How Player Notes Improve Your Reads
Introduction
In this article
- How to collect information
- How to change it into notes
- How to use notes
Notes are an important tool for making the correct decision - the higher you move up in the limits, the more important they become, so it is advisable to concern yourself with this topic early on. As soon as you have developed a good and understandable system for your notes, you will profit a lot from your collected information.
In this article you will learn how to recognize important information, what you have to pay attention to when it comes to your opponents and how your notes can have an influence on your game.
The first part of this article deals with the topic of how to collect information most efficiently and what information is of importance. The second part will introduce you to a simple system with which you will be able to recreate all the important information about the course of a hand in a quick and straightforward way.
How to collect information
As poker is a game of incomplete information, you have to literally suck up every available bit of information like a sponge. With every piece of information you gain, your advantage over your opponents increases, and that is reflected in a higher profit at the end of the day.
So your goal should be:
- To observe your opponents all the time.
- To gain information about their game.
- To note down your information.
- To use this information to determine the proper course of action.
Thanks to your observations, you will be able to reduce the amount of incomplete information to a minimum and by doing so, you gain an advantage. You mastered this skill when you are able to tell the difference between important and unimportant information, to interpret this information correctly and to use it accordingly.
In general, you could say that every piece of information you acquire can be of value. However, you don't have the time to study many long notes during the game, so it is your goal to judge the game of the opponent with a few precise pieces of information. To do this, you have to be brief and condense the information all the way to its essence. We will now list a few examples to give you an idea of what is valuable enough to be noted down.
You already own PokerStrategy's Elephant, with which you have a rough guideline of how loose or tight your opponent plays. However, Elephant doesn't give you any information about which cards your opponent likes to play, or even about how he plays certain hands pre-flop - that's where your own observations are required. Your goal is to find out as much as possible about each of your opponents.
- What hands does my opponent prefer?
- Suited hands
- Ax and other high-card hands
- Small pairs
- Connected hands
- How does he play different hands pre-flop?
- What hands does he limp/call with?
- What hands does he raise with?
- Does he pay attention to position with his weak hands?
- Does he steal often?
- With what hands does he 3-bet?
- Does he also go all-in pre-flop with weak hands?
These are only a few examples. Of course, the list can be extended a lot, and the one above is only there to give you some hints on what you have to pay attention to.
It's always valuable to note down your opponent's unusual moves. If, for example, he cold calls AA in position after a raise, then that is a piece of information which could be useful for you later. However, knowing that your opponent raises, for example, TT or another semi-strong hand from the CO doesn't help you at all, but it would be interesting if he limp/raised these hands, as it would give you an idea with which hands he makes this move.
It is important that you don't depend too much on Elephant's stats, because they only give you the average values of the hands played. This means that two players could have pre-flop values of 30 VPIP and 24 PFR, but still play in completely different ways: one of them could be a very good loose-aggressive player who pays attention to position, while the other one is simply a fish and raises hands whenever he feels like it, without giving it much thought.
Don't make the mistake of determining the post-flop competence of a player based on a good or bad pre-flop game, because many players might have a solid pre-flop strategy, but make many devastating mistakes post-flop.
However, by knowing the pre-flop tendencies of a player, you can avoid some post-flop mistakes. If, for instance, a player likes to play any ace, then you have to be very careful with a pocket pair on an A-high board, and you can fold in most cases when he starts to bet or raise. On the other hand, if you hit the ace yourself with a good kicker, then you can bet strongly for value, as these opponents then will no longer fold in most cases.
Also against players who like playing suited hands and also call big bets on the flop and turn with their flush draw, you should always be on your guard when the flush arrives. Often you can find an easy fold when you are confronted by a big bet or a raise.
More important than knowing the pre-flop tendencies of a player is the ability to see through his post-flop game. However, notes about the favourite hands of a player can be very helpful as already mentioned. Nonetheless, you win most of the money post-flop, as the pot and the bets become bigger with every street. Now you will be introduced to the basic types and patterns to which you should pay attention with your opponents.
This point is probably one of the most important ones. However, it is at the same time one of the most difficult ones, as it often takes a long time until you have collected enough information to be able to make secure predictions; thus you should always try to collect as much information as possible.
