Poker Video: Limit Hold'Em by BigBadBabar (Micro/Small Stakes)

Very nice video, a couple of questions for BBB;

How many tables are you able to play while taking such detailed notes?
Were you not using a hud just for the sake of the video?

Sweet! A BBB video! So looking forward to watching this!

I just want to thank Todd for the patience when making this video. We had so many technical problems, that you guys won't believe it. For example team viewer (the software that allows us to watch eachothers screens) kept disconnecting, our first recording was lost when camtasia crashed, I tried to two table and taking notes, which turned out to be an epic mess.

All in all the result turned out well I think and I learned a lot. I also had a lot of fun. So thanks!

Btw why is "100NL" and "$.50/1" tags to this video?

Btw why is "100NL" and "$.50/1" tags to this video?

Fixed.
-Rusty

Very nice video, a couple of questions for BBB;

How many tables are you able to play while taking such detailed notes?
Were you not using a hud just for the sake of the video?

hi bmwmasjr, i usually 4-table and am able to maintain that level of note-taking that you saw me do at the end of the video. any more than that and it drops off considerably.

and yes, i normally do use a hud, but for the sake of the video had turned it off. also hud always seems to make my computer crash when i make videos

BBB

Im glad too see a video from you. I thought it was very helpful.

I have one question regarding the notes. I recently just bought a new cpu and the notes are stored on my old cpu. Do you or anyone else know how i could retrieve the file or files and put them on my new cpu? It kinda sucks now that i am playing without my notes. Oh btw i play on stars.

My other question BBB is... from your experience if you had to put a value in terms of BB/100 on having extensive notes (even second level notes) on your opponents , how much would it increase your overall bottom line. Like for example could you argue that it would turn a 2BB/100 winner into a 3+BB/100 winner? Or if you'd like could you elaborate on your personal difference , because in the video i know you said you have come "full circle" with note taking.

BBB

Im glad too see a video from you. I thought it was very helpful.

I have one question regarding the notes. I recently just bought a new cpu and the notes are stored on my old cpu. Do you or anyone else know how i could retrieve the file or files and put them on my new cpu? It kinda sucks now that i am playing without my notes. Oh btw i play on stars.

busting you, that's a great question. i know how to do it for fulltilt (pretty sure) but not sure about stars. i would imagine there has to be a way to do it.

can anyone here reading this thread help out?

if not, let's email stars support and figure out a way, because it's certainly good to know

My other question BBB is... from your experience if you had to put a value in terms of BB/100 on having extensive notes (even second level notes) on your opponents , how much would it increase your overall bottom line. Like for example could you argue that it would turn a 2BB/100 winner into a 3+BB/100 winner? Or if you'd like could you elaborate on your personal difference , because in the video i know you said you have come "full circle" with note taking.

let me answer the last part first. without going into it super deeply ( i mean my well is on 2p2 if you want to search it ), i started out doing tons of tables, bonus whoring, etc, early in my poker career. there was a decent winrate (games were softer though) but the focus was on putting in tons of hands, not on note taking, table or game selecting, etc.

midway through my poker career i was still doing tons of tables (i'm sure this is a fairly common story for people) but the games were getting harder and i wasn't adjusting as well, bonuses and rb were less common and less plentiful, and my winrate was suffering.

now, in the later or third part of my career, i've dropped way down on number of tables, gone way up on table and seat selecting and note taking, and even though the games are harder than they've ever been, my winrate is increasing again. it's hard to quantify, obviously, because i'm getting better at poker too, and there are many other variables at the same time. but for me as part of an overall strategy (coaching people definitely helps me here) of recognizing and plugging my own leaks, and finding opponents with leaks, pinpointing and documenting those leaks, and trying to take advantage of that, note-taking has been absolutely crucial for me. i'm confident that even if i didn't take notes, i would do okay in these games, but i would not be nearly as happy/comfortable/confident, and i wouldn't do AS well because i wouldn't have all my notes telling me in which ways i've paid to see/proven/found that someone is exploitable in a certain way or what should i know about them, etc

i'm pretty comfortable saying that extensive notetaking like i do it adds AT LEAST .3 or .4/100 to my winrate (compared to no notes at all) and i wouldn't be surprised if it were much higher than that. but i figure i'll give a conservative estimate here.

also, one more thing i thought of. i think at the lower limits when there are plentiful fish and just playing solid abc poker will bring home the bacon, that note taking, while useful, isn't maybe the most important thing (although i always emphasize it no matter what). but as you start to move up in limits, the fish are less common, and they tend to be more aggressive, or with fewer obvious leaks, etc. like a common midstakes opponent might be 40/18 - that's fairly different from a lowstakes 70/4 guy. the less obviously-bad a guy is, the more useful notes become, i think. so i think as you move up, reads and notes may become more applicable.

i also certainly harp on note-taking, and all the related things that go with it, with anybody i coach these days, and it's definitely been useful/helpful for most of them. maybe i can get some guys to post testimonials

Nice video guys, some really good ideas here on note taking. I'm very lazy when it comes to taking notes but hopefully this video will inspire me to improve in this area.

