I am struggling to keep an accurate record of my results, measuring two basic areas: Results and Conditions. "Results" tracks the path of the cash, the buy-ins, tips, expenses and wins or losses. "Conditions" records casinos, number of tables, type of game, rules, dealers, pit and anything that could help me choose a good game in the future. The biggest problem is keeping the discipline of note taking. Sometimes I forget to enter the amount of buy-ins, especially if there were many in a short period. The other main trouble comes when it making a permanent record of the notes. If it has been a few days (or weeks), the hastily scribbled notes have gone cold and the abbreviations I created may be meaningless.
My partial solution: I used to carry blank notecards with me, but now have made a sheet with blanks for information and multiple choices for common conditions such as penetration and crowding. It has saved me a lot of time scribbling, but I still slip up now and then. As for keeping track of buy-ins, before playing, I put a certain amount aside for that session. If I slip up and don't record the amounts, I just check the remaining cash. I also try to collect data on which dealers are exceptional, either good or bad. I'm terrible with names and often forget to record them- I have countless entries like "YBF friendly, good pen".
Some casino data goes stale quickly as conditions and staff change. Tracking the results of the game has helped me find where I was bleeding cash and fix it (bad pen, over tipping). I am interested in what data other players collect and how they manage it. What works for you?
Thanks,
Sentry