i'm lost on the specifics.

for those of you that keep a poker journal/diary?

what do you put in it? hand histories?

how do you keep hand histories? by memory after a session? do you jot them down during a session? on a phone or paper? do you keep info on your thought process or just how the hand played out?

what else do you put in a poker journal? any other types of thoughts or activities?

i keep a spreadsheet that tracks my wins/losses/expenses but that's it.

would like to better my game. i see a lot of guys on here that i respect mention that keep a poker journal. so i'm wondering what's entered, how it's entered, when it's entered, etc.

thanks for any tips/advice.

I tried using those poker apps, for putting in HHs, but never found one that was extremely easy to use, so now I just use notes in iPhone or iPad. I only use this when playing cash games.

It's extremely helpful for my kind of games where the player pool is fairly small. I take notes on players (each reg is given an own note), I write down hands using abbreviations I understand the day after. Sometimes I only put in the hole cards and stack sizes as I remember how the hand played out etc.

I take notes while at the table or when smoking between hands.

I simply keep track of daily winnings each day. then at the end of each month give a W/L number next to the total days and average per day

then at the end of each year add up the months and do the same

also at the end of each month the winnings will go into my overall average and total winnings as well

I use the Poker Income app. but for hand histories, there is really no easy way except to type everything out. I open a new email and send it to myself.

Same thing here, except I'll shoot myself a text message at the table with some details about the particular hand. The poker income app works really well, check it out.

I use poker income app wins/losses, tips and session length. I use EverNote app to record other things.
- how I'm feeling (sleepy,sick,sexy)
- what I ate/planned breaks throughout session
- what I think about other players at the table
- what I think other players think about me
- hand histories

I write up a couple hhs, thoughts on my play, goals for the future and stats.

I use poker journal, but never have really come up with a good shorthand for recording HHs. The most I do is try and recall key hands and type them in during the dealer shift change every half hour. But what I've found is that while that captures the "big hands" it doesn't really help me analyze the small leaks that really make the difference over time. Rather I tend to capture the "I could've had a V8!" bonehead mistakes that cost me a lot, but are a lot easier to recognize/fix anyway and I usually know immediately what I screwed up on.

Check the microstakes forums and maybe online poker. People have a lot of experience typing up fast HHs.

I primarily play limit so it's a little easier but I imagine you can modify for NL.

CO 65s 3l vl (J6)5 SB b ccr3ff4 A xbc J df

Translation: I was in the CO with 65s, 3 limps, I overlimped, flop J65 two-toned with the J6 suited, SB bet, 2 calls, I raised, he 3-bet, 2 folds, I 4-bet, he called. Turn A, he checked, I bet, he called. River J, he donks and I fold.

Thanks. That's amazing! I'll definitely take a look. Was there a particular thread on this, or just interspersed in other threads? Unfortunately, at my age, I'll probably need a cheat sheet for the codes, so that will probably still slow me down too much. But I'll give it a try for sure.

I can't remember any particular thread, but it may exist. Post in the NC/LC threads asking for a reference or look at the stickied threads at the top.

Mostly red numbers

+1 We have a winner!

It's digital and it's funny. It is only supposed to have the running W/L, buy in, maybe some room notes but when I have a tough game I sometimes make comments like "played fat, red-shirted, sweat-stained reject from a sewage leak...and he stacked me." WTH am i supposed to do with that info?

one thing I do record in the notes (which I make each dealer change) is what my profit/loss is at that moment. So it may say 9pm: up 100; and then list any key hands. I started doing that not because I play to protect profits; but rather I've found that during a long session (my sessions usually run 6-10 hours) if I find that I see myself drifting down for two or three dealers, but with no notable hands recorded to explain it, it often alerts me to the fact that I may have drifted over to autopilot, or have gotten bored and have started limp/folding too much. Or worse, limp/calling/folding.

It's a leak of mine that I have to guard against, and if I see something like : 9pm up 300; 9:30pm up 250; 10pm up 195 but have no hands written down and really can't recall where that money went, it helps me catch that and wake the **** up.

Author of "Poker Plays You Can Use" Doug Hull uses pre-printed sheets to quickly record important hand information. They do take up some space, but looks like a quick way to get the info without taking your eyes off the game for too long, or drawing too much attention to yourself.

http://threebarrelbluff.com/using-live-hand-records/

I have never done any recording of anything in live poker games, so I cant tell you how awkward it would be, there is some discussion of the sheets in his book thread

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/33...11/index2.html

I wish I had room to write this somewhere. good idea