I have one question regarding the notes. I recently just bought a new cpu and the notes are stored on my old cpu. Do you or anyone else know how i could retrieve the file or files and put them on my new cpu? It kinda sucks now that i am playing without my notes. Oh btw i play on stars.

There is a notes.txt file in the PokerStars directory (usually C:\Program Files\PokerStars on WinXP). Copy and paste it in the same directory on your new computer. Your done.

Solid job on this video. Good to have a different type of coaching video in the library.

Sweet table mods BBB, share?

Sweet table mods BBB, share?

i shamelessly copied pygmyhero's, and had him walk me through the installation since i'm a noob at this stuff. so, i shamelessly pass the buck to him

i linked him to this so hopefully he can help out!

very nice BBB, first vid finally up
keep it up m8

(om nom nom nom)

Sweet table mods BBB, share?

Hey Psychobingo, try this thread. If you still have problems, hit me up on Skype and I can help you.

There is a notes.txt file in the PokerStars directory (usually C:\Program Files\PokerStars on WinXP). Copy and paste it in the same directory on your new computer. Your done.

thanks man, much appreciated

Great video guys. I'm a big note taker myself and have a couple of questions.

1. When I'm at the (FR) table I have 1 or 2 notes on 3 or 4 opponents often and I thought that was much. Now I've seen this video and not only do you have notes on about everyone, you have 5+ notes on each opponents. Is this the usual note taking frequency you take or is this for the video?

2. I'm always taking notes in my HUD, where the * asterisks is. When I started out it was a coin flip which system to use (the pokerroom or the HUD) and it became the latter. Now I see you use the note taking system from the pokerroom. Do you prefer this system and why?

3. How did you get the tiltblocker customized?

4. I see in this discussion you have a well on 2+2 BBB. Do you have a link to it?

Great video guys. I'm a big note taker myself and have a couple of questions.

1. When I'm at the (FR) table I have 1 or 2 notes on 3 or 4 opponents often and I thought that was much. Now I've seen this video and not only do you have notes on about everyone, you have 5+ notes on each opponents. Is this the usual note taking frequency you take or is this for the video?

2. I'm always taking notes in my HUD, where the * asterisks is. When I started out it was a coin flip which system to use (the pokerroom or the HUD) and it became the latter. Now I see you use the note taking system from the pokerroom. Do you prefer this system and why?

3. How did you get the tiltblocker customized?

4. I see in this discussion you have a well on 2+2 BBB. Do you have a link to it?

1. this is actually how i take them normally although obviously, only 1 tabling gave me extra time to take them, as opposed to normally 3 or 4 tabling. but if i don't have a note on someone i am always looking to take one as soon as i can find something.

2. i've always taken notes in the poker room - never even knew how to take them with hud

3. i was using the DC version - i'm sure it's available somewhere on this site, using the search function, but i can also send it to anybody over instant messenger or skype or whatever.

4. i'll PM it to you

This was such a great video. Really awesome work here.

Something to add to your note taking, imo:

I use notes a lot, I also date my notes, example:

"AAAP (any ace any position), Called 2 cold w/A3o in SB from a UTG raise, 1/2/6/09." The reason why, is that player get BETTER, so I like to know if a detailed note is old or new.

-JT

Something to add to your note taking, imo:

I use notes a lot, I also date my notes, example:

"AAAP (any ace any position), Called 2 cold w/A3o in SB from a UTG raise, 1/2/6/09." The reason why, is that player get BETTER, so I like to know if a detailed note is old or new.

-JT

joe, good point, there have definitely been tons of times i've had a note on someone as bad (lil green tag on ftp) and then found out that they're not so bad any more. our goal is to improve and often move up and there's no reason to think our opponents aren't doing the same, imo

One of the best and most helpful videos that i have seen, since learning you can value bet 2nd pair. I cut down tables to two and i am know way more engaged in the game and normally hard spots become very easy w/ reads.
TY BBB

Hey BBB,

~12:50 You mention that you can't take notes on someone outside of times you see them on Poker Stars. This is NOT true. This notes.txt file has already been mentioned and you can use it like any other text file - modifying it at any time.

Navigate to C:\Program Files\PokerStars
Open the notes.txt file
You'll see all of your notes as separate paragraphs for each player.
Besides spacing, the only other important thing you need to know is the Stars syntax for identifying a player. For example:

[player=TheRawSalmon]
DC member sushiglutton

(this is actually my note on Peter btw)

So if you want to add a note on a new player just clear out some space and put the brackets and player= stuff. If you already have notes on a player and want to add/modify them, first search for them (CTRL+F ftw) and then just type what you want.

Hey BBB,

~12:50 You mention that you can't take notes on someone outside of times you see them on Poker Stars. This is NOT true. This notes.txt file has already been mentioned and you can use it like any other text file - modifying it at any time.