First of all, you should divide the different hands into categories. For instance, you could use the following division:
- Strong Made Hands (SMH): Sets, top two pairs, straight, flush, full house…
- Medium Strong Made Hands (MSMH): Top pair, bottom two pair…
- Weak Made Hands (WMH): Middle pair, bottom pair…
- Strong Draws (SD): Flush draw, open-ended straight draw, combo draws…
- Weak Draws (WD): Gut shot, weak one-card flush draw…
- Bluffs (B)
However, the different board textures have to be considered as well, as the state of the board will have a significant influence on your opponent's decision - he will most likely tend towards slowplay with a strong hand on a dry board, rather than on a draw-heavy board. Thus, the combination of hand strength and board is always important: never consider only one of these factors in isolation.
You should, at the very least, make the difference between:
- Dry Boards (DB)
- Straight Draw Boards (SDB)
- Flush Draw Boards (FDB)
- Draw-Heavy Boards (DHB): Flush- and straight draws possible
This can, of course, be expanded even more, as the amount of high cards is also of importance. On a T45 rainbow board, a straight draw is possible, but it is much more improbable than on a JT2 rainbow board.
- How does he play different categories on different boards?
- Is he able to fold top pair, top kicker?
- Does he know how to use his position?
- Does he overplay draw?
- Does he often defend his blinds?
- Does he slowplay a lot? How about on draw-heavy boards?
- Does he often fold after a conti-bet or a 2nd barrel?
- Does he like to bluff-raise the flop/turn or river?
- Is he able to fold an overpair?
- On what boards does he often check-raise? What does his check-raise mean?
- Does he show aggression as soon as you check?
- Does he interpret small bets as weakness and raises?
- Does he float a lot? On what boards?
- Does he bluff busted draws on the river?
- Does he often donk into the pre-flop raiser and then folds after a raise?
- Does he try to steal many small pots?
- With what hands does he call/raise the flop/turn?
These are only a few key factors you should pay attention to and you will certainly notice many more factors which could give you an advantage. However, to explain every important situation here would go beyond the scope of this article. If you try and consider this in detail, it shouldn't be a problem for you to add even more factors.
The bet size is a very important factor: it is quite often that you can draw a conclusion on the strength of the hand, based on the size of the bet and this is mainly the case with bad players. If your opponent doesn't bet based on the texture of the board but rather on the strength of his hand, then you can get a read from this. You should pay close attention to min-bets and overbets.
- Does he overbet on the river as a bluff or for value?
- Does he min-bet draws and call a big raise?
- Does he min-bet monsters to keep you in the pot / provoke a raise?
- Does he min-bet as a steal and then fold after a raise?
- Does he make small conti-bets and then big bets with a hit?
- What do a ½, 2/3, 1 pot-size bet mean?
On the lower limits, for instance, experience shows that fish only min-bet with draws most of the time, to see the next card as cheaply as possible.
If you manage to judge the bet size of an opponent, then you have an enormous advantage against this player. If, for instance, a small bet represents weakness, then you can steal many pots with a simple raise. However, if they represent strength and he only wants to keep you in the pot or provoke a raise, then you can save a lot of money with a fold. With a draw, you can even see the next card cheaply against this opponent, and you have very high implied odds when you hit.
However, if you play against good players, then you can't deduce much from the bet size in most cases, as good players mostly adjust their bet size to the board. On draw-heavy boards, the bets will be bigger on average than on dry boards. More money is also bet into a multi-way pot than in a heads-up pot. In this case, only your notes about his playing style will help you.
At a first glance, you will probably think: how do I manage to collect so much information? By noting down individual hands and monitoring his game. However, this special situation will certainly not repeat itself that quickly. These notes about individual hands only represent the foundation of your observations - the more you observe your opponents, the more notes you will collect about them and soon enough you will recognize certain patterns in their game. Then you will be able to estimate important moves and your opponents' train of thought rather well.
As soon as you know how your opponent plays different hand types, you'll be able to make the correct decision at the right moment: on one hand, it will often save you money against this opponent, as you can be sure that you are beat; on the other hand, you can often make another value bet, which you probably would have missed otherwise. It will be very difficult for your opponent to play against you, as you will always be a step ahead of him.
So, at first you will only have notes about the individual hands of your opponent and from these it is already possible to draft a generally valid tendency for this player with further observations. This can be easily done by studying the hand history and by observing hands in which you aren't involved yourself. If you have a note that your opponent only calls a top pair with top kicker on a draw-heavy flop and raises the turn, then you should pay further attention to this factor of call flop, raise turn.
- Does he only do it with strong hands?
- Does he raise his draws on the flop?
- Does he often bluff on the turn?
When you have collected enough information and it becomes apparent that he raises his draws on the flop, but only calls his strong hands, then you have already acquired a very valuable piece of information about this player.
