Online Poker Strategy | Taking Notes

Almost all online poker sites offer players the ability to take notes on opponents, yet few people take advantage of this – and fewer still do so effectively. I’ve often found myself in a crucial pot with a player I’ve got a note on and taken a look at it, only to see a fairly meaningless word like ‘idiot’ or ‘donkey’. Worse still I might have taken time to write something like ‘loose’ or ‘if he three-bets he has it’. While this note might have meant something at the time of writing, when facing the same player months later it’s far too vague and tells me little that can help. After I’d found myself in this spot for the umpteenth time I decided that I’d better improve my note-taking.

It’s no surprise that most of the crucial parts to note-taking are also important in the wider game of poker and, while each one of the key points on their own may be ineffective, when taken as a whole you should get a highly effective note that could make the difference in any given tournament or cash session. While a note might not be able to tell you an opponent’s specific hand, it can help you put them on a much tighter range, which should be one of your main aims.

SHORT-HAND

You’re not going to have time to write everything out in full so you’ll have to create your own short-hand way of taking notes, which gets the most pertinent info down quickly. There’s no right or wrong way to go about this, it’s just finding what works best for you. As a guide use short-hand for common factors such as positions (UTG = under the gun, MP = mid position, CO = cutoff, BTN = button), and actions (c/r = check-raise, c/f = check-fold, c-bet = continuation bet). And use symbols like <, > and c. (approximately) to save time. Also, having seen an opponent do a certain thing once does not mean they will always play a hand in a certain way, so put a ‘?’ in brackets if you’re not sure the note is 100% reliable.

POSITION

Jamming A-9o for effective stacks of 15bb is a very different thing in early position than on the button. Likewise a UTG min-raise will often mean something vastly different to a min-raise from the button. If you see someone constantly limping in early position you can safely assume this is not always a sign of strength so take a note of it, although if you see someone limp big hands from early position take note of that too.

The most important thing to note is how they react to being raised. You’ll make most of your money in poker from bad players, so isolating weak players who limp/call a lot preflop is a good way to do this. Noting how tight or loose a player is in the blinds is useful, and when used in conjunction with stack size, can be very effective. Noting if a player will smooth-call with a monster in position is a great reminder to have and can save you valuable chips. Also note if a player often bets into the preflop raiser out of position, how players react to being reraised and what they do on the turn. And any hands where you reach the showdown and get to see their cards provides vital info for notes.

Top tip
Always note how many players are at the table – not to mention any action in front of a player – as well as their actual position

BET SIZING

So many players, even the very good ones, will often play certain strength hands exactly the same way every time and it’ll often be their bet sizing that gives it away. The massive over-shove preflop is usually a hand like A-K or A-Q, so if you see someone do this with K-K or A-A make a note, perhaps something like ‘3-bet shoved for >25bbs with A-A from the BB after an EP raise and BTN flatted’. This tells you that the villain is capable of this play again in future.

Take note if someone is capable of overbetting the river for value, or if they always have air when they overbet. A common play you’ll see online is someone betting, say, 100 into a 1,200 pot on the flop – knowing whether this is total air, a draw, or a player getting tricky with a set is crucial. Luckily most players won’t balance their range in spots like these and it’ll always mean the same thing. If you get to see their cards note down what it means.

If someone changes the size of their preflop raise in terms of big blinds and you get to see what they show down, be sure to jot down what it means. For instance, many players make smaller raises preflop with monsters to get action and larger raises preflop with weaker hands that they don’t wish to see a flop with. The postflop min check-raise is very common these days – and it can be everything from the nuts to total air. Does an opponent check-call with flush draws, are they capable of thin value bets on scary boards? There could almost be an entire article devoted to taking notes on bet sizing!

Top tip
Preflop you should note the bet size in terms of big blinds, postflop note it in relation to size of the pot.

KNOW THYSELF

If you ever make a spewy play or get lucky and suck out on someone, make a note of that in the opponent’s player profile. Something along the lines of ‘likely thinks I’m crazy given history’ will remind you – and then copy and paste any relevant hands in the notes box to back this up. Knowing your image against regulars, especially in cash games, is vital as it affects how they’ll play against you. And once you know that you can react accordingly.

Top tip
Knowing your own image at the table is very important.

SMALL DETAILS

Online poker is constantly changing so whenever possible date your notes as opponents’ play will change over time. A simple ‘Sep 09’ will suffice. You should also type in what stakes and what game you’re in. So you might note down: ‘$20 NLHE f/o’ or ‘6-max 25c/50c PLO’.

If you play mostly cash, jotting down the stakes you’ve seen an opponent play at is crucial. You can also note if they post when they first sit down, wait for the big blind to roll around, and if they usually short-stack – all indicators that often define whether an opponent is going to be tough to beat.

Top tip
As certain ‘moves’ online quickly become outdated, always make sure you time-stamp notes.

SOFTWARE

If you’re lazy and the process of note-taking sounds laborious then there’s software out there that can help and provide some shortcuts. Programs like Hold’em Manager and PokerTracker have a built-in heads-up display (HUD). This shows crucial stats on-screen while playing. It can tell you how many hands opponents play preflop, how often they raise preflop, how often they three-bet, how often they make continuation bets, how often they call in the blinds and so on. It’s also useful for post-match analysis so you can go back and look at big pots, work out where you might have gone wrong and track the tendencies of opponents that you may have missed when multi-tabling.

When playing in tournaments on a site that is tracked by Official Poker Rankings, you should always check out the stats of players using this. Knowing if someone is playing well over their usual buy-in at a final table with big money on the line could often mean they will be tight, trying to just move one or two spots up the money. Nuggets like this can be as useful as any gameplay note you may have.

Top tip
Plenty of very useful software is available for free or at little cost that can help you make notes.