Taking Notes is the Nuts!

Introduction

In this article

• Why taking notes is important
  
• Of what you should take notes
  
• How to use notes wisely
  

As a strategy article writer, I know my audience pretty well. I know what people want to read about. They want to come up with new kinds of moves. They want to be one of the first people to gain knowledge of the almighty reverse range merge 4-bet or the triple check-raise. The ”boring” articles outside playing actual hands often go ignored. There's nothing wrong with that kind of attitude. However, if you want to get better at MTTs, I suggest you read this article carefully. It won't teach you how to reverse merge your ranges, but it will teach you how to fix a leak that I bet most MTT players have. Reading this article will increase your ROI, making you more money in the long run, because – as the title says – taking notes is the nuts!

I assume everyone knows how to take notes in different software, so I'm not going to go through that. Personally I like to make notes in “Hold'em Manager”, so I can look at them at the same time as I go through hands with the HEM replayer. I strongly recommend you to open your HEM, go to HUD options > Player preferences > Appearance and check “Show note icon”. This will add a small icon to your HUD and by clicking on the icon, you can make notes at any time when you play or go through hands after a session. After this, you're all set.

So, what's the big deal about making notes? First off, I'd argue that it's more important to take notes in MTTs than in any other form of poker. This is because the fields include so many players that we don't play with the same regs often enough to remember exactly how they play, but just enough so that we need to know how they play.

When playing cash games, you play the same regs all the time and log hundreds or even thousands of hands against them in every session. When playing them, recent history (what has happened in the session you're currently playing) becomes the key factor when making decisions. In tournaments you usually don't play more than 30 or 40 hands against the same person at a time, because the tables are being broken constantly.

You don't have time to carry out surveillance on their playing style in one session, because in such a short period of time it's impossible to get a sample of how they play with different stack sizes and how they play postflop. You need to start writing down their tendencies from the beginning, and then expand your notes every time you get more information.

It's a good idea to come up with acronyms that'll make note-taking easier. You're going to have many tables fired up most of the time and you won't have time to write a novel. What you should be aiming to do is to write down your observations as quickly and in as few words as possible. Remember that you also have to read the notes the next time you see him and the fewer words there are the easier and faster it is for you to read.

So please, use acronyms such as IP/OOP (In/Out Of Position), write down positions as "SB" instead of Small Blind and don't write down entire hands when it's not necessary. For example, when the river was a King for a 10d-4d-3c-2h-Kh board and you want to make a note that your opponent check raised you with AK, there's no point writing down the suits and the other cards. Just write "cr'd river w/AK on xxxxK missed FD". Of course you don't have to copy my style exactly, whatever's the most effective for you.

Here's an example of notes I have on a reg I play against every now and then:

And then I have his hud stats:

Which one do you think helps me more, the notes or the HUD stats? Basically, all the regs have fairly similar HUD stats, and it doesn't really affect my decision-making whether a reg has stats of 15/13 or 14/12. Whenever someone has stats that suggests he's a regular (remember: in cash games regulars can have very different stats, but in MTTs you can't deviate from solid play all that much and still win, so it's much easier to spot a good MTT regular than a good cash game regular based on stats), I need to have something other than my HUD to help me make decisions. If I haven't got any notes, I rely on what he's doing right now at the table we’re playing. But if I've got notes, I already know how to play against him.

So, what kind of notes should you be taking?

Preflop notes

This is the subject I make most of my notes on. It's extremely important to know whether someone is capable of re-stealing or not. I'd say that due to the softness of the fields, more than 50 percent of players still don't know how to re-steal and think that going all-in with JTs 20 big blinds deep against an aggressive opener is an awful play. You need to find out who is capable of preflop re-steals, so you can call their shoves lighter.

When you see someone make a 3-bet shove as a re-steal, make sure to make a note. If I decide to write more than just the two magic words, I usually note his stack size, positions and his hand: "3-bet shoved 20BB w/ 98s SB vs BTN". When you know someone is re-steal capable, you'll know to adjust by calling their shoves lighter and they won't be able to exploit you.

Another thing is light open shoves. It's totally fine to open shove close to 20BBs from late position with hands like Axs, pocket pairs or even QTs. Most people still don't do this but prefer to raise/fold. Until proven otherwise, when a random player open shoves for 20BBs, I still call them pretty tight, because I can't make the assumption they know how to play the push-fold game. But the minute I see someone get caught with a weaker hand, I make a note such as "shoved 18BB from CO w/ 22" and call them lighter in the future.

