Anybody who knows ABC poker strategy realizes how important it is to know your opponents and watch their betting patterns. By doing so, you get a much better indication as to the strength of your opponents’ hands. However, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the information you gain just by memory alone – especially in poker tournaments since players are constantly switching tables.

In bigger poker tournaments, it’s pretty much impossible to keep track of everybody, which is why you should be taking notes on players. Now this isn’t to say you need to keep track of every single player who makes a 2xbb raise from the button, but you should at least keep track of poker players who make significant moves that can define their play.

For example, let’s say you notice a player make a 3xbb raise from middle position, and two other players behind them call. The flop comes out A-9-4, and the player shoves their stack into the middle when they’re in no danger of blinding out. One player folds, some fish calls, and the original raises shows pocket queens, while the fish shows K-9. The board fails to help either player, and the original raiser wins the hand.

Seeing as how the original raiser is still alive in the tournament, it’s worth taking a note on this particular play. You could jot down: “Screen name” makes moderate raises from MP (middle position) with premium hands, then overplays second pair when OOP (out of position). Assuming you and this player both move onto new tables, only to meet up later in the tournament, this information could be extremely helpful.

If you’re wondering how to take notes in online poker, Carbon Poker offers a nice feature where you can both tag opponents and jot down notes on them. To do this, just click on the player’s name during a game, and a screen will come up. Here you can tag the player as a Shark, Fish, Buddy, Champion, Bluffer etc., and jot down your own personal notes on their play. And what’s nice is that you’ll be able to see this information whenever you find them in a poker tournament or cash game.