General Tips for Good Online Poker Note Keeping
Notes are an often overlooked, absolutely essential way of improving your online poker game. Some general pointers:
1) Notes have to be dynamic. Jotting down a sentence or two on a player is great, but not so helpful if you don’t keep adding to it.
2) Notes have to be scientific. Your notes should begin as a hypothesis - “I think this player will raise big in early position with a draw” - that is observed, tested, and then concluded. Don’t make an assumption about a player based on one play. also be sure to write the notes in terms that reflect how certain you are of a specific observation - i.e. “they seem to do this …”; “does this every time”; so that later when you revisit them they are as clear and accurate as can be - you won’t remember the details 6 months later.
3) Limited notes should be treated as an aid, not a bible. If you have one or two observations about a player that are untested, don’t treat them as gospel. That player may have been on tilt when you took those notes, may have been drunk, and may have been someone else using the account, etc.
4) Complete, tested notes should be treated as a bible, not an aid. If you’ve put good work into your notes, they have to be trusted. If, according to your notes, a NL player consistently over-bets draws in late position, you have to be willing to check raise middle pair, etc.
5) Don’t write “idiot” in your notes when someone beats you and leave it at that 
That’s a good start. Be sure to check out the next article in this series: efficient notes.
