Table Selection

[AScorz]

I've been playing online alot lately. Saving me the gas money on that trip to A.C. Any ways, I was wondering about table selection online. Whats a good process for it? What to look for? I mainly play 50NL on party. Also, does table selection have as much meaning? People get up and down so fast that a table can change in a few hands. Is it important to keep switching to better tables? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[poker_n00b]

At 50NL I'd say there's always a fish. Still why not sit at a table where there are more fishies?

You can do table selection in different ways.

- Add bad players to your buddylist and look them up before you start to play.
- You can datamine the games and overlay the statistics of each player on the table. This is done with Poker Tracker, Poker Ace HUD and Free Party Hand Grabber
- Use a program designed for that. The ones I know are sixth sense and party table scan. Go to Software forum to find out more.

Now you want to look for people that
- play too many hands
- go to far with hands
- are predictable

So basically that's it coz I have run out material.

[TILT_JOHAN]

What I do is find players who are horrible, and fishy, and I keep a list. If i see that they are sitting at a table I will jump right in and let them lose there money to me.

[DCWGaming]

[ QUOTE ]
I've been playing online alot lately. Saving me the gas money on that trip to A.C. Any ways, I was wondering about table selection online. Whats a good process for it? What to look for? I mainly play 50NL on party. Also, does table selection have as much meaning? People get up and down so fast that a table can change in a few hands. Is it important to keep switching to better tables? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]
Table selection is -extremely- meaningful in terms of your win rate and your overall edge against the table.

At the 50NL level, you will have plenty of fish to play against on a regular basis. As you move up, the fish become more scarce, and software can be used to automate the process of table selection for you.

Check out the software forums.

[fossil]

I find the same problem. Most of the table will turn over within 50 hands. I will spend some time looking for a suitable table and usually stay and complete my session (1.5-2 hrs), unless the table becomes very tough. In that case, I will either look for another table or quit early.

I don't think that continually looking for the 'grass is greener' approach and constantly moving is effective.

[mojoyoyo]

One thing to consider is the mode you are in.

Specifically, if you have an eye towards improving as a player and moving up levels, you might find it advantageous to stick to a table and work on recognition of changing conditions and how best to exploit them. It may turn out to be a situation in which you sacrifice a little in the short term to profit more in the long term (which seems to be a recurring theme in a lot of the 2+2 books).

If however your main emphasis at the moment (or in general) is to maximize profits, then you want to be playing at tables where you have the best of it.

[I'm not saying that it shouldn't be a goal to play at tables where you have the best of it, as a general rule, but I am saying that at certain times it may not be convenient a/o possible a/o politically correct to jump ship when the conditions change and that being profitable across the board (condition-wise) might be the option with the best expectation.]