Not everything you see can be memorised while you are out there gambling in the casino. The best part about successful gamblers is that they do a lot of work when they are away from casinos. Taking notes is one of the best-kept secrets that help them win more.
When you sit at the poker table, you will notice several new strategies and tactics that your opponents use to enhance their chances of winning. It would help if you took note of them to be aware of them the next time you sit to play.
Let us have a look at some of the note-making tips that could improve your poker game.
5 Tips to get good at Poker Note-Making
- Keep it Short
Poker software provides you with limited space for taking notes. If you take too many notes, it will be challenging to find the intel that you need at the moment, as you would have to dig through a lot to find the useful info.
- Create your Unique System
Every player may have a unique note-making system. There is no particular right method for taking notes. The only wrong way is when you don’t take notes at all. At first, your way would be slow and sloppy, but as it develops, you will find it pretty useful while playing poker.
- Don’t Note the Ordinary
There is no need to take notes of every event that occurs while playing poker. It would help if you recorded everything unusual at the poker table when a player pulls off a game in a new way. When that same player makes the same move again, it won’t be unexpected for you as you have already taken notes.
For instance, if some player check-raises a lot as the pre-flop 3-bettor, you should note it. When your opponent is making this move at the initial stage, you might lose a lot, but when your opponent makes the same move again, you will be aware of it.
- Create Abbreviations
The space that you get for note-making is super limited. It would help if you created abbreviations for every action that takes place while playing poker to make your note-making system more efficient. These abbreviations must make sense only to you and not someone else. If someone gets access to your notes, he/she should not be able to understand the notes as you have used abbreviations.
For instance, you can start by creating abbreviations for some necessary actions like check-raise, call, raise, check, float, fold, etc.
- Relevancy is King
The information that you collect in your notes should be as relevant as possible. Get more info about related things here.
- Limits of the game
If you play a tournament of $1 with a gambler and that same person pops up in a $200 competition, it can say a lot about their approach towards the game. You can get to know about the picture of how they play the game.
- Stages of the tournament
You will find that a player’s performance is different at the start of the event and the end of the game.
- Number of big blinds
It would help if you took note of a player’s behaviour while playing blinds. You will notice that your opponent won’t play the same with 5 big blinds as they will play with 40 big blinds.
- Actions taken by the players
You might find some actions undertaken by players when they are bluffing. If you can discover a player’s bluff with his/her actions, it becomes straightforward for you to bet accordingly.
These are some of the essential tips you must take care of while taking notes at the poker table. Taking notes might turn out to be the additional firepower that you needed for improving your game.