NoteTracker is a powerful application built-in PokerTracker 4 that allows you to create and edit note definitions, and then automatically have those automated notes appear alongside any manual notes taken about your opponent. This tutorial will teach you how to create and edit Auto Notes, test them, and how to use notes created in NoteTracker while playing.
PokerTracker 4
v4.0.x
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Overview
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Creating & Editing Note Definitions
To open up NoteTracker, go to Tools > NoteTracker.
This brings up the NoteTracker editing window where you can create/edit or test Auto Note definitions, and enable or disable Auto Note rules. First, choose whether you want to edit cash game or tournament Auto Notes (as each offers Auto Notes specific to that variant). Let's start by talking about the Edit page.
In the top window you can see all of your Auto Note definitions. NoteTracker comes with many Note definitions built-in to PokerTracker 4 to make it easy for you to get started. If you select any definition, the fields below are automatically populated with information about that Auto Note. For instance, in this example we've selected "002 - 3Bet Preflop Range", and below we see that it's a Holdem Specific definition, in the Preflop category, and we also see the filters and text for the note. Let's review each aspect of a note definition:
Name: This is the name of the Auto Note you are currently creating/editing. The built-in note definitions start with a 3 digit number to help with organization, but you can use any naming/number schema you wish.
Category: You can choose to assign a category for your definition, such as Preflop, Flop, Turn, River, or Overall. These are used for organization only, it is used to help find notes quickly in real-time while you are playing. The category is arbitrary, although it is not recommended you could for example create a definition for a preflop note but assign the category of River if you were so inclined.
Game: You can choose whether a definition is used for Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, or a combination of game types.
Active: Check this box if you want this definition to be active and automatically processed while playing in real-time. If this box is unchecked, the note won't be automatically taken while you are playing.
Text to Insert as Note: This is the text shown when you view the selected note in real-time.
Insert Variable: Click this to insert a variable into the Text to Insert as Note box. You can add variables such as {cardrange} or specific board cards to provide relevance to your Auto Notes. This is the primary difference between a stat and an Auto Note, when using NoteTracker you can track hands and board textures when a situation takes place.
Along the right you can choose to create a new note definition, duplicate an existing note definition, and delete the selected note definition as well. You can also import notes from the PokerTracker Download Warehouse, and export notes to share with others. When you are finished making your changes, click Save.
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Filters
To create or edit a note use the Filters section down below. From here, you can filter for both the player and opponent. Let's first understand the difference, we use the terms player and opponent in NoteTracker differently than you may be used to, if you think of the Auto Note from the perspective of the opponent you are recording the note for, it will be easiest to understand.
Player: This describes an action performed by the Player you are recording the AutoNote for. While NoteTracker is recording Auto Notes, the filter considers each player to be the active player temporarily - therefore we use the term Player for this type of filter.
Opponent: This describes the actions that any opponents performed from the Player's perspective. Since the Player is temporarily the Active Player, this means the Opponent filters for action that anyone else sitting at the table performed while facing the Player.
Notice that in the "002 - 3Bet Preflop Range" note definition we only have a filter on the Player (Raised Preflop Any 3Bet) and no filter defined for the Opponent. No filter is necessary on the Opponent in this case. But if we wanted to create an Auto Note for the hands a player 4bet after an Opponent limped then 3Bet, then we'd need to add a "Limp Preflop" filter for Opponent. A commonly used Opponent filter is the calculation of effective stack size.
To add or modify a filter, simply click either Player or Opponent. The standard filter window comes up and allows you to change the filter in any way. You can filter by position, action, bet/raise sizes, etc. If you need help with filters, please see our Creating Filters Guide.
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Testing Notes
Once you are done creating/editing your note definitions, you can test your design by going to the Test page. From here you can see which hands would be assigned a note given the definitions you've created. Start by selecting the Auto Note you wish to test from the drop-down menu to the left of the Test button, you will find all of the available note definitions are listed here, or you can choose "All Active Note Definitions" to test all of the Note Definitions at the same time on the selected hands you chose from the report above.