Navigate to C:\Program Files\PokerStars
Open the notes.txt file
You'll see all of your notes as separate paragraphs for each player.
Besides spacing, the only other important thing you need to know is the Stars syntax for identifying a player. For example:

[player=TheRawSalmon]
DC member sushiglutton

(this is actually my note on Peter btw)

So if you want to add a note on a new player just clear out some space and put the brackets and player= stuff. If you already have notes on a player and want to add/modify them, first search for them (CTRL+F ftw) and then just type what you want.

great to know, thanks! i had no idea about that kinda stuff

Props to both sushi and BBB. I'm really happy to finally have a BBB video and get to see him strut his stuff. Also, sushi, good work on the PowerPoint stuff. That was well done.

I have a few things to contribute on taking notes:

On both Stars and Tilt you can double click on any player's name, which brings up the notes screen. This is generally easier and faster than right clicking and selecting the Notes option.

To me all flops are either r, t, or m. R is rainbow (three different suits), t is two-tone (e.g., 943), and m is mono-tone (all cards of the same suit). All subsequent cards are either s (suited) or o (offsuit). This system works pretty well with the only real weakness being the difficulty in describing backdoor flushes (e.g., the two-tone flop above if running s hit or a rainbow flop like K82 that then comes running s).

Lastly, BBB, your voice fades out at a few points during the video. Are you stepping back from the mic so we don't hear you breathe?

Props to both sushi and BBB. I'm really happy to finally have a BBB video and get to see him strut his stuff. Also, sushi, good work on the PowerPoint stuff. That was well done.

I have a few things to contribute on taking notes:

On both Stars and Tilt you can double click on any player's name, which brings up the notes screen. This is generally easier and faster than right clicking and selecting the Notes option.

To me all flops are either r, t, or m. R is rainbow (three different suits), t is two-tone (e.g., 943), and m is mono-tone (all cards of the same suit). All subsequent cards are either s (suited) or o (offsuit). This system works pretty well with the only real weakness being the difficulty in describing backdoor flushes (e.g., the two-tone flop above if running s hit or a rainbow flop like K82 that then comes running s).

Lastly, BBB, your voice fades out at a few points during the video. Are you stepping back from the mic so we don't hear you breathe?

yeah, i've noticed that as well, in both of my vids. i'm using a headset, so the mic is always the same short distance away from my mouth--i guess i must just sort of tail off at the end of sentences a lot, in my normal speaking pattern? it's something to work on

chocolate rainnnnn

I just wanted to add that on FTP for some stupid reason the automatic buy-in is set at 10BB. You have to manually change the default or always change it when you join a table. So 10BB buy-in at FTP, while suspicious and a good sign does not immediately mean that the player is an absolute fish.

Very nice vid on note-takind overall. I also have an addition like "your HUD is right" (or wrong), that basically just emphasizes my point. So if my HUD shows a really low AF, but it hasn't converged yet, it just helps me reinforce my "HUD-read".

Props to both sushi and BBB. I'm really happy to finally have a BBB video and get to see him strut his stuff. Also, sushi, good work on the PowerPoint stuff. That was well done.

Thnx m8 !

I have a few things to contribute on taking notes:

On both Stars and Tilt you can double click on any player's name, which brings up the notes screen. This is generally easier and faster than right clicking and selecting the Notes option.

Great tip! Had no clue. One of those tiny tips that are so simple but that I will use literally thousands of time.

To me all flops are either r, t, or m. R is rainbow (three different suits), t is two-tone (e.g., 943), and m is mono-tone (all cards of the same suit). All subsequent cards are either s (suited) or o (offsuit). This system works pretty well with the only real weakness being the difficulty in describing backdoor flushes (e.g., the two-tone flop above if running s hit or a rainbow flop like K82 that then comes running s).

Good stuff. Angelo inspired?

Thats good points Bellatrix. I think I remember you from 2+2. Correct?

chocolate rainnnnn

<---- sad that Pygmy didn't get the reference.

Thats good points Bellatrix. I think I remember you from 2+2. Correct?

yep, that's me!

Good stuff. Angelo inspired?

Yep! Thanks Tommy!

<---- sad that Pygmy didn't get the reference.

Level, right? I for sure got the reference. Only now every time I think of chocolate rain I picture the South Park episode instead of the original video.

Something I do is to review hands played by some of my tougher regular opponents on Poker Tracker. I will take notes and then get on Poker Stars and click on that player and input the information. The first paragragh of notes that I put in is more of a synopsis of how the person plays. Then I add the detailed notes followed by what I believe would be the best strategic adjustments.

Great video.

65 min in you have 8t and the flop comes JTT and you mention that you may CR some rivers. I am curious what river cards would you choose to do this with and why?

great to know, thanks! i had no idea about that kinda stuff

I thought I heard you mention you cant take notes other than seeing them at the table BECAUSE YOU USE PT.... In PT you can search for the player in the general tab and there's a small notes window top left