I also like to note what people call my re-steals and open shoves with. It's extremely important to know who is capable of calling shoves light and who is not. You get decent re-steal spots all the time in MTTs and usually there are only a couple of people at your table who are capable of calling 3-bet shoves and open shoves lightly enough, so when you notice a good player like that: make a note. This will save you from pulling the trigger against the wrong people. Sometimes I just write down "calls shoves light" and sometimes in more detail, such as "raise/called a 20BB shove w/ ATo CO vs BB".

Naturally, when someone (basically, a fish) raises with a ridiculously large amount and we get to see their hand, we need to make a note. It's extremely valuable to know if someone is awful enough to raise 6x with pocket sevens. If you figured out why, give yourself a cookie.

Good players don't make 3x raises after the antes kick in. Their raise sizes vary between 2-2.5x the big blind. So when someone raises 3x I write it down instantly when I either see him showdown a hand that wasn't a top 5 percentile starting hand, or if I notice it's his standard raise size. When I play against a random and he 3x's, I give him more respect than against a 2.5x opener and make tight folds until I see him regularly raise with that sizing.

But the moment I do realize he just happens to always raise 3x (or even better if he's a 4x'er) I start to lightly 3-bet shove on him. If I've written down that this person's 3x doesn't have to mean a good hand, I'll know to adjust accordingly from the start when I next see him. One of the most important things to make a note of are what people min-raise preflop. If it's someone's standard sizing, write it down.

Many fish min-raise with weak hands and make higher raises with bigger hands. It's pretty standard fish logic to think that you want to bet small with weak hands and huge with huge hands. The second you notice this pattern, make a note of it. Some people do the opposite - they raise 3x with AK and TT type hands because they want to discourage calls, and min-raise AA and KK because they think they are cleverly trapping. Whatever their style is, if their raise sizes vary based on hand strength, make a note of it. It's pretty easy to play against people whose ranges are face-up.

Something that has become more common recently (and tilts the shit out of me) are min 3-bets. Generally, this means that the person has AA or KK. I've raised to 1000 at 200/400 blinds so often with a 10k stack and someone has clicked it back to 1600. I'm looking at JJ, being annoyed by this person and his stupid sizing and decide to shove because his sizing indicates he's a clown, regardless of his hand and clowns can have anything, whereas I have JJ with 25 big blinds.

They snap with aces and I feel stupid because I already knew it. Most people don't min 3-bet TT-QQ, AK type hands, so when you run into a classic nuts min 3-bettor, make a note. I've made some pretty absurd folds recently where I would've snap called a shove but ended up folding to a min 3-bet based on my notes. As a side note, depending on stack sizes you can also set mine by calling the 3-bet if you're sure he has KK-AA.

Sometimes min 3-bets also mean JTs or KQ type hands. Actually, I don't think I've once seen anyone do it with AQ or TT, but if they click it back with something other than the bullets it usually ends up being a broadway combination. I assume it's because these players want to take control of the hand and have the initiative. So when you see someone min 3-bet with a hand that's not the nuts, make sure to write that down so you can 4-bet them as a bluff! Remember that min 3-betting is a pretty bad play regardless of what he has, so knowing someone has the leak of min 3-betting with X range is valuable to you, because that lets you exploit his leak.

Regulars don't usually 3-bet bluff before the antes kick in. It's totally unnecessary and in many cases -EV as there's not much to be won without antes in the pot, and people's opening ranges are tighter early too. So when you see someone make a 3-bet with anything other than premium cards early, make a note. However, you also need to figure out why he did it. If the opener was a massive fish and he 3-bet KQs 120BBs deep, he’s only done it for value and to isolate, which isn’t much of a deviation from standard play. Instead, the two things you should look for in early stage 3-bets are 3-bet bluffs and overplaying hands.

If someone 3-bets you with 87s/22/Ax/random junk and the hand gets to showndown, write down the positions so you'll know next time. More importantly, when someone 3-bets a hand like 88 in a spot where it would be better to flat bet (most pre-ante spots), write it down. This is indicative of a probable cash gamer and knowing that someone's 3-bet range early is something other than TT+,AK is very helpful.

3-bets with a "mid-stack" (say, 30-50BB) are another thing worth noting. You're looking to answer these questions:

• What's the lowest stack size he's willing to 3-bet/fold with?
• How light is he 3-bet/calling at certain stack depths?