Furthermore, you should always keep in mind that it matters a lot against what type of player this hand was decided: a TAG calls his TPTK on all three streets on a 2-suited board only against a maniac who bluffs very often. The same TAG bets all three streets on a KT473 board without flush draw with KQ against a calling station which calls very lightly.
In both examples you have gained a piece of information, which, however, does not help you further. If you orientate yourself on the strategies suggested by PokerStrategy, you will neither be a maniac nor a calling station, so you cannot assume that this TAG will play his hands the same way against you. However, you can profit from the game of the calling station and the maniac in this hand. With what did the calling station call three barrels here? With what hand did the maniac bet three streets on a draw-heavy board?
For the last two players, you can now add a preliminary note and in further hands you can now check if they often play hands this way, or only against this specific TAG. He could have often bluffed against the calling station, which led it to a call down with a weak hand which he usually wouldn't have done. Likewise, the maniac could have often been floated by this TAG, or was often only called by him with a draw, so that he fired a 2nd barrel at the turn and bet the river without showdown value to get a draw or a weak hand to fold once and for all.
So your goal should be to also observe hands in which you aren't involved, to note down the information as guesses; with further observation you can then categorize your guesses as correct or incorrect. If you already have many pieces of information about a player which turned out to be correct, then you should trust them as well and put them to the test. If you weren't correct with your guess every now and then, don't be thrown off your stride. No read is 100% sure.
This is a method with which you can slowly acquire reliable information by noting down interesting individual hands and then checking to see if this guess was correct or not. With a bit of practice, you will gain insight into how your opponent sees the game and what motivates him to make his moves.
- Light Call Downs (LCD)
- Calls down with many bad hands (e.g. mid-pair, bottom pair, high card).
- Do not Bluff (DnB)
- Mostly in relation to Light Call Downs. The opponent doesn't fold hands often enough to bluff in a profitable way.
- Chase Draws (ChD)
- Plays his draws passively and calls big bets on the flop and turn. If a draw hits, you have to be careful. No matter if it is a gut-shot or a flush draw, every draw is worth being chased.
- Needs 2nd Barrel (2ndB)
- Folds almost nothing on the flop. Then folds almost everything after a 2nd barrel on the turn.
- TPNK = Nuts
- Against this opponent you should play for stacks with top pair, top kicker, as he is willing to go broke with any kind of top pair.
- Strong Value Bets (SVB)
- Calls with everything you can imagine, and even with worse hands.
Many players make the mistake of writing down their notes in fully written out sentences. Certainly, this is easier and less complicated at first. However, in the long run, they face some problems, as the notes…
- … are mostly phrased differently.
- … need a lot of space.
- … will become confusing over time.
The problem often resulting from this is that you have won a sizable amount of information, but aren't able to use it effectively and often enough you no longer understand exactly what a note which you have written a month ago means. In the short time you have to make a decision, you don't manage to read through the whole mess.
The logical way to avoid this problem is to adopt a coherent system early on. It should be quick, short and simple, but it should also have a high degree of precision and attention to detail, especially abbreviations, which are often demonized by many, can be of enormous importance here. You can get used to a sizable amount of new symbols within a very short period of time: at first it might be exhausting to write down your notes, but you will be able to adjust quickly and successfully. In the long run, you'll profit from a short and precise system which uses the short space for notes as efficiently as possible.
How to record the information
Now you will learn how to record your observations. First of all, you will be introduced to a technique with which you can note down individual played hands.
In doing so, it is important that you always write down your notes in the same pattern. Only by doing so will you be able to automate this process: the more often you make a note, the sooner you'll get used to it and before you know it, it won't be difficult at all to write down or evaluate many notes within a short period of time.
Your note should always include all the important information. However, this does not necessarily mean the whole course of the hand. It might well be that only the moves on individual streets are of importance.
Stack, hand, position, pre-flop move, board, flop-move, turn-move, river move.
For instance, this is how to group the whole course of a hand. Depending on which move in the hand was decisive, only individual pieces of information need be written down.
In order to not always have to write down the $ amount of the opponent's stack, common abbreviations are being used:
- Short Stack(SS)
- Mid-Stack(MS)
- Full Stack(FS)
- Deep Stack (DS)
Ideally, you should know at what point an opponent can be classified into the different categories of SS, MS, FS or DS respectively. For the category Deep Stack, it is advisable to add a further, finer distinction, as it does make a considerable difference if a player is 1.5 stacks or 3 stacks deep - here it helps to add a number behind the abbreviation. DS would then describe a player with 1.5 stacks. DS2 a player who is 2 stacks deep. However, you should also always pay attention that you include the effective stack sizes, because if a player with 3 stacks is all-in on the flop with a draw against a player with only 50 BB, then you can't deduce his style against another deep stack from this situation, as the effective stack size only amounts to 50 BB.
