Table Selection

[Scully]

Something I've been working at doing recently is improving my table selection to try and increase my win rate. For info (if it's relevant) I'm currently playing 6max NL25 on FTP and am aspring to build a BR to move up the levels rather than cash it out.

My standard process at the moment is to go through my PT database and identify weak players from previous sessions. I'm generally looking for a VPIP>40% or VPIP>>>PFR (e.g.: 28/1.5 or 33/4). I then use the find player option and try to get on tables with known fish.

Failing this (as is often the case) I generally look for tables with a players seeing the flop percentage of around 40% AND hands per hour <90. If hands per hour is >90 then the table must've been shorthanded so the players seeing the flop %age won't be reflective of the full table situation. When I've found such a table I want to see full stacks (or close to it) all round.

Finally, when I'm playing I tag players with the coloured icon - green for a bad player, yellow for LAG and red for a TAG. When searching for a table I keep an eye out for green tagged players and avoid tables with red tagged players. LAGs at NL25 don't tend to be that great so I'm not too concerned about facing them.

My questions are:

1) Is there much wrong with what I'm currently doing?
2) What else can I do to help me find good tables?
3) Is there an option in PT to filter only players that meet my criteria? I've currently only got around 3000 hands at NL25 having recently moved up, and so around 500 players to search through. This obviously takes a while and will only get worse as I play more hands and play more opponents.

Thanks in advance

[Damo_1]

1. Seems fine to me, though seat selcting is good too. Get direct position on known fish. This becomes much more important at higher levels where regulars outnumber the fishies, but is a good habit to get into early.

2.Datamine. FTP allows this, just have a bunch of tables open at your level and set PT to auto import HH's. Do this for 30 mins before your session (eg while eating dinner or whatever) and you'll have a ton of data on potential tables allowing you to get on the best ones. Also, do you use a HUD? PT2 supports PokerAce HUD which can show stats onto your tables of players you have in your database. You can use this to pick out fish you have not yet tagged with your system, or those you have recently datamined.

3. Yes, but to be honest you'll be better off waiting to accumulate a lot more hand histories before searching through. If you're using PT2 to do this go to the ring game option > preferences > check 'use player filter' and enter the criteria you require (eg hands>50, VP$IP>40, PFR<5 or whatever). The only players that you'll see in the database now are your targets. Go get 'em!

[Fumseck]

1) I think you are doing a great job with labeling the players (Green, Yellow and red)

2) IdleMiner and PT3

2.1) IdleMiner
IdleMiner lets you datamie FTP. With FTP you can have 18 tables open at the same time. IdleMiner will open tables and datamine them based on your specifications (ex: NL 6 max, 0.25/0.50 and 0/50/1 with min 5 players seated). When a table does not meet the criterias, it will be closed and a new one will be found and opened,.

2.2) Poker Tracker 3
Poket Tracker 3 has a new feature (maybe it's not implemented yet, I don't use it yet but intend to use it at some point) called Table Tracker.

From PT:
What does it do?
TableTracker shows you what tables are currently running and who is sitting at those tables. It then uses your PokerTracker databases to show you stats on those players. You use those stats to determine which tables would be most profitable for you to play at.

How does it work?
You simply enter your criteria and then start the search. There's no need to open any of the poker clients. The TableTracker servers keep track of tables for you. Once you find a table you want to sit at, open the client, find the table and sit down.

* There is a a monthly fee to use this feature.