Tips for finding good games: The Art of Table selection?

[KingOtter]

My table selection only goes so far as to what's available on the table select screen on the poker sites.

I look for a moderate amount $$ average. I want passive players, but I want a lot of them. So the highest $$ average tables aren't for me... too aggressive.

I look for an empty seat.

That's about it.

On Party .50/1.00 I look for tables about in the $5-$6 range, and on PokerStars I look for 50%+ VPIP for the table, and I'll take tables from $4+, but try not to take the ones above $8.

When my HUD tells me the table has gone below 30% VPIP or (PFR x # players) > 100%, I leave and find new hunting grounds.

[PokerBarney]

I use the same method as Befolder - go for one with a small avg pot size (so I can bully them), and a moderate players per flop percentage (so the pots aren't overcrowded). I'll occasionally jump onto 2 player tables, but generally I prefer 4-6.

The real art of table selection is working out your style of play and determining how this affects the table statistics, so you know what to look for.

[Befolder]

[ QUOTE ]
I use the same method as Befolder - go for one with a small avg pot size (so I can bully them), and a moderate players per flop percentage (so the pots aren't overcrowded). I'll occasionally jump onto 2 player tables, but generally I prefer 4-6.

The real art of table selection is working out your style of play and determining how this affects the table statistics, so you know what to look for.

[/ QUOTE ]
I guess I didn't specify where I wanted flop % and pot size to be.

I actually want the opposite of what you said. As high a percentage as possible and huge pot sizes. I don't have a problem playing in aggro games and more people to the flop, just means I get to play more drawing hands to cash in on.

[Langerz]

[ QUOTE ]
on PokerStars I look for 50%+ VPIP for the table

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that 6 max? If I waited to find a 50%+ VPIP I'd be waiting forever, maybe its due to the bonus.

I've noticed the table VPIPs have been pretty low lately, but I don't know that means the table is unprofitable. It seems like the average micro player is becoming better (or at least tighter) before the flop so you don't see ridiculous VPIPs very often anymore. The average micro player still stinks after the flop though IMO.

I was playing 3 tables last night (full ring) and 2 were in the low 20s and one was slightly below 20, but I would still call them profitable tables. Hands probably only averaged 3 to the flop, but those people were still more than happy to call down with bottom pair or worse.

Every table also has at least one good calling station. Being able to isolate that player becomes more important.

I don't play long enough sessions to have time to be very picky on table selection. True a looser table may be more profitable, but most tighter tables are very beatable and I think you learn more beating them.

[kiemo]

Smaller sites, first open table.

Larger sites, first open table with a above average pot size.

its not a good system, but I dont have time to sit around and wait for a perfect table.

[RAHZero]

For now I don't play without a bonus and/or rakeback, since there are so many bonuses out there and reloads like every week. I don't have PT/PAHUD (yet, working on my PSO promo to get them). I typically look for the tables at my limit with the highest pot size, and open them up, watch them for an orbit, then put my name on the waiting list for those tables. Once I get to the table, I usually wait for BB, which allows me to make sure the table is still juicy. Once I have tables open and playing, I'm always checking the lobby for better games. If my game goes bad, I'll usually just sit out, even if that means playing fewer tables or none for a little while.

[btspider]

My thoughts on table selection:

- start with what the site provides (pot size, % seeing flop, etc)
- check out a table, if i have notes and it looks favorable, i sit immediately
- if i have no notes after looking at all the open seats, i sit somewhere where my notes are nonexistant or neutral and play at that table while continuing to search for better seats elsewhere.
- if my notes are nonexistant, i'll take a seat at 6-max if I see someone open limp late or cold-call PF. for a sample size of one, its a good indicator.

My motto: sit early. If the situation sucks I can always leave. If I'm a winning player, then even a bad seat may only be EV neutral so I'll hopefully learn something while I'm searching for the ideal seat.

While it doesn't maximize BB/100, it might maximize my BB/hour by sitting early.

Wookie's method is $$. Bad players take open seats.. that's their selection process. Wook, what seat is best to take? Do people have a habit of sitting opposite the dealer for instance.. making seat 5 or 6 (in 6-max) the best seat to start w/?

[Guruman]

i subscribe to wook's method as well.

If I don't feel intense enough to play HU, I'll find a table with three guys in it and look for a good seat in a soft spot.

neither of these methods ever fails.

[Paxosmotic]

1. Click join waitlist
2. Click the radio button next to first available
3. Change the drop down to 5 or 9 as the situation dictates
4. Be better at poker than everyone else at the table

[Smurph64]

Thanks all for the answers here. I didn't get a real good read on my two questions but I think we kind have bounced around the two issues.

It seems a lot of us pick a site that has good rakeback/bonus payouts and ride the bus exclusively on that site.

And I am getting some different ideas as to what constitutes a good game which is very interesting as well.

Clearly our own skill level has a lot to do with our decision making process some of us comfortable only with loose passive games and others with any game that comes their way.

I think there are techniques and play patterns that some of us can adopt and recognize quicker than others which helps the more experienced players and I wondered what is the best method of expanding our play beyond the bang out and grind out for the bucks method a lot of us do adapt to.

This is a challenge I think a lot of us miss in the micro levels and its probably a good reason why some of us are afraid to move up. Familiarity brings comfort.

Btspider, Mr Wook and historically Grunch advocate a sit down and figure it out approach which is probably the most difficult way of doing it but probably the most educational as well.

But by and large this is very scary. I know my skill level at 6 max and I know my skill level at full ring but H/U I don't have a lot of experience.

I guess it's possible to start training ourselves using the Grunch method by starting at lower levels and this might be something to consider but are there any quick tips out there about what thinking process you need to focus on to adapt from a h/u to a 3 4 person ring table?

Besides ABC poker, are there fundamental adaptations a player makes as the table develops?

I have read about how to play 6 max and how to play H/U thanks to the microhula but going from one game transitioing up is a new concept.

Do you start tricky and go more straight up as more come on to the table? Any general concepts here are helpful.

The one thing I do like Btspider suggests is keep looking and I do bounce around from one level to the one above and below looking for juicy games where I can get good position on the player that I am targeting.

I have also done a lot of kamikaze sessions where I will sit down, blast for a couple of orbits and bail. Its financially profitable but I don't know if this is a good tactic or not because it could get me in serious trouble quickly by developing bad habits or making huge financial blunders.

So far when I look at the games at my two sights that I go to at the moment, I look for games from 3/6 down to .25/.50
full ring, 6 max and even NL10 NL25 games where I can get position on a maniac in donation mode or a lot of calling stations.

I look for 6 max games where players are limping a lot and lately (don't tell anyone) I am playing 2 or 3 tables at once trying to determine which one is best suited for me at the moment.

But all this seems haywire for me right now and its nice that you guys are posting some good information here for digestion.