Taking effective notes on opponents is a crucial skill in online poker. Especially in long sessions or tournaments facing the same players several times. Every player is different. Everyone has their own strengths, weakness, hand ranges, and betting patterns.

Distinguishing between players and noting their tendencies will help you exploit plays and win more chips. Whether opponents are regulars or recreational, tight or loose, passive or aggressive. Here are five tips to help you take efficient and useful notes in online poker.

Categorize and Tag Opponents

When it comes to note-taking, the first place to start is with general categories. You can gauge these based on how often players at the table raise preflop and make postflop bets.

Here are the four quadrants categorizing styles on a general level:

• TAG – Tight aggressive, raises preflop with a tight range of hands. But tends to play them using aggressive betting lines.
• LAG – Loose aggressive, raises often preflop with a wide range of hands and continues the aggression postflop. Bets and bluffs often.
• Tight passive – Plays a tight range of hands and tends to use passive betting lines, such as check-calling, rather than betting or raising.
• Loose-passive – Also known as calling stations. Plays a wide range of hands, even mediocre or junk hands. Tends to use passive betting lines such as check-calling bets.

There are other ways to categorize players, particularly bad ones.

For example, a “nit” is someone who will only ever bet or call when they have something close to the nuts. A “whale” meanwhile is a player who is willing to make huge bets with or without a good hand.

Taking notes like this in a WCOOP tournament will help you react to any moves they make, and exploit their ranges. For a visual guide, use the colored tags PokerStars has as a built-in feature. Those will help you quickly identify who falls into what category.

Look For Patterns in Play

If you see something once from an opponent, it could be an anomaly. But if it happens again and again you could be looking at a pattern in their play. By taking note of this pattern, you can use it to gain an advantage against your opponent in future hands.

One of the most common patterns to look out for is bet sizing. Does your opponent always bet big with strong hands and go small with weak ones? Or do they go the other way, betting smaller for deception when they have it?

Similarly, look out for preflop and postflop betting patterns. These can help you gain valuable information about your opponent’s hand strength. For example, how often do they make a continuation bet on the flop? Are they capable of bluffing on the turn or river?

The more information you can glean from players, the greater chance of finding exploitative plays you might not otherwise make.

Track Hands at Showdown

The ultimate form of information for your WCOOP note taking is a hand going to showdown. This shows you exactly how the players in the pot approached the hand and every action they took along the way. It’s vital you take advantage of this rich data by taking notes on showdown hands even when you’re not in the pot.

For instance if you notice they raised 6♦ 5♦ from under-the-gun, that’s important as it’s looser than you’d expect. If a player three-bets preflop with A-9 offsuit, you can take a note they three-bet light. If they call down three streets of betting with bottom pair, you can tag them as a calling station.

Basically, you should note anything out of the ordinary you spot at showdown. That goes for player’s ranges and their actions in the hand. Things like their aggression or whether they slowplayed.

Identify Leaks

Beyond noting patterns, aim to identify serious leaks in your opponent’s strategy. Not all players will have obvious leaks, but a lot will, especially at the lower stakes.

A very common leak at the lower stakes is overvaluing weak hands such as middle pair or top pair with a low kicker. You can exploit this by betting for value when you have it and bluffing less.

Other leaks to watch out for include over-folding to three-bets, limping preflop, raising mediocre hands out of position, and over or under-bluffing… the list goes on. Once you’ve identified them you can use an exploitative strategy to counter them.

Look out for “false leaks” when taking notes for WCOOP. This is when players use deceptive plays or adapt betting lines against specific opponents. If in doubt, wait for another instance of the leak to occur so you can confirm it.

Use Abbreviations and Shortcuts

 Time is money and when you’re playing a tournament the last thing you want to do is take ages to take a detailed note on an opponent, so you’ll need to develop a shorthand that you understand.

So, use abbreviations to make note-taking quick and efficient. For example, “CB” for continuation bet, “AG” for aggressive, “C/R” for check-raise.

Use symbols like “+” for aggressive actions or “-” for passive actions. A consistent shorthand system helps you quickly interpret your notes during play, you’ll never know when you’ll need to refer to one in a big pot.

Update Regularly

Whenever you make a note, date it if you can. Players can change their strategies or improve their gameplay, so knowing if your note is six days or six months old is important. Similarly, tag your notes as “tentative” if they are not 100 percent confirmed.

You’ll also want to update your notes regularly. Reflect on any changing behaviors you’ve observed. You should also add to the notes you have on your opponents as you encounter them in more pots or games.

Notes are not always 100 percent reliable. A lot can change in a player’s style. And even their strategy depending on factors like the game they are playing, their mood, their learning curve and so on.

But if you want to give yourself the best shot at a WCOOP title, note taking is a key skill that can give you an edge.