One of the biggest things I look at is their starting hand selection. PT is invaluable for this.

I agree with striker -- will they cap with AK, smooth call with AA, call a raise with KQ, call with any two suited, call with AX? If you know the answer to questions like that, it goes a long way towards narrowing down their hand on later streets.

Striker:
Why?

Ok you don't get it shown on GT+.

But when I click on The player in the Left selection List i see all Startinghands i ever got showed by this player in the General Information Tab.

But like Nortonqsque just posted specific betting behaviour is more difficult to research in PT in a short time, so this is good information for Notes.

Simon

that seems to be good but i would stress to take notes on his actual play rather than some general info which can be found just by checking the PT stats and GT+

I often don't make any notes until I see a hand or two shown down unless what he showed down was so terrible, that you need to note it.

I guess I may be a little lazy in the note taking department but after several years of playing online I have come to realize this. The VAST VAST majority of players that I have ever played against are no longer playing beyond the first time I played them. The good players you quickly learn because you see them very often.

In my opinion keeping a buddy lists is a waste of time because if they are bad enough to rate on your buddy list they just aren't going to be around for very long. Go ahead and try it and after adding 20 or so names on your list check it everytime you log on and you will see a bunch of nonlit smily faces.

My way of handling this is when I see a shitty player I just open up the notepad and hit whatever keys my fingers connect with so that the notepad icon shows up on their name. That way I know that they are shitty if I get involved in a hand with them. GT+ has helped in this way greatly as I play 4 to 5 tables at all times and without that I would miss out on some of the subleties of play by these shitty players but when I see they are entering pots at a clip greater than 30% they are a fish and I can handle them accordingly. If I was playing fewer tables I might take more precise notes but I doubt it because as I said previously you are probably going to be playing 30-50 hands with these chumps and you never see them again.

In over 94K hands since mid November I have played with only 68 players more than 400 hands and among them are NO fish symbols and only one calling station that have been autorated. When I see these guys at the table I know how to handle them because they play very few hands and I know how to deal with that. Very rarely do we ever come into conflict. For the other multitude of players that I have played I just don't worry much about keeping track of their actual play beyond noting they are shitty. Perhaps this is not the most beneficial way to do things but it is quick and clean and for me serves the short term purpose that in all likelihood is all that is necessary.

I believe that the note taking in NL games is a much more serious matter especially with the better players and how they handle certain situations.

Not seeing bad players ever again is not necessarily true but its mostly true. I saw one of the worst players ever lose 3 buy ins within 30 minutes at a 1/2 limit table. Now, I consistently see him online at the 15/30 limit tables. I've watched him play there just for curiosity and he wasn't playing much better. I do know that sometimes people share accounts and while one of the people is good enough to high level, the other one can't even beat the 1/2 level. He's been on my list semi regularly for the past 6 months although I never actually make an effort to sit down with any of my buddy list people.

Hmmm, Piers is probably right. The chances of playing against the same fish again are remote, I guess. They seem to be happy to lose all their money very quickly. Not much chance they'll be there all that long playing that badly and losing that much. Too sad. I feel really bad when an ATM leaves the table. (More badly when the SOB has hit a river card and gave my money away to other people.)

I'm getting better at quickly evaluating the table. How many hands do they play? Are they bluffing a lot? Being really aggressive, then folding on the turn and river? (Last night I saw this a LOT. So much so, I started to ignore them when they came in on virtually every pot.) Those that fold more than a few hands per round bear watching. How they play post-flop means a lot. It's really not that hard, I guess.

CJ

I try to restrict my notes to things that I think are important to the hand I might be playing against them. I use GT Plus so I have loads of information at hand already. For limit I have GT Plus showing VP$IP, PF %, Aggro and Went to SD. This way I can see their general play, and the PT auto-rate feature mops up my read as to their style.

Because of this my notes tend to work around how they play. Starting hands I look for patterns, if they are loose are they ATS (Any Two Suited), AAAW (Any Ace Any Where) or even ATWD (Any Two Will Do). If someone if raising lots I want to know their standards, if its very loose (KJo in EP say) I call with a hand like AQo where as if its their first raise in 100 hands, AQo is in the muck. I am also curious if players call lots of raises, what will they play with? Blind defending is also good to know, even if only to make you save a bet by not trying to steal.

Otherwise I like to try to track bets and raises post flop. If someone raises on the flop I want to know why. I especially want to know on the turn. This can be the difference between me going to war, calling down or bailing and these kind of reads are the ones that really impact your bottom line.

I think the biggest read you need to gain is how you oppponent values his/her hands. Do they wet themselves with TP regardless of kicker? Do they only raise with monsters? Do they raise for deception? PT and GT Plus will tell you HOW they play but not WHY they play, this what you should try to crack with your notes.

Rich

p.s. Failing that I have loads of players who have notes just saying Retard!