Making notes

stpboy

Lately I've been playing a few mtt's and trying to make notes on as many players as I can. While playing yesterday, player A calls my very significant raise on the very first hand of a measily $2 mtt with Q7off suit. Board comes down Q high and he beats my pocket jacks, no big deal I didnt lose much. Anyway I label this guy as a loose player just from that play in particular. Well, later in the tournament I am still playing with player A and his game is no longer loose. He has a big stack and is only playing a lot of premium hands. It got me thinking, how representative is the first hand of a tournament? Can you accurately label a player on his first hand of an mtt? I usually will wait until I have played with a guy for sometime before "noting" him but in this case, it was just a bad play. Blinds 10/20, I raise to 300 in LP. He quickly calls. Just a thought..

stp

wader

Why such a big raise preflop with blinds at 10/20? I agree that it was a bad call, but I would still make a note about it. If he is constantly playing this way it warrants the notes you are writing about him but he maybe better than you think. He may have thought he could steal the hand on later streets or seen that such a big raise looks like a medium pocket pair 66-1010 (which he could steal when face cards hit) if you have AK he might bet out when an ace hit if you play back at him he folds.
Where there any limpers before you? Did he have position on you?

Wader

stpboy

To answer your questions, I don't like playing JJ so I attempt to take it before the flop or limp in and trap if the flop is friendly. In this particular sitation, Player A was UTG and limped as did 4 other players not including the blinds to come. I was hoping to get one caller not 7, that's why I raised so much.
Anyway, my question was more about how much information I can actually get from such a play and how representative it is of his "overall" player style/ability.

stp