For example, if I face someone who I don't know much about and open AJs or 88 40BBs deep, I generally have to fold when facing a 3-bet. If I have a note "3-bet/folded 35BB deep" on this player, I know he has folding equity and if the spot is otherwise good I can just jam. Or, if I have a note that says "3-bet/called with 55 40BB deep," I can jam those hands for value. Doubtless it's going to be pretty impossible for me to figure that out based on HUD stats alone and I'll end up folding hands that I shouldn't fold.

One thing is set mining. As we all know, you need to have implied odds of at least 15 times the raise amount to call for a set mine, which means you need to effectively have stacks of at least 30 big blinds if you're trying to set mine in a tournament. So when some donkey calls your raise with 15BB and hits a set with his pocket deuces, write it down.

Some people don't understand pot odds at all. They 3-bet to 9BBs and fold to a 20BB shove, regardless of their hand and despite getting odds to call. From time to time you see people raise flops as a bluff and fold to a shove having already put an absurd amount of chips in. Write this down so you'll know that when they commit themselves, they may not actually be committed.

For example, let's say the pot is 1000, you have a weak flush draw and you both have 5000 behind. You bet 500 and your opponent raises to 2300. You'll have to fold because he has no folding equity and you're not getting odds to put in 4500 more with your draw. But if you have a note on your opponent that says "raise/folded flop committed" you can push because he might be running a retarded bluff and still fold. Whenever someone folds when he shouldn't pot odds-wise, be it preflop or postflop, make a note.

Postflop tendencies

We are mainly looking for fishy habits here. It doesn't really help to know whether someone bets 60% of the pot or 70% of the pot with top pair on a certain board. What we are looking for are sizings that are absurdly big or small.

The most common sizing tendency I note is when someone is a habitual pot-bettor. Most software have the "bet pot" button and many fish who don't understand bet sizing smash it regularly. In general when I hold a mediocre hand on the flop and someone bets the pot, I often fold when I would've called a smaller bet. It doesn't make any sense for a person to, for example, c-bet 100% of the pot on an A22 board regardless of what he has. If I have, say, AT against a pot-sized bet on this board, I'll probably fold because his sizing is indicative of the way fish play AK-AQ. However, if I have a note that he always bets the pot, I'm now happy to call as he might do this with a random A3o or a bluff as well.

Another thing are min-bets. I usually read them as weak, especially if they are donk bets (see “donk bets”), but whenever you get to a showdown against someone who min-bets three streets, make sure to make a note of what they had. Usually they have middle or bottom pair and this is valuable information in the future because you can just blow off their hand next time. Similarly, if someone was trying to trap you with min-bets holding the nuts, make sure to make a note so you won't run an expensive bluff against him in the future.

I don't generally make notes of deeper-stacked check-raises, because the subject is too broad and they don't say that much about a player. There's only one type of check-raising I regularly make notes on and that's check-shoving with shallow stacks. Let's say you called a raise preflop with 77 and the flop comes 542 rainbow. He checks, you bet and he either moves all-in or makes a committing check-raise that's basically an all-in. If you end up calling, write down what he had. Some people love to check-shove with overpairs here and they'll just check-fold AK. Some people shove stuff like 87 and AQ here.

Many fish with AK in this spot think like this: "Hmm. I raised with an ace and a king preflop and this idiot called. And again I missed the flop. How come this hand never hits the flop? I can't bet, because I don't have a pair, so I'll check. Wait... what? He bets now that I checked? He probably has some random bluff, I have two overcards and a gutshot, I'm all in!" They don't really plan ahead, they just check because they haven't hit, hoping to get a free card and then shove with their eyes closed when facing a bet. (If this is how your mind works, I suggest you watch more PokerStrategy.com videos).

So, it's important to know whether someone can check-shove (instead of cbet-calling) with top pair or overpair type hands. You want to avoid trying to steal pots against a person who's capable of doing that,, so make a note. And if someone check-shoves with just overcards, make sure to make a note, so you don't end up bet/folding the best hand against them. If you noticed how optimal play with 77 in the spot in the previous chapter varies given on the opponent, give yourself a cookie.

Most people don't really understand textures and the concept of maximizing value. In many cases it's better to check back the turn with an overpair or top pair and value bet the river if checked to. Let's say you have AA on 9632 with a flush draw. You raised preflop and a solid opponent called. He checked, you c-bet the flop and he called. If he's a good player and you think he's going to fold T9 or 88 if you bet (knowing that he'd probably face one more bet on the river anyway), but might call a river bet if he puts you on a busted flush draw, there's nothing wrong with checking and betting the river. Being too greedy often leads to missed value, when someone would've called two streets (flop+river) but now just folds on the turn giving you only one street of value.

