Full House
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Following the Herd to 6-Max Land
Posts: 1,240
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Hey Dav (and everyone else!)
Just thought I would pitch in with a bit on the player notes bit and people can do with them what they like.
I can safely say from experience that taking player notes has helped my game lately. I still see some notes where I have obviously just taken a bad beat or some dumbass has just busted my UTG Kings with crappy QTo and my notes simply read “Mug” and it gives me a chuckle for a few seconds. However, as Dav mentioned in his main post, as amusing as they are, they don’t really serve a purpose unless you can remember precisely which hand he acted like that on which prompted you to take those notes in the first place!
Anyway ……
I have sometimes found it difficult to keep notes and keep my head in the game all at the same time. Or sometimes I just find myself overly focussing on a few players and ignoring others – then you are suddenly faced with a big decision against one of these “mystery” players and it’s tough.
I cannot stress how much taking player notes has helped though. I have had decisions against players that I have played before and taken notes on made for me solely on the strength of my notes.
However, I have found that some of my best notes have come sometime AFTER I have finished the SnG. I have lately taken some time to reassess my performances a couple of days after I have played. It gives you an opportunity to look back at certain hands and think “I should have bet the turn”, “Why did I get involved in this hand”, “I wish I could stop bleeding money out of the blinds calling with crap and hoping for miracles”. But, crucially, I have found that this allows for much clearer and honest assessment of your own play and for note taking on others (it also avoids the potential for ‘tilt comments’ like “Player A is a complete turd” that u might make immediately after your Aces have been nobbled by 74s hitting a flush despite the ridiculous pot-odds).
The other reason I analyse after the event is that, when u are playing in the SnG this happens ……
You are focussing on a Player A …
OK, he’s limped in from middle position …
He bets on the K74 rainbow flop …
Q comes on the turn and he checks …
2 on the river and he bets …
Other player calls and flips KQ …
you are waiting for confirmation at the showdown that Player A has something like 56 and …………
BAM! ...... Player A mucks their losing cards!
Were you right or not?! You are probably close, but who knows?! At least when u go back through the HH’s after the fact, you get to see PRECISELY what Player A laid down (his bottom pair, his busted inside–straight? his busted flush? his total bluff?!).
It is also useful to pick up on things that even the most ardent observer may well miss. I have been noting with interest that Player Y plays an awful lot of pots, but always seems to lay them down to a bet. Player X will play any two connecting cards from any position. Stuff that can just pass you by or you notice once because they hit the straight and he shows them down, but you haven’t noticed the three other times he’s mucked them at showdown when they’re beat.
I think the crucial thing, though, is finding a noting system that you will understand. My personal method is to make notes on what TYPE of cards a player plays and from what position etc, do they limp or bet, do they chase against the odds, how well do they understand the concept of position, the general kind of thing, but I also like to give those reads a score. The higher the score, the stronger the read. Usually this is based simply on how many times I see a certain player doing such-and-such play.
Anyway, that’s it. Feel free to question, critique, massacre (!) at will…..
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