Taking Notes at the Cash Tables

Both Jonathan Little and Alexander Fitzgerald advocate taking notes at the table. Jonathan Little recommends taking notes in a spiral bound notebook. Alex advocates taking notes in Evernote on your phone.

I've gone for taking notes in Evernote. And tonight was my 3rd Cash session taking notes. I've been taking notes in any live tournament from about October 2016. And had felt a little self-conscious about taking notes in live cash. However, after watching Jonathan Little's note taking video, I found the impetus needed to start taking notes at the tables.  And today was the 3rd session that I've taken notes at the table.

The first two sessions were losing sessions at -$15 and -$175. With this session being +$425.  Far too often  when not taking note, I've slipped away mentally while at the poker tables and, while there are still hands I miss when taking notes, the number of hands missed has been getting lower with each note taking session.  A side benefit of this process is that I'll finally be able to take advantage of some poker coaching that I paid for in 2015 but have yet to take advantage of.  There are a couple of hands from today's session that will be suitable for review with my coach. Those hands will be entered into the ShareMyPair app, along with some notes into a mind map, with a pointer to the ShareMyPair hand. This will allow me to build up a bunch of hands for review.

Taking notes takes mental energy. And you cannot be as social at the tables. But that is a small price to pay for focusing on the action. Especially in hands that you are not involved in. It is those pieces of information that are available in the hands you are not involved in that may allow you to know when to fold, or when to bet for value, or when to bluff.  Still much to learn. However, I feel as though an important step has been made in my poker skill set.