I tried searching this forum but didn't find much helpful advice about how exactly to take notes of hands. Obviously if you pull out pen & paper and start jotting stuff down after big hands people are going to notice. I've tried taking notes on my iPad since people will just think I'm playing around or watching videos but often times I find it hard to remember all relevant information (Bet sizing's, who exactly bet it and on what street, pot size) if I'm in the hand, especially multi-way. I'm sure I just need to work on getting better at short hand note taking and using my iPad for this but I'm curious as to others experience with this.

One interesting idea I did read on one of these threads was someone who steps away from the table after a big hand (sometimes waiting a hand or two so no one notices) and uses voice recording. He says this makes it easier to include small pieces of information that you otherwise wouldn't and he feels you more accurately get bet sizing and pot size information. Later on he'll listen to his recordings and turn them into written hand histories.
I think this is a cool idea but I'm not sure how practical it would be if I'm finding myself walking away from the table every 10 - 15 minutes.

I know I have been having the same trouble
Tried a few things from voice recorder
Pen and paper
But in the end i just use note pad on my phone once you get the short details down it can be quite quick
One thing I did learn was not try to get deatils on every hand really over the course of the night you should only 5-7 hands on note
I also have another note pad for my preflop play and maybe a few more open for things that I am trying to keep track off (cold calling, hands over 30bb or leaks that I am trying to fix)


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I also use note pad on my phone. I'm looking for ranges, bet sizing & visual tells.
My shorthand is basically dropping the vowels.
I can go back, review & edit during dealer changes or when they fill the bank.

I'm also trying to figure this out. I'm just trying to remember hands for now. I can usually remember the important bits of major hands--not exact raise sizes or stack sizes but the cards, who did what, etc. But I'd like to get more exact information.

Jonathan Little uses a 200-page 5.5x3.5 inch spiral bound notebook with pages pre-filled out with H S B P at the top of each page. They stand for Hand (hole cards), Stack (Effective presumably), Blinds, and Position. The example he gives for taking notes:

H JJ S 1500 B 5/10 P B
UTG LAG raises to 30, I 90, he calls
Ts6c3d
I 120 he calls
3h
I 240 he calls
4c
I 400 he calls JT, I win

This would be pretty easy for a game where it's frequently heads up, but at 1/2 limpfests I'm trying to figure out a better way to get all the action. Maybe something like Little's system but using numbers for position (V1=UTG, ..., V9=BB) and a second S for seat, where I can then record villains as V1 V2 V3 etc. based on seat. For example,

H AdTs S 300 B 1/2 P 4 S 9
V1 V2 c V3 f I 15 V5-6 f V7 c V8c V9f V1 c V2 f
Ah7c4c (47)
V8 c I 30 V3 f V7c V8 f
Js (107)
I 70 V7 f

The problem with this is remembering all the preflop action and noting it down is a bit difficult. Also, V1 is a different person each hand (same problem writing btn, utg, etc.). It would be easier to take notes based on seat number and you can figure out the exact positions later from the button's seat. You can also jot down player types with a single number, like 146 TP 23 LAG 57TAG 8UK 9M (UK=unknown, m=maniac). Also I could use symbols like / for bet, \ for fold, _ for check, | for call, so here's an example of this system:

H AdAs S 300 B 1/2 P 4 S 9 BTN 3
67 | 8 \ I / 15 347 |
Ah7c4c (47)
47 _ I / 30 37 |
Js (107)
7 _ I / 75 3 |
2s (257)
I / AI 3 | Jh7d I W

3 LP 4 TP 7 LP

This is much more compact and easier to remember IMO, since you just need to write down the action from the seat numbers rather than remembering whether someone was UTG+1 or MP for instance. It's hard to interpret but can be reconstructed fairly easily with practice I expect. If I'm fourth to act preflop in seat 9, then seat 3 is the BTN (which I can note at the time as BTN 3). Then the hand can be reconstructed easily as