The hand, as well as the position of the players, is to be noted after the stack sizes. Here, AT always designates off-suited hands, while the "s" after the hand always designates suited hands (e.g. ATs, 98s etc.).
On a short-handed table, UTG, MP, CO, BU, SB, BB designate the six different positions. In addition to this, you can also write down if the player played the hand IP (in position) or OOP (out of position).
As you've already noted every important parameter, you can now take care of the pre-flop game of your opponent. To cover the individual possibilities a player has at his disposal, a few abbreviations are necessary: this helps with clarity and consistency and you end up with a short, compact note. However, it doesn't make sense to learn many new terms and abbreviations, so you should fall back on known terms and abbreviations. We suggest that you use the terms which are used in the forum.
For example, you might use the following abbreviations:
- L = Limp
- c = call
- f = fold
- R = Raise
- isoR = isolation-Raise
- o = over/open
- 3b = 3-bet
- 4b = 4-bet
- p = push
- AI = All-In
- Sqz = Squeeze
With these abbreviations, every possible hand can be described by combining the individual abbreviations in the proper way:
- FS, JJ BU oR/c3bet SB
- Full stack, JJ on BU, open-raises, calls 3-bet from the SB
- FS, 44 BU CC oR MP
- Full stack, 44 on BU, cold calls open-raise from MP
- MS, 94s UTG L/r BU
- Mid-stack, 94s in UTG, limp/raises against a BU raise
- FS, AKs BU oR/4bet SB
- Full stack, AKs on BU, open-raises and 4-bets after a 3-bet of the SB
- FS, AJ SB 3b/p oR CO
- Full stack, AJo in the SB, 3-bets CO open-raise and pushes after a CO 4-bet
You've now seen a possible system but the system isn't necessarily the best one for you. If nothing else, we hope that it motivates you to create your own system so you can either use our system, change it, or create a new one using ours as a model.
As there are many different board textures, you need a system which covers every possible board and the main problem here is the different suits of the community cards. Now you will learn about a possible solution to this problem.
The different cards will be abbreviated with A, K, Q, T, 9… as usual. For the suits, the following system can be used:
- rainbow flop: K74r
- 2-suited flop: K74s
- 3-suited flop: K74ss
If a flush now hits on the turn or river, it can be displayed like this:
- 2-suited flop with 3s river: K74sT2s
- 2-suited flop with 3s turn: K74sTs2
- 2-suited flop with 3s turn and 4s river: K74sTs2s
These boards now differ in an important detail: while on the 1st board the third card of a suit only appears on the river, it already appeared on the turn on the 2nd board. The 3rd board is also already 3-suited on the turn, and actually becomes 4-suited on the river.
However, this alone won't suffice, because so far, we aren't able to display possible BackDoor Flush draws (BDF).
- rainbow flop with BDF on the turn: QT4r2sT
- rainbow flop with BDF on the turn and 3s river: QT4r2sTs
- 2-suited flop with BDF on the turn and 3s River: QT4s2ssTs
- 2-suited flop with BDF on the turn and 3s BDF on the river: QT4s2ssTss
These boards also strongly differ from each other:
On the 1st board, we have a rainbow flop, on which a BDF draw becomes possible on the turn. However, the river does not bring the third card of this suit.
The 2nd board is also a rainbow flop with a possible BDF draw on the turn, which does hit on the river this time.
The 3rd board represents a 2-suited flop. On the turn, a BDF draw becomes possible. However, the river completes the initial flush draw on the flop.
The 4th board is similar to the 3rd one with the difference that the BDF hit on the river.
Now, only the 3-suited flop is still missing.
- 3-suited flop, blank turn & river: J72ss49
- 3-suited flop, blank turn 4-suited river: J72ss49s
- 3-suited flop, 4s turn and 5s river: J72ss4s9s
Furthermore, it is valuable to note if the pot was heads-up or multi-way - we'll assume that no comment indicates a heads-up pot, so the multi-way pots can simply be abbreviated by mwp (multi-way pot).
As you can see, each imaginable board texture can be quickly and clearly noted with this simple method and with a bit of practice you'll find that you now have the possibility of recording a large amount of information within seconds:
- How big was his stack?
- What hand did he have?
- From which position did he play?
- How did the board look?
- How strong was his hand in combination with the board?
