Let's play a hypothetical game

[Aaron W.]

You've been aimlessly browsing tables trying to practice good table selection, and you come across a table that seems to have a pretty good game going (good in terms of the players, not necessarily profitability). Even though it's full of better than average players, you think that this would be a good opportunity to play against a slightly better crowd than normal to develop your game. You've been watching the table for about 100 hands, and you've been mining the players' stats during that time. Here's what you have:



Consider the following questions:

1) Who do you want on your right?
2) Who do you want on your left?
3) If you could take anyone's seat, whose would it be?

FYI: These stats are complied from hand histories, so I didn't go through and make up numbers at random.

Edit: I didn't like my first or second title.

[BTR_Rounder]

I would want seat #7 on my right. He's slightly loose and very agressive preflop, I can tighten up just a bit and should be able to isolate him with a 3 bet on this table fairly easily.

He'll come out firing on the flop where I'll likely smooth call and then take the pot away from him on the turn and/or river with a raise.

[tehmatt]

1) Seats 1,4,7, 8 and 10. These guys are all very aggressive and I don't like getting 3 bet when I open raise a marginal hand from late position. Also, it's going to be advantageous to act after them preflop and on betting rounds. There really aren't any loose fish to isolate here, but if one existed, seat 8 would most likely be it. He is playing a few too many hands preflop and he is generally passive with them (at least preflop).

2) Seats 2, 5, and 9. In a game like this, position is (almost) everything. These guys are going to allow me to have the button a lot and are also going to be more inclined to fold to my open-raises, allowing me to play lots of pots in position.

I'm relatively indifferent to the ones I didn't name.

3) Once again, none of these seats are extremely desirable, but based on my personal preference to have the button a lot, I'd take seat 1, 8, or 10.

[MrWookie]

Seat two is pretty obvious for the guy I want behind me. As for who I want in front, it's close between seats 4 and 8. Seat 8 looks like a pretty predictable fit or fold type, so I'll take position on him and see about some bluff raises. If I was to just take a seat, I'd take seat 5 w/ the loose guy in front and the mor passive guy behind me.

[psy]

I think it's much of a muchness here. 100 hands and the difference between top VPIP (28.13) and bottom VPIP (14.00) could be due more than anything to the cards they've been getting.

Personally, for seating position I look at 2 things.
1) VPIP - I want the loose types to my right. Money tends away from the blinds and towards the button. Tighties to my left so I can steal their blinds with less hassle.
2) PFR - I don't want to have high PFRaisers to my left. I don't like to have every suited connecter I play to be raised pre-flop.

With that in mind I find it difficult to choose any seat that significantly better than any other. They all have good and bad points. Sorry I'm not more decisive.

[Str8Fish]

I want the guy on seat 8 on my right.
I want the guy on seat 2 on my left.

If I had to take a seat, I'd be seat 8. I can steal the blinds from 9 and 10 and I have a few LA to my right.

[bennyhana]

I like seat 8. 7 isn't the loosest, but can easily be isolated, and if 4 raises preflop, 7 may fold and I can isolate 4 too. 9 and 10 are tight enough that blind steals/isolation plays will work with reasonable success.

[Aaron W.]

There seems to be a bit of a consensus developing:

1) We like seat 8 on our right. His stats suggest that he's loose, but not so aggressive preflop. We do want to worry a little about his postflop game, as he seems to be hyper-aggro (4.83). What can you do against this?

2) People seem to like seat 2 on our left. This surprises me a little bit. Seat 2 (14/5/4) and seat 5 (15/6/2.7) have similar preflop stats, but their postflop stats are different by 1.3. Wouldn't you rather have the player who is more passive postflop on your left?

3) Seat 8 is a popular seat to take. You wedge yourself right in between a 24/14/2 and a couple sub-20 players.

I'll add more thoughts later. I want to give more people a chance to look over this one.

[Bruce D]

*grunch*

I would want seat two, and seat five to my left for easy blind stealing. I would also like seat three and six to my left to do my flop betting for me when I have a monster. Very useful for when you get tons of callers and you want money in the pot and plan on check raising. Seat three also shows no agression on the river, so having that individual on my right could be good for river bluffs when I get to act after them.

I would take seat number 4 if given the choice. It gives me a chance to steal blinds, and seat 3 will hang himself more often than not when I am involved and play smart.