

"I take notes when I play poker" some might say and I'm sure you do, but how many players have you noted? , Have you taken the time to take notes on the whole table?, one at a time while not in a hand? or have you gone the lazy route and take a note here and there(I have)?

But it is important for you to take notes on as many players as you can.

During a course of about an hour or so I had taken several notes on one player who was really aggressive, seemed standard TAG until I had looked through the notes I had taken on him and found him to be quite loose:

ULI___~

-calls a 4xBB in LP1

-calls a 4xBB bet from MP2

-calls a 3xBB bet from UTG2

-raised 5xBB from CO

-calls 4xBB raise w/QJos

-limped on the button w/A4os>.

Just from the following notes, which are short and still need work, I found that marginal and premium hands made me money because of his habit of betting 4xBB with any suited face cards.

Sure, PAHud can do this for you but without knowing what hands he/she bets with, it's an educated guess at best, with notes on a player you can cut his/her range down to just a few hands based on the size of the bet and position of villian, notes will tell you more on a particular player than PAHud would(IMO), I'm not saying that PAHud is not good to have, but when combined with the physical notes you have taken on players you will win more.

Even without PAHud, you still have an advantage over most players simply because most are just too lazy to take the time to take notes.

The most important notes you should be taking are notes on yourself, if you don't have notes on yourself, your playing on instinct which is not too good for your game, you make mistakes and later ask yourself why, if you don't keep notes on yourself you will find it hard to plug any leaks in your game.

"What kind of notes should I be taking?" you might be asking, and I will tell you "Everything you see any villian doing" from his first bet into the pot and every other action an each street. "How will this help me if he doesn't show?", not to worry because he will show his cards eventually if you keep taking notes then you will see a distinct pattern start to emerge, a pattern you can later exploit.

much love for CC