Table Selection -- Full Tilt

[TurdFerguson]

So lately I've been playing in the evenings after work on FTP, mostly to clear my deposit bonus. I play SSNL ring games, usually $50 NL. As advertised on 2+2, the tables can be very rock-ish, particularly in the evenings when I'm playing. So I've been taking table selection advice on here into consideration when picking tables (e.g. the higher the Plr/Flop %, the looser the table, which is where you want to be). Lately, when I get on the right tables, the results have been positive -- I play solid TAG, but can change gears to be more LAG or loose/passive if table dynamics so dictate.

Example, then query -- last night, for example, I 2-tabled $50 NL. Got into 2 tables that at the time had the highest Plr/Flop % available (about 37-39%). Not tremendous, but about as good as you're going to do on FTP at those stakes. [Note: I know, I know about the virtues of 6max. I plan on trying it out shortly, but for the moment am more comfortable at full ring.] I noticed, however, that by the time I've racked up a decent profit at these tables the Plr/Flop % has gone way down into the 20% range.

When I saw this it reminded me of the old joke "Yo mama so black when she goes outside, the phone rates go down." Am I so tight that when I sit down at a loose table the Plr/Flop % goes down? Or is this an unintended side effect of TAG play that leads to profit?

I welcome your thoughts & insights.

[matrix]

I table select at FT by doing the following.

Open FT - open up 8 or so tables with the highest average pots. Fire up PT andPAHUD & import Leave well alone for 30 mins while making coffee/reading 2p2 doing other stuff.

Come back to FT and look through the tables I have open.

Find tables with lots of money at them (no shortstacks or as few as possible) with weak players (fishies mice or maniacs) get onto wating lists and sit directly to the left of the weakest player there. I avoid tables with tighter players. Once I'm sat I open a few more "backup tables" and leave them open in the background in case a table I'm sitting at goes sour.

Plr/flop% along with all the other table averages are the averag of every player sat at the table - so yes when you sit at a high plyr/flop% table and then proceed to play TAG and not see many flops this number obviously drops.

I used to think that this kind of time consuming table selection cost me money - more time actually playing at a table = more hands = more money right?

wrong.

The worse the other players at the table the faster they give me their money - the higher my winrate. It's definitely worth spending time to make sure you are sitting at the juiciest tables possible. I only ever make an exception if one of my uberfish buddies is sitting and I can grab a seat on his left quick and hopefully grab his money before some other shark gets there first.