I'm playing 1/2 with AdAs, 300 effective, in the LJ. BTN is a LP, SB TP, UTG+1 LP.
UTG, UTG+1 limp, MP folds, I bet 15, BTN, SB, and UTG+1 call
Flop is Ah7c4c with pot size 47
SB checks, UTG+1 checks, I bet 30, BTN and UTG+1 call
Turn is the Js with pot size 107
UTG + 1 checks, I bet 75, BTN calls, UTG+1 folds
River is the 2s with pot size 257
I go all in, BTN calls with Jh7d, and I win

It's not perfect but I'm working on it. It needs to be something I can remember, write down quickly, and interpret correctly later. I feel it's more important I get the information down quickly and accurately than completely, hence all the symbols and abbreviations.

Still, even this would take at least 30 seconds to a minute to jot down, but I can't figure out how to compact it anymore without losing information.

I'd notate Littles hand as:

X=check f=fold c=call ft=fold to

First line ends up being the note title in iOS note app and is the only part of the note visible in my other app I sometimes log hands in. So I like to see eff stacks pf action villain hand and my hand all in that first line.



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I would do it something like:

LAG V UTG (1500) r30, H HJ (Covers) JdJs 3b90
Ts6c3d
Vx H120 Vc
3h
Vx H240 Vc
4c
Vx H400 Vc MHIG

But literally no different from commando. I think the / | \ is too confusing for me, and I would really only take a few notes per session so spending a total of 5 minutes over the course of a night copying a hand and probably adding a sentence or two about villain tendency or history is nothing. Plus live poker is super slow so what else are you gonna do?

Some very good ideas and points here. I'm going to incorporate some of the short hand ideas you guys have listed. However, I'm still not sure if it would be better to use my iPad or a small notebook (as Little suggested). As I said in my OP, I feel as if using a notebook (even a small one) just gives away what you're doing, at least to the seats beside you. Thoughts on this?

Physically writing on a physical piece of paper seems gross. Saw a guy doing it one time in mid hand. He shoves, dude tanks and he whips his note book out and starts scribbling. Tanking dude tells dealer he shouldn't be allowed to do that. Dealer says "why not?". Tanking dude "idk call floor".

Floor has sitch explained to him. "Sir can you stop writing please".... he stops dude calls. Note pad guy has the nuts obv. Prob just a shopping list or something.


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Haha, that's funny. I've seen 1 person openly take notes at the table like that and it pretty much gave away that's he's at least a thinking player. So yea, I agree it's probably not a good idea to use pen and paper unless you hide it real well. I'll probably just stick with my tablet and try to get faster at taking notes.

I think I might be trying to take notes on too many hands as well. I see a lot of people talking about how they'll only have 5 -7 hands after a session (I'm assuming an 8 hour sesh) and I find myself hitting that in about 2 hours. Maybe I should be more selective with my note taking which would certainly make it easier to remember the important parts of the hands I do decide to pick.

That's better if you're using a phone since the symbols usually require pushing another button. My phone is encrypted and I have to enter a passphrase to unlock it, so for me it would be more practical to use a notebook. Plus I can write faster than I can type with my thumbs. I like _ \ | / as symbols since they are fewer strokes to write than letters. Whatever works for you though!

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I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with taking notes at the table. I think you just can't be doing it during a hand you're playing. Jonathan Little keeps his pad on the rail or in his lap with a pen in the spiral binding so he just turns away and jots down a hand when he needs to. If you keep it in your lap nobody is going to notice you're using a pad vs. a phone except maybe the person to your immediate left and right, I expect.

Also it makes no sense to me why taking notes on cell phones would be okay but a notepad wouldn't be. There's infinitely more potential for cheating with a cell phone. I guess establishments just turn a blind eye because everybody has cell phones now, but I've seen players leave their phones on the rail and using them even while in a hand sometimes.

ive recently decided to try to figure out my preflop range, and i realized quickly that you start off putting down far more info than you do later on.

