Keeping Good Notes

All sites allow players to take notes on other players but not all players do. If you don’t then you are not doing everything you can to earn more money. Everyone should take notes; the trick is knowing what to write.

To take a note, on most sites you just click the seat or avatar and the notes will come up for your viewing and editing. The first thing is rate their play – Tricky, Good, Poor. Tricky is reserved for players who are good at hiding the strength of their hands and like to trap. Good players are just straight forward but play well. Poor are those who will play anything, don’t know when to fold, and over bet their hands. This category is a nice quick way to get an overview.

Tight/Loose A tight player is very selective about what they play and know the starting hands and sticks to them. It’s good to know who these players are, so when they put in a raise, you know they probably have the goods. Loose players are opposite and play just about every hand.

Aggressive/Passive/Maniac/Calling Station Passive are players who seldom bet, they will call however. Some passive fall into the Calling Station category and this is the type of player you never want to bluff. Calling Stations will always call your bet. Aggressive players bet hard at pots they are in and tend to bluff a lot. Any kind of strength in their hand and they will go after the pot. Maniacs are aggressive players on steroids; they will play anything and will not back off. They will often play numerous hands in a row hard and fast. When you get a Maniac and a Calling Station, watch the fireworks. Both will not fold, and one will bet hard and the other will continue to call. The pots will usually be huge.

Pot Stealer or PS This player should be noted because they will usually bet when in late position when no one has shown any strength. They are hoping to win the pot there without a showdown. When you know this, you can raise them and take the pot away from them whether you have a hand or not.

Tells online are hard but with some players you can see things like a long pause (Pause) when they have a monster. Another tell is when they call so quick that you know they have the auto call checked (AutoCall) and have a big hand. Checkraisers (CR) are another breed that have tells, mark the ones that check raise only will the big hands or nuts.

There are many more notes that you can keep, depending on how much space you have. Things like betting with top pair, middle pair, bottom pair, weak kicker, strong kicker, slow playing trips, whether they like to preflop raise and what the hands are that they play are all other possible notes. Notes help you remember things about players that you may not see again for some time. Notes can help you win extra money or lose the minimum. Find a system that works for you that you can quickly look at and know as much information about your opponent as possible.