So, when you see someone checks back aces in that spot, or almost any overpair/strong top pair type hand on any texture, make a note. This is because now you'll know that their 3-barreling range can actually be pretty weak (if he checks back turns with overpairs and top pairs, he's only going to bet them with the nuts and bluffs) and you can call his big bluffs. When he checks the turn and bets the river, you can turn a made hand into a bluff.

Imagine if the river was a deuce in the hand mentioned in the previous chapter and you were the person holding T9 against his aces. You might call his river bet, thinking that he'd bet the turn with overpairs, as most people do, meaning that there are not many made hands he can have and your top pair might be good. But since you've made a note that he's the pot-controlling type, you can either fold, saving yourself money as he can have a lot of value hands that beat you, or you can raise to try and make him fold his overpair. Usually when people check back turns, their range is capped at something and doesn't include the nuts, so try to note where that cap is and act accordingly on rivers.

For the most part, this is only about whether they play draws aggressively or passively. When someone flops a straight flush draw and check-calls flop and turn, despite having such an equity monster, make a note (so that the next time he check-raises you on a drawy flop, you'll know to give him respect). When someone plays a weak flush draw aggressively 3-bet shoving the flop, make a note (so you'll know that he plays draws as if he had the nuts and you can stack off against him more lightly in the future). It goes without saying: note when someone makes a bad call against the odds.

These don't come up very often in tournament poker, and when they do it's usually a fish trying to steal the pot. Some fish are habitual donk bettors, so when you see someone donk bet and fold to a raise, make a note. And similarly, when someone for some reason donk bets with a made hand he's not willing to let go of, write that down too. I usually perceive donk bets as weakness until proven otherwise and I raise them regularly, regardless of my hand. If I have the note "donk bet folds" on someone, I will always his donk bet even if I'm holding two Uno cards.

General notes

You can get these for free by going to www.officialpokerrankings.com and looking up your stats. This is something I usually do when I'm late in a tournament. As I play 20 tables at a time, I won't have time to OPR people until we're down to one or two tables and it's not worth the trouble to do it early in a tournament anyway. OPR'ing people becomes a smart thing to do when you're close to the final table or at it. OPR shows every screen name's number of games played, their average buy-in (ABI) and their average return of investment (ROI). Whenever I OPR someone, I write down “X ROI at Y ABI over Z games”. This helps me with future decision-making.

For example, if someone's average buy-in is $200 and I face him at the final table of a $20 tournament, I expect him to play looser, because the money probably doesn't mean anything to him. More importantly, when I face someone with an ABI of $20 in a $200 tournament, it's very likely he's on scared money, because he's playing much higher than he usually plays, and I can be ruthlessly aggressive against him.

The ROI only explains if someone is good or not. If the amount of games played is less than 200, it's not much of a sample. But if someone has a negative ROI over 500 games, I'm going to assume that he has some leaks. If someone's about breakeven, how I view him depends a lot on his stats and my other notes. Some people may have been bad when they started and since got better, which means that they are actually positive ROI players when I face them.

The most important thing to get out of people's ROI is how far they are from breakeven. If someone is -50% ROI or worse over a decent sample, he must have some serious leaks. When someone's ROI is 50% or better, they are usually very good. When I see a 20% ROI player, he's usually an ABC nit and pending further reads, I expect him to play straightforward. But when someone has an ROI of 80%, I assume he's a top reg and expect him to 3-bet me lightly, even without history.

This isn't a big deal, but these notes can be helpful too. For example, some people always want to avoid bubbling at all costs, and chat stuff like "one more to go!” when on the bubble, or "phew, finally!” when the bubble finally bursts. Just draw conclusions about what this means and write them down. For example, after comments such as the ones above, I'd make a note like "bubble nit based on chat” and bomb his blinds every time the next time I see him at my table close to the bubble.

If I don't write this down, it'll take me a few rounds to notice he's a bubble nit next time we're on the bubble, costing me precious blinds I could've stolen. If I never write it down, I'll always miss a blind or two when on the bubble against him, costing me a mountain of chips in the long run.

Sometimes people comment on hands played, which gives you insight about how they think. One of the most common ones is when you make a perfectly standard 3-bet shove with a suited connector or a pocket pair 15-20 big blinds deep, get snapped by someone's big pair and outdraw him. After the hand they start criticizing your play, saying "how can you go all-in with pocket fours there?”

