To note, or not to note -- this is my question ;)

Actually I guess the subject line should be what to note, and what not to....

Anyhow, I've been taking a lot them lately lately and was wondering which ones are really important for microstakes cash games. I've made a rough list of the kinds of hands I think I should be noting as often as possible; it's based in part of what I notice other people in the forums are noting. I might be missing some essential ones, and I might be overdoing it and putting down stuff I just don't need to at, especially these stakes. Lemme know you think. (Btw, for all of these I'm noting the villain's specific cards, not time/opportunity stats that I could see in the HUD.)

Preflop:

• 3bets light
• Open limps strong
• Resteals the blinds
• Shoves short stacked w/ non-premium hands
• Backraises

Flop:

• Cbets w/ air (especially on a wet flop)
• Semi-bluffs w/ draws
• Check-raises flop w/ TP or worse
• Shoves/gets it in w/ big combo draws (12+ outs)

Turn/Riv/Showdown:

• Raises or check-raises turn w/ TP or worse
• Calls 2 or 3 barrels w/ draws (especially weaker draws)
• Over plays big pocket pairs to the showdown (especially on a wet board)
• Bluffs river w/ air

Any suggestions?

you should note anything that will help you in future pots and decision making vs a villain. if he double barrels air, or AK in 3bet pots, if he raises draws on flop/turn, ih he raises TP, anything, any kind of info about the way he plays is usefull.

One of my problems has been that I don't read notes I have on villians. I generally just use the HUD. I haven't noticed any big problem with that recently, but in the past I know it's cost me money. I know because when I went to make a note, I had already written the same thing sometime previously. I'm gonna try to start doing a quick note check on villians while I'm in a pot with em.

You know the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Well in poker a note is worth a thousand hands (in ur HUD) imo.

Originally Posted by Openside

You know the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Well in poker a note is worth a thousand hands (in ur HUD) imo.

pretty sure I'd rather have 1000 hands on everyone then 1 note on every1 from 1 hand they played to showdown.

Originally Posted by Openside

You know the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words"? Well in poker a note is worth a thousand hands (in ur HUD) imo.

Huds save you money, notes make you money

How to write/organize meaningful notes is the question

I take lots of notes, but they aren't very good notes. I think that makes me not want to check notes a lot too.

FYI, I am by no means doing this for every villain on every hand. This is just a rough mental check list that I run through (well, try to run through) after I play a big hand against someone ... assuming I have a few seconds if I'm not involved in a hand at another table. I'm just trying to get a sense of what I might want to look for in a villain's play that my HUD won't already tell me.

Originally Posted by Smith

How to write/organize meaningful notes is the question

I take lots of notes, but they aren't very good notes. I think that makes me not want to check notes a lot too.

FWIW, I usually have a basic phrase indicating player type or huge obvious reads at the very top of a note. Then I try to organize them by street, putting in line spaces to separate each street. It makes it easier to glance at quickly, imo.

Also it's pretty key to have a clear, personalized shorthand system -- both so that it won't take you long to write a note, but also so you can read it super fast. I'm not just talking about the kind of shortcuts we tend to use in the forums, but even shorter ones. For me, "++" means double barrel, "wbhc" means he did something on a wet board w/ high cards, "!" means a a big oversized bet, "*" is shove. That sort of thing. It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think it speeds things up.

Anyone else use their own funky system?