Now, you have a majority of the information in a short and compact form. The only things still missing are the post-flop moves.
After the parameters of the hand have been noted in full details, the only things missing are the moves on the different streets.
To make it clearer, the post-flop moves should mirror the pre-flop moves. The individual streets can also be abbreviated:
- F = Flop
- T = Turn
- R = River
The post-flop moves should correspond with the pre-flop moves and have a similar structure. For instance, these are some possible terms:
- c = call
- ch = check
- b = bet
- D = Donk
- f = fold
- r = raise
- cbet = contibet
- m = min
- 3b = 3-bet
- p = push
- AI = All-In
- cb = checkbehind
- chD = checkDown
- CD = CallDown
- o = over
- PS = PotSize
With the help of these abbreviations, you should be able to describe the course of a hand via the combination of the individual abbreviations.
These techniques are only supposed to be examples, and are not be considered perfect - they are simply there to show that you can note down a whole hand in an easy method. This technique offers you a solid foundation on which you can build your own system.
As you have certainly noticed, these are not new and unknown terms and the abbreviations should also be familiar from the forum as well. These terms and abbreviations are also being used currently in most hand evaluations, so now you simply have to centralize how to write down your notes quickly and precisely.
- FS, AKs BU oR/c3bet SB, KT8r9ss2 F c cbet T cb R pAI
- Full stack, AKs on BU, open-raises and calls a 3-bet of the SB
- Board: KT8 rainbow, BDF on the turn 9, river blank. Hero has TPTK
- Flop: calls the contibet, turn: checks behind, river: pushes all-in
- FS, 33 CO, CC oR UTG, 785s6Q F r cbet T 2/3PSB R cb
- Full stack, 33 on CO, cold calls an open-raise from UTG
- Board: 785 2-suited on the turn 6, river brings a Q
- Flop: Player raises the conti-bet, turn: bets 2/3rd of the pot size, river: checks behind
- MS, T9s BB, CC oR BU, A87s4J F Db T ch R b/c
- Mid-stack, T9s in the BB, cold calls open-raise from BU
- Board: A87 2-suited, turn blank 4, river J brings the straight
- Flop: donk-bet, turn check, river: bet/call
- MS, Q3s UTG, l/c isoR MP, AQTrA3 F ch/c T ch/c R ch/cAI
- Mid-stack, Q3s in UTG, limp/calls an isolation-raise from MP
- Board: AQT rainbow, turn A and river 3
- Flop/Turn/River: Player check/calls all 3 streets and is all-in on the river
If you sit at a table with observant players, other things become important as well: it doesn't just matter how your opponents play, as your own game during the last hands becomes interesting. When you assume that your opponents are able to observe your game and take notes themselves, then you should also note down important information about your game, and how you think your opponents see you.
For instance, it could look like this:
You are on the BU with AQ. In the blinds are two TAG's. You raise and the SB folds. The BB is a very aggressive player who has already 3-bet against you in the past and does it again. You decide to call. The flop is J62r and the BB bets. You decide to make a move and push him all-in, as his range is very wide and he will fold very often. Unfortunately, your opponent has AA and calls you.
If your opponent is observant, he will take a note which could look like this: 3betP, dry rAI air. With this piece of information, your opponent now has to assume that you sometimes try to bluff him out of 3-bet pots, so he will surely be a bit more call-happy in the next hands; therefore you have to be a bit more careful with your bluffs. Nevertheless, it is suggested to make this move also with strong hands now, as your opponent will assume that you often bluff here.
However, if he sees that you also do this with strong hands, then you can still bluff every now and then. This way, you'll leave him in the dark about your style and he can never be sure what hand you currently have. If you always do this only with the bluff though, he will soon figure it out and you will lose a lot of money against this opponent in these situations.
Conclusion
In this article you have learned how to create notes, what you should observe from your opponents and how you can use your knowledge against them. You now have a solid foundation and with it you can acquire a lot of information about your opponents with a bit of practice.
As you can see, notes are a very extensive topic. However, it clearly pays off to deal with it thoroughly, as it is enormously important to know your opponents. As the saying goes: don't play your cards, play your opponent! By using the above discussed practices, you will get closer to this goal and you'll become a better player.
Endurance and willingness to learn are a must here, just like they are in every other area: if you aren't ready to deal with this, then you won't make it either and your notes will still let you down every now and then. At times, your opponent does have a strong hand, even though he's almost always bluffed in this spot. However, you have to hold your ground against these frustrating incidents - no read is 100% sure. Nonetheless, you can work on your reads so that they become more and more reliable.
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