Table Selection

[Damien]

I know Matthew harped on this fact in his books, but for whatever reason, I have not really paid much attention to which table I sit at... up until now. Usually I get on the waiting list and take a seat at the first table of my choice that becomes available. Today, I actually thought about it (after flipping through ITH during lunch and perusing the table selection chapter). I found a 0.25/0.50 limit full ring table on Full Tilt with about 50% of the players seeing the flop. Full table and I was first on the waiting list. I sat back and played a tight aggressive game, and before I knew it the $8 I sat down with was up to $15 (thats in well under 100 hands). Of course, people move around a lot and when I looked back in the lobby after a while, I saw that the % who saw the flop had dropped to about 30. Just wanted to restate the obvious I guess... sometimes it pays to wait for the perfect table!

[peterholdem]

I guess waiting for the right table is sometimes that people know they should do but often don't do in the end, probably because they get overexcited and just want to start playing. I don't have extensive experience but I have to say that I always try to look at what's going on on a table first before sitting down.

[doubleup]

I can't seem to pick a table that stays together for more than 20 minutes (Stars 25NL)....

[superwomble]

If you do try to select a table rather than just sitting at the first one you can, what criteria do you use? I notice Damien mentions looking for a high VP$IP, which is what I've always tended to do, but do any of you use different criteria? What is your thinking behind your table selection?

Cheers

[Damien]

Now that I have PokerTracker, the only other thing I look at really is who's at the table. I avoid the ones with players who consistently beat me (tho I am tempted to try and get back at them...)

[Schlepper333]

I have a list of players in my 'find players' list (Stars) who have VPs of 85%+. I look these up first. This can be tedious so I keep the list to 10 players. If none of these cash cows are playing I try to sit at a table where 35-50% are seeing the flop.

[Misunderstud]

I look at flop % first, then pot size. To be honest, though, at large sites and low limits the turnover is such that I don't think it makes a great deal of difference. And if there are more then a couple in the queue, chances are it will be a different table by the time you get to it anyway - probably because the donator has busted out. I used to always leave if a table got really nitty, but now I usually just hang around, play to the conditions and wait for others to get fed up and go: they're often replaced by fishy players who take no notice of the lobby stats. It wouldn't be the first time either that I've looked in the lobby whilst playing to find that I'm doing rather well on a table whose stats look dreadful, and vice versa.

Seat selection is probably more important. Try to get position on the best/worst players and certainly avoid sitting to the immediate right of someone you know is better than you.

[Willem]

I typically try to start up a table myself. These newly formed tables are usually very juicy. Downside (for many players) to this is that you must be comfortable playing shorthanded.

But you might want to look for tables with few players and see if they fill up.

[blah730235]

Very interesting last two posts, my short-handed game isn't the strongest so I might not try starting up a table on my own to often unless they're super juicy at my level, I actually today just tried joining the lowest flop % table I could with decent results. I just ran over the regular nits (constant blind stealing from button & CO with ATC and set mining when they raised) and was suprised to see the two unknowns at the table turned out to be calling stations. Obviously I will need to test this more but i'm going to be joining the lowest % table for the next few sessions.

[Scully]

For anyone outside the US, the ipoker network has a really useful tool to be used in table selection, called the buddy list. Basically you can tag any player as 'your buddy' without them having to confirm. You can also do a player search and search 'buddies only'.

In short I'll tag the fish as my buddies. When I fire up the software or am looking for a new table a quick buddy search shows me where all my favourite players are and I can join the waiting list for their tables. Often when my seat comes available I'll only take it if I have position on these players - if it's to the immediate right I'll wait until the seat fills and then rejoin the waiting list.

This is all so much easier than doing individual player searches on Stars or FTP

[Willem]

On Full Tilt, you can put a color tag on each player. These tags are also visible in the lobby. I usually tag fish with a green color, good players with the color red. When I now see a table with lot of players with a green tag, I know it's a good table. And a table with a lot of red players is usually a bad table.

[mconstab]

[Damien]

[Llanlad]