Keeping Tabs On Your Opponents

Almost all of the decent poker sites out there will allow you to enter notes on each player at the table. This is a facility that you should definitely take advantage of. If you have never made notes on your opponents before, then go to Sainsbury’s, buy yourself the wettest kipper you can find and slap yourself around the face with it. Until you bruise.

Vital Information

Note taking is one of the vital pieces of free information you can possibly get at the poker table as you are able to make notes on specific players’ betting patterns and the range of hands they raise with pre-flop.

If someone always raises all in with JJ then make a note. If a player always checks the flop unless they have the nuts then make a note. If someone flat calls their AA pre-flop then make a note. All of this information will help you later on in the game, more so if you are playing a multi-table tournament.

Why So Useful?

For example, if you are in a pot and the turn card gives you an extra few outs but the guy in front of you has just come over the top and pushed all in, you have enough alotted time to open up their notes and read the fact that they always push hard on bottom pair.

If you are as forgetful as I am you can now surely appreciate how important note taking is in this game.

Let’s take a look at some of the conventions I use when making notes on a player.

Always Abbr.

Although you have enough time to write notes on a player at the table it is always worthwhile abbreviating where possible. This makes it quicker to type in and quicker to read back when you need it in a split second descision.

3xBB AJu
This guy raises three times the big blind value pre-flop with Ace-Jack off-suit.
This guy raises five times the big blind value pre-flop with pocket Kings.
Doesn’t CD
This guy does not check it down if they are in a pot with another player who is all in.
Someone who does not know how to play their short stack
Someone who does not know how to play their big stack
Loose agressive
Tight passive

Of cource you should really come up with your own abbreviations so that you can remember them easier. then you can start combining them to build up a profile of each player.

eg. 4xBB AJs. TA. XSS. will CD. Limps AA

This guy raises 4 times the value of the big blind with Ace-Jack suited. He is a tight-agressive player but he can not play his short stack. He may check down in an all-in situation and if he’s got rockets, he slow plays them by limping in.

Wow, all that information in just a few words.

Star Rating System

Every time I sit down at a table, I open up the notes for each player and I add an asterix to the start of their notes. Each time I meet this person again, I add another asterix. This is an indicator as to how frequently they play poker online, and also how accurate the information is I have on them. I am more likely to go with what my notes say for someone I have played 10 times than someone I have only played once. I also know that if I have met this person on ten separate occasions then chances are they are an experienced (but not necessarily good) poker player.

Duff likes to also add in to his notes the date of his first encounter with each player. That way he can gauge how long each player has been playing online poker for in a more accurate way.

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