Next, select the hands you wish to test the definition against in the report above. You can organize the hands in the report by showing only marked hands, specific tags, or the number of hands you wish to display. To select all of the visible hands, type CTRL+A in Windows or CMD+A in Apple's OS X to select all of the hands visible.
Click Test to analyze the selected hands. If you are performing a test against a specific note definition, then the results and time needed to perform the test will be displayed if the note is triggered according to the Player and Opponent filters you created for the note definition. If you chose All Active Note Definitions then the text box below will populate with each hand that would be assigned a note, and exactly what the note would say. For example, if you use a variable such as {cardrange} in the text field for the note definition then the text window will populate with the card range used in that hand. You can also choose to Include Hero in this test. So in this case, anytime hero 3bet preflop it would trigger a note in the box below as well. By default, NoteTracker will exclude the Hero from note calculations to assure the best database performance.
The Test page is a great way to ensure that your notes definitions are working correctly, and not missing hands (or assigning notes to incorrect hands). If your notes definitions are not triggering correctly, just go back to the Edit page and continue making changes until everything is perfect.
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Notes Status
Once you've edited, created, and tested your notes, it's time to process those notes and assign them to your opponents. To do this, go to the Status page. Let's review this window:
Status: Here you can see how many hands are in your database, and what percentage of these hands have been processed. You may also click Run to begin assigning new and modified notes to your opponents, this is commonly called "scrubbing the database". This process runs in the background when PokerTracker 4 is open and can take some time for larger databases.
Options: This section allows you to set a date on the notes assigned. If you only wanted to take notes on players within the last 6 months, you could change this date accordingly. You may also choose to ignore hero when assigning notes. Since hero's holecards are always known, taking notes on hero can create a lot of unnecessary data and a decrease in performance therefore we advise that the Hero should always be excluded from note processing. But of course, it's 100% your choice.
Purge: If you want to get rid of old notes, you can purge them here. You can either purge all notes, or just notes older than a certain number of days. Once you've made your selection, click the Purge button. If you add a new note definition and you wish to "scrub" your database to apply this note definition on historical hands, then we recommend purging the notes, then click RUN to start processing.
Ignore List: You can create an ignore list so that certain players aren't assigned automatic notes. Just use the drop-down menu to select a player, or use the <Choose New Player> option. Once selected, push the little green + button to add them to the ignore list. You can delete players from the ignore list by using the little red - button.
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Using Notes While Playing & Reviewing
To use NoteTracker notes while playing (or in the replayer), please make sure that your HUD uses the Note Editor. If it doesn't, please add it in the Hud Profile Editor. Only On Table HUD Groups can display the Note Editor, it cannot be added to a Popup.
To open a selected player's notes while playing, click the little notepad button (the notepad button will have a yellow colored box around it if there are notes on that player, the color of the note will match the color used if there is a color assigned to that player) to bring up that player's notes. Below you see an example of a note box with the NoteTracker notes, manual notes can be recorded on the top half of the window, the bottom half of the window are exclusivly for NoteTracker's Auto Notes, AutoNotes cannot be edited manually, they can only be purged by date.
You can quickly organize the notes while playing by checking/unchecking streets. For instance, if you only wanted notes that were assigned the Preflop category, you'd just uncheck Overall, Flop, Turn, and River. You might also notice the notes have a little counter at the end of them. That simply tells you how many times a player was observed taking that action. So in this situation the player was observed as having a 3bet range one time (with 99), and had a 4Bet+ range twice (one time with AQs, and one time with AQo). This is the players observed range, this differs from the player's actual range which is impossible to determine because PokerTracker can only see the cards at showdown (unless the note taken was for the HERO).
This is an important concept, so lets reiterate: NoteTracker's AutoNotes only include hands where the hole cards were observed by NoteTracker. This doesn't mean that his 4Bet+ range is only AQs/AQo!
