Online poker habits while playing

cadillac · Oct 27,2008, 08:42 PM

You are correct. Taking notes in low limit SNG's are likely a waste of your time. You will rarely see the same players and and because of the changes in the stack size dynamic it will be difficult to get many reads.

I would make most of my notes in the end game and my notes would look something like the following:

- will re-steal
- will not re-steal ever
- knows when to start shoving
- doesn't understand stack sizes
- calls off light
- folds too tight
- avoids confrontation

If you have a brain you will be getting deep in most SNG's. If you have a few ideas about how someone plays when their stack gets short it will make a big difference in your ROI.

I have been playing mostly HUNL cash in the last little while. Timing and bet sizing tells are the freaking bomb in this game and I will often call off a bit light early in a match to see what the opponent is holding.

This info is worth every penny because most people will not balance their ranges and bet sizes at all at $50 and $100 HUNL and they will tell you exactly what they are holding when they make a play.

I played a marathon with a guy this weekend who bet a full pot on the river several times in our match. I called twice and both times he had the stone cold nuts. Later in the match we got pretty deep and and I missed an open ender in a pretty big pot where a backdoor flush showed up on the river. I checked the river planning to fold and he bets like $25 into a $35 pot. I knew that there is no way he hit the flush and his bet size told me he was trying to either value bet a marginal hand or had air. I CRAI and he folds.

tellbox · Oct 28,2008, 07:04 AM

Bet size does usually = hand strength for a lot of players.

I'd say PokerTracker would be a wise investment. Not so much for heads up play.

adpro · Oct 28,2008, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tellbox

Bet size does usually = hand strength for a lot of players.

I'd say PokerTracker would be a wise investment. Not so much for heads up play.

Yeah, I've been looking at getting some type of software for tracking stuff.

I have used an ICM one before and found it helpful and I have used Holdem Genius (an on the fly calculator) and still have it attached to my game windows, but only use it for quickly seeing my outs. That software could be dangerous for a beginner who doesn't understand discounted outs, though. Especially cause it gives you your pot odds while including pairing the board to give you two pairs. It almost always tells you your odds are to call.

Either way, I am going to look at pokertracker. I have enough extra money to buy something like that in my bankroll, so I might as well do it and not make a cash withdrawal yet.

Rocco · Oct 31,2008, 09:52 AM

I usually have a nice soft goose down pillow with me and I rest/snuggle with it while I play poker online.
(I know, I have issues.)

I'll also usually either be surfing the web or listening to music off of youtube while playing as well.

Chuckieland · Nov 17,2008, 09:44 PM

i speak my mind
so i don't go on autopilot
looking to find a decent screen recorder
so i can play back to see what the F was i thinking, when i stacking off with AA or KK again a donk that just river the gutshot and i didn't even notice there is a possible straight on board.

pokerJAH · Nov 18,2008, 08:38 AM

red tube baby! gives you more patience at the table.

adpro · Nov 18,2008, 09:24 AM

I have noticed that 'surfing' gives me a bit more patience on the board. It hurts me in situations where I try to put a guy on a hand, though.

What I have done in the past is verbally try to figure out what hand people have when I'm not in the hand. Well, I do it while in the hand too, but it helps me remember names and situations they are in regularly.

So, yeah, surfing helps with patience, but I feel it takes your attention away from some key aspects of the game.

kostitsyn1489 · Nov 18,2008, 11:14 AM

I usually listen to music which calms me down. It's not a distraction for me and it helps keeping me alert. And sometimes i browse which is bad, but i usually do it only early in the tournies when play more tight passive game then later in tourny i just focus on my game and try t play more aggressive. I noticed that i tend to see too many flops when i only focus on the game, but at the same time i tend to fold alot more after the flop if i didnt hit, or im just on a draw. I need to find something in the middle.

JohnnieH · Nov 18,2008, 07:13 PM

Listen to tunes or I steam an episode of The Ongoing History of New Music with Alan Cross.

herschelw · Nov 20,2008, 06:30 AM

As far as notes go I generally take notes like: limps way too much, passive player, very agro
I also takes notes on whether I think the player understands the game and situations based on what I observe them doing in a particular hand. I think notes should help you to understand how a person thinks more so than putting them in general categories like TAG or LAG. As far as general categories go i think if I can categorize a player as loose passive or tight passive that is more helpful than TAG or LAG since it's more reliable that they will stay with that pattern of play in later levels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adpro

That was a bit of an exaggeration.

I do drink a lot of water though. I take Maui Thai Kick Boxing classes and like to play after them a lot of the time. I find this is when I am most allert. Either way, after these classes I need a lot of water. I sweat more doing Muai Thai than you would sitting in a sauna doing yoga for 2 hours.

I do have a question though.

I started writing notes about each player on every table I was playing, but then realized they weren't helping me much in the long run. Here's why.

The players I wrote notes on usually changed if I ever saw them at a table again. I have barely run into the same person twice. I guess I am moving up in the stakes fairly quickly (went from $1 buy-in's to $11 within a few months of playing and still at a decent bankroll while winning) so the chances of seeing the same people would decrese a bit due to that I guess.

Also, everyone changes their game up in the later stages of the tournaments I am playing. So, if I mark someone as TAG at the beginning of a tournament, they might end up being loose and passive at the end.

Either way, what I have found to work nicely is to simply pay attention to everyone at the table when playing the game and try to figure out their playing style based on recent hands.

So, back to my question.

What types of notes to you keep and what do you include in your notes? Do you include the type of player each person is? Do you include some hands they played that made you question human intelligence?

I used to keep track of each time a player saw a flop and compared them to every other player at the table at hand. I would also keep track of how many times they raised and called a raise pre-flop. I started getting good at it, but felt it was a waste of time. I wasn't seeing a lot of other things I should have been paying attention to.

bustya · Jan 03,2009, 01:09 AM

i like to smoke marijuana when playing online poker

Apollo_G · Mar 20,2009, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adpro

So, back to my question.

What types of notes to you keep and what do you include in your notes? Do you include the type of player each person is? Do you include some hands they played that made you question human intelligence?

I usually just write down plays that surprises me. For example: "player called a bet after a re-raise to $14, with 46 suited (in the BB and out of position-6 players)" or (will trap; slow played pocket aces on two occasions in the c/o). It's more objective and less situational.

Graham · Mar 20,2009, 09:29 AM

Haha... some hilarious responses.

If I am really focussed on winning, I will download a poker e-book or something and read that while playing, maybe even watch some videos on one of the training sites.

Most of the time though, I just focus on the games or surf this site.

InsaneGuy · Mar 20,2009, 04:51 PM

Surf 4chan
Watch hockey
Listen to music.
Drink beer
Drink wine
Drink pepsi
Drink Water
I dunno... lots of stuff.
Friday night is drunk poker night. It's fucking expensive.

edit: thank god we're going out with friend tonight... nice restaurant+wine is less expensive than poker lol

yoyo070 · Mar 20,2009, 08:20 PM

I whack the pengiun over and over. The pengiun game in the arcade that is