This indicates they don't understand push-folding and you can write it down. Now you'll know in the future that they probably aren't 3-bet shoving light themselves and you can steal a lot from them when they are short-stacked and make hero folds with AJ type hands when they 3-bet shove on you. Again, remember that people that don't understand short-stacked play can still easily have reg-like stats of 14/12.

If I open AJo from the cut-off and someone with 14/12 stats that I have no notes on shoves, I snap call and if I run into a better hand I just shrug it off as a cooler, because a regular with those stats usually has a wide enough 3-bet range for AJ to be a snap call. But if I have notes that say "thinks you can't 3-bet shove 44 20BB deep" or "doesn't understand push-fold play", I'll be able to fold and save my chips.

Basically, observing the chat is kind of like listening to people talk when playing live poker. It's not very important, but you get bits and pieces of information here and there. Remember, never give any special attention to the chat box, just write things down if you happen to notice someone saying something, but don't look for juicy chat box revelations. There are lots of more important things to observe; if you have time to constantly look at the chat box, you're doing something wrong.

Sometimes, if I feel a certain hand represents well how someone plays, or if I feel it's an important part of the history between us and something that will affect future play, I'll write it down. For example, let's assume I call a 3-bet 100BB deep with 76s out of position. Flop comes J72 rainbow, I check, the reg cbets and I call. Turn is a 7, I check, he barrels and I call. River is a T, I check and he checks back. He shows T9s and I win the hand.

Here, I would write down "he 3-bet T9s 100BB deep IP, you called 76s. J72r you check-called, 7 turn he barrelled you called, river T he checks back.” Looking at this later will give me a ton of information about the player. I know many things about him from just one hand I wrote down and I can modify my strategy against him:

• He 3-bets suited connectors early on (most people only 3-bet JJ+ and AK at this stage, so this is very valuable information). Now I can either 4-bet light or call 3-bets lighter, intending to stack off with top pair type hands more often, as he will have dominated hands in his range.
• He barrels brick turn cards. This is valuable, because a lot of people would only barrel Q, K and A turns here as a bluff, as the 7 is a pretty bad barrelling card. I'll know not to make hero folds with top pair type hands on turns where most people won't barrel with worse.
• He checks back a hand on the river with little showdown value. So he either doesn't want to run huge bluffs at all, or somehow thinks his ten might be good there. Therefore, if he fires a third barrel against me in a future hand I'll still know to be careful.
• I'll know that he knows I might call 3-bets lightly, and that I'm capable of slowplaying trips. Therefore, I'll know that he thinks I'm somewhat tricky and will probably take non-standard lines against me.

When writing down hands, you need to select ones where your opponent makes a non-standard play. It doesn't make any sense to write down a hand where your opponent raises AA and bets three streets with it on a brick board. It also doesn't make any sense to write down a hand where a terrible calling station calls your three-street bluff with bottom pair. You can just write down "calling station" or "won't fold a pair" or "DON'T BLUFF HIM!"

Generally, I only write down entire hands when I know the person is a reg, if it's a hand that is interesting on the whole and doesn't just include one non-standard decision.

After all that, go back to the box in the beginning of this article and think about the notes I've made can be used to my advantage. All this should be clear by now, but let's go over them:

• OPR notes: based on this, I know he's a good reg. I'm going to assume that he does stuff that regs do, such as 3-betting light and so on. And I'll expect him not to spew very much.
• Re-steal capability: based on this note, I'll know to open less frequently on his blind when he has a re-steal stack, but I will raise with the intention of calling a shove lighter than I would against a random.
• 3-bet sizings: looks like he has a pretty big balance leak there, although he probably gets away with it against randoms a lot. Anyway, the next time he tiny 3-bets me, I'll know to fold big hands. And when he 3-bets a standard amount, I'll know that his range possibly doesn't even include AA.
• Hand history and pot control: based on this, it looks like he's the type of a multi-tabling reg who cbets and then folds against a good reg. Until I see him run a big bluff (and make a note of it), I'll be able to call cbets with medium strength hands, as he'll often let me get to a showdown cheaply and I'll give him respect when he fires multiple barrels.
• My 4-bet bluff and aggressiveness: I'll know that he knows I can 4-bet bluff, so I can 4-bet for thinner value. And I'll know not to spew against him too much because he views me as the LAG that I am.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has given you some insight to what you should be doing when you’re not involved in a hand, instead of liking people's Facebook statuses and downloading music. Sometimes, that one note you managed to make can save your tournament life, which eventually leads to you winning the tournament.

Good luck at the tables!