play tighter and work on reads for the first Xmin of your session...not that you shouldnt be doing this anyway...but just make a conscious effort to do it. like force yourself to take a note on any hand that goes to SD.

I used to do that too (Red is currently in that phase, IIRC) - you dig yourself a hole that you have to fight out of. I just take it easy to get in the groove and see how the table is flowing. Don't forget that SO many of your reads depends on the flow of the game, and so your notes often won't apply (since so many are situational), which means that you have to see how they're playing THAT day in order to start making moves. Also, a lot of your moves depends on your table image...and you don't have one within the first 10-15min, so you need to be careful to take it easy to start.

That sounds like a good idea. I was originally thinking maybe I could play a lower limit for X min but that would negate the reads I build during that time which I agree is crucial.

It's just that so many of my sessions start with me doing something stupid and dropping a buy-in, then ending the session 2-3 buyins up (or the reverse lol). Then I always look back and think to myself how I could have been 1 buyin less down, if you know what I mean.

So what about live play then? Damn live play at 30 hands an hour is absolutely brutal when you're used to multi-tabling online. But my reads are definitely much more accurate live. Usually the first few hands I play live, I can't get comfortable in my seat, and if I pick up a big hand then I get all flustered and nervous even though I've been in those situations thousands of times online, it just feels so different live. I am sure I give off a ton of tells live that any seasoned live player could use against me. Any tips for this that don't include sunglasses, baseball caps, or hoodies?

One thing that I set my PAHud to do is to only show the results from the current session. This renders datamining a bit useless but in my experience it's better if I build my reads in person. I agree that there are players that change their style to different tables - I'm one of them. I also cap my hands off to 120 or so, because I find that my PAHud lags like hell with lots of hands and thats usually enough hands for me to be able to tell who is doing what.