Originally it was HJ 3L (limpers) r20 (raise to 20), 2c (2 callers) AcJs. Now its "MP r AJo"

I recognize youre trying to get an entire hand down, but just skim the boring parts, like you dont need everyone's stacks, just the effective stacks between you and the primary V, you dont need to know how many people limped before someone raised, just how many saw the flop.

There are 35 threads in LCP alone with the word 'notes' in the title. Can't tell me there's nothing helpful there

Yeah I found quite a few googling "taking notes" site:twoplustwo.com

Some of them look pretty helpful. Most are old though. When considering creating a thread on a common topic you often run into this dilemma: start a new thread on a topic that's been covered extensively and risk annoying people, or resurrect an old thread and risk annoying people.

Where did I say I found NOTHING helpful? I even included something helpful I did find in my OP. Maybe I should have included "Up to date" in the first sentence but I still didn't even find outdated information covering everything I asked. You know where I found the majority of the helpful information I've recently learned, in this post....
Not sure what you're contributing to this post but thanks anyways I guess?

Which was exactly the dilemma I faced. The closest thing I found to answering my main question was from 2004 and it still didn't touch on taking notes with pen & paper vs tablet/phone. However, I found many helpful pieces of information in this thread (I'm sure others will too) so I'm glad I did decide to post it.

Still happy to hear about how others take notes effectively at the table!

Doesn't bother me if someone makes a new thread--just wasn't sure if you were aware of the others.

I practiced some with my system (watching recorded play and pretending I was a specific player) and like it. It makes tracking players easy when you use the seats instead of positions, as whenever someone changes seats you just note something like "7 left, 3 to 7" or "new 6 OMC." I'm thinking about having a separate book for tracking players but for now I'm using one book.

On a phone I would want to avoid any symbols or uppercase that require an extra button press. And you don't have to worry about vertical space so I would arrange it a bit differently.

I could have a generic template called "note_template" with the first row B = blinds, S = my stack, E = eff. stack, P = my relative position, second S = my seat number, BTN = seat number of BTN, H = my hand, Vh = villains' hands (if shown), seven blank rows for the action, and 9 more rows to take notes on player type (if desired). It would look like this:

B S E P S BTN H Vh Vh






1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

------------------

Then to record a hand I open the template, fill it out as follows (note C=call, F=fold, B=bet, X=check, AI=allin, W=win, L=lose, T=tie, P=pot size, H=hero), then save as notes5-29-1734 (just date plus 24-hour time to keep them ordered, alternatively you could just do 5-29-01, 5-29-02, etc.)

So filled out it might look like this (leave capslock on for readability if preferred):

B 1/2 S 400 E 300 P 4 S 9 BTN 3 H AADS Vh J7HD Vh
67C 8F HB 15 347C
A74HCC P47
47X HB 30 37C
JS P107
7X HB 75 3C
2S P257
HAI 3C HW

1B TP MAWG
2O LAG MAAAG
3T LP YMEG
4B TP OWG
5NR MAAG
6E TAG YAG
7B LP MAWW
8G TAG MALG
9H

The player abbreviations used here are T=terrible, B=bad, O=okay (slightly losing to break-even), G=good (break even to modest winner), E=excellent (solid winner), TP=tight passive, LAG=loose aggressive, LP=loose passive, NR=no read TAG=tight aggressive, then the 3-4 letter abbreviations are M=middle aged, Y=young, O=old AA=African American, A=Asian, ME=middle eastern, L=Latino, W=White, G=Guy, W=Woman. Note I would copy paste this section to the next notes and just edit any seats that changed or if reads changed, to avoid typing this every hand.

With a notebook I would just update the 1-9 section if anything changed, and only for the seats where that changed, then the reads could be reconstructed easily later.

I still prefer the notebook approach, but there are obvious advantages to phones like copy paste, no line limit, less conspicuous. I have a 5x3 notebook I'm using right now and it has 17 lines which is JUST enough to get all these lines with no spaces. I think a bit larger notebook would be better, as long as it's not so large it won't fit in my pocket comfortably, so I can add more specific player notes like "blinks more when hand is weak" or "can't talk coherently when bluffing" for example