1. Find all tables that have a high average pot and players per flop > 40% join as many waiting lists as you can
2. Quickly check before you sit down that the table hasn't become tight while you have been waiting.
3. check that there are no massive stacks at the table, especially if they are on your left. leave if there are
4. find a table where most people clearly arent auto-refilling their stacks.
5. dont sit down if there are lots of short stackers.
6. go "fish finding" when you have been on a table for a while and you know who they are.
7. leave a table if you dont like it any more
8. play less tables, table select better
Ok, as the request of some other forum members, I am going to write a short (hell, this is actually getting long) article on how i table select. Most of this info i have picked up through reading 2p2, and through personal experience.
ill also just qualify the fact that i use this for 6max, no limit holdem games between 0.05/0.1 and 0.25/0.5 (as of this week! yay). so this might not work for 9 handed games, lower limits etc, which i have not had much experience with.
now, before i give you my take on table selection, everyone should read this post. it gives some excellent advice, and it is what i have based my strategy on, with a few additions.
http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/sho ... 19&fpart=1
Ok, firstly, when you are looking sit down and play a few hands, ask yourself what sort of table is your dream table. If you are a super loose aggressive player, then this probably involves a table full of really tight passive players that only ever bet when they have a strong hand, and you can just run over them with continued aggression. we would all love for this to happen, but firstly, few of us are good enough to play a good lag game yet, and secondly, the chances of finding a table like this are about zero.
so from now on, i am going to assume that we are tight aggressive players (which is true for most of the better players on this forum i would say (aaron is the only one that comes close to being a true lag that i have played any sort of decent hands with))
anyway, i am digressing a bit.
basically what we are after are those loose passive calling stations, that just never fold their top pair bad kicker type hand ever, and only ever raise you when they have 2 pair or better. these players will just hand their chips over to you if you constantly value bet them, so these are the players we want. (lol most of the 888pl community could be described like this i would think, besides the awesome players on this forum
)how do we find these players? (besides just playing 888pl games?)
well, as i said before, this is how i go about table selection and generally moving between tables. it might not work for you, but at least it gives you something to think about.
Largest Pot and High Players per Flop
first, i open up the lobby and have it filtered to the games i want, down the the stakes, number of people at the table, etc. then i sort by total pot first. the reason i do this, is because bad players are generally those that want to put large amounts of money in the pot. as a first port of call, this is probably the easiest way to go.
but, because of the reasons described in the above article, the largest pot doesn't always mean a table full of bad players. since this is the "default" way of table selecting, there is often a large waiting list on these tables as well, so by the time you actually sit down, the table could be really nitty. good players are good at building a pot, so its possible that the table is full of good players that have just had huge hands against each other.
so, in general, i usually sort for games that have a large pot, AND also have a lot of players per flop. this number needs to be at least 40%, or i wont go anywhere near the table at all. if it is less than 40%, it usually means that the table is tight. dont even bother sitting there. just think, if the table is such that only 2 players are playing, 1 player and a blind, then this is already up to 33% in a 6max game. so if you see a table below 30%, avoid it like the plague.
ok, so in summary, my general strategy is to sort by average pot, then look for tables with higher players per flop. i will put myself on the waiting list for as many tables as i think are good, even if i am only playing 2-4 tables.
Big Stacks
another thing i look for when i go to sit down at a table is the stack sizes. generally, i want to avoid huge stacks. if there is a player on the table that has more than 4 or 5 buyins, they are more likely to be better rather than worse than average. of course there are exceptions, there is nothing better to find yourself to the left of a fish that has a huge stack. but in general, i like to avoid these tables.
further to this, if a table pops up that i want to play, and the only available seat has a big stack to my left, then i wont sit down there either, for the same reason mentioned above. if this player does happen to be bad, then by having a huge stack makes him more likely to be aggressive. and you dont want aggressive players (good or bad) to be on your left.
if there are 1 or 2 players that have double the buyin, this is fine, hopefully they have just won a stack from the fish(es) on the table. but if someone has 5 buyins, have a think before you sit down
Medium to Full Stacks
another thing to watch out for when sitting at a table is whether the people have got full stacks in front of them. most good players (i know a few that dont do this) buy in for a full stack, and they automatically top the stack up whenever it gets low. the reason for automatically topping up is that you give yourself the best opportunity to win the most chips from a player when you get involved in a hand with them. if you bought in for 100bb, then lost a bit and are now at 80bb when you get aces and they get KK, then you are potentially missing out on 20 more bb, which adds up to a huge amount in the long run. of course you could counter this by saying that you also lose more in the hands that you lose, which is true, but assuming we are better players than our opposition, this will happen less often than we win.
so, if you sit down at a 10c/25c table, a full stack is $25. if everyone on the table has $25 exactly, or something like $26.50 or something, chances are that they are automatically refilling their stack. this generally means they are better, so you can just leave the table and find a better one.
the best tables are those that have 5 other people that have between 15 and 25 bucks at a 25NL table. these players have big enough stacks that you win good pots if you stack them, but since they aren't auto refilling, they are more likely to be bad.
in my experience, these are the best tables to play at, and are generally what i look for to start with.
Short Stackers
dont sit with short stackers. they piss you off no end, you dont get any value out of them, it will just drive you up the wall. why sit with a fish that has 20bb in front of them when you can find a table with a fish with 100bb?
Use your Fish Finder
finally, i thought i would just say something about moving tables during a session.
after i have been playing a while, the first thing i do is work out who the big fish are on your table. hopefully you have 2 or more of them. now, i search for these players, to see if they are multi tabling. (i dont know how to do this on 888, but its Ctrl-F on both stars and tilt).
if it turns out that your huge fish is sitting at more than one table, what are you waiting for? go put yourself on the waiting list straight away!!! (of course, if you are not comfortable with playing lots of tables, dont, still play your limit, even if the fish is playing 6 tables). now you have multiple chances to win money from the bad players. and the best thing about this strategy, is that you KNOW that this player is bad, all of the other strategy above is guess work.
i cant recommend this highly enough. if you know bad players, go sit with them! similarly, if you take notes (which you should) and you see that you have notes on a player about a bad play, go sit with these people.
similarly, if you are playing a bad player, and you stack them and they leave, remember their name and search for it in 5 mins time. quite often, players will leave and find another table if you stack them. it was funny, i once stacked the same player 5 times (for around $100 total at 25NL) because i kept searching for his name and finding him on other tables, and following him there.
ill just say that programs like holdem manager and poker tracker help a lot in this regard, because i have never ever found a good player that plays more than 50% of hands, and these players stand out like dogs balls when using holdem manager
Dont hang around to long
as soon as the fish in the game leaves, and the game becomes tight, just leave. there are much better tables out there, so just repeat the process above until you find a table you like.
the same applies if there are fish on the table, but there is a good player directly to your left. just leave and find another table.
if for any reason at all, the table feels like its becoming a drag, just leave.
Multi Tabling
finally, if you are a multitabler, dont play so many tables that you cant still look for tables. it is better to close 1 table and spend the time searching, i believe you will get a higher win rate doing this than playing an extra table. i usually play 4 tables, but i am quite happy playing 2 or 3 while i search for that really good table instead of staying too long at a table that has just got tight.
ok, so if anyone has actually bothered to read all of this, thankyou. i hope it has been helpful, and i would appreciate any comments, good or bad.
