Picking The Best Table, Is It Worth It?
When you play live poker, you pretty much are stuck at the table you get seated. There are no statistics hovering over table, you can’t tell the floor person that you want to put your name on the list for a certain table and not another. No, you get seated at the table with the first open seat. Sure, once you sit down you can ask for a table change and, hopefully, when a seat opens up at another table the floor person will actually remember your request. A better option is changing your seat at your current table to get the correct position against other players and I highly recommend you do this.
Online, it’s much different. With many tables for just about any limit running 24-7 at the major sites, and some statistics in the lobby like how many players to the flop on average, average pot size, etc, you can pick the table you want to sit at or add your name to a specific table. And, of course, you can get up at anytime and pick another table. Table selection comes into play in the online world. We all have our ways to play and you should look for a table that matches your strengths.
When I first switched to NL, I would look for tables that had a lot of short stacks. And I would buy-in for about 80% of the max. I was learning and didn’t want to risk a lot of money. Now that I have the hang of it, I look for tables that have players around the max buy-in and always buy in for the max. I try to stay away from tables that have a couple large stacks as I’m not totally comfortable playing against large stacks. Of course, playing on a table where everyone has lots of money means you have a better chance of winning lots of money. But it would make me uncomfortable and I would not play like I know I would need to.
I remember a post from Johnny on how he picks tables and I used to try to follow it. Basically, I would try to find a table that has 35% or higher as far as players seeing the flop, and hands per hour somewhere around 50 (give or take). This tells me there’s a fair amount of people seeing a flop and the table is somewhat established. If you see a table with something like 90 hands an hour, you can be sure the table just recently started and hasn’t been running long enough to establish stats you can rely on. Also, pay no attention to the average size of the pots. A couple big pots can boost the average way up and make it seem like it’s a wild table when it really isn’t.
But honestly, people come and go so quickly at my level (25NL) that I wonder how up to date the stats are that the poker site show you in the lobby. Seems like just as I sit down at a table that I think might be good, three people leave and are replaced, meaning the stats that attracted me to the table in the first place can most likely be thrown out the window.
During my first video that Ugi watched, I mentioned table selection. In the discussion that followed, Ugi admitted he’s not the best role model for this subject. His philosophy is as long as he gets a seat, he figures he’ll make money as long as he plays well. I can see this as being true since you need to adjust your game to the table anyway.
For example, I joined a table the other night that I thought looked good. Good amount of people seeing the flop, good amount of hands per hour, players with stacks I could handle. But it quickly became apparent those stats were outdated, proven when my PT stats finally popped up showing it was actually a tight table. I had to make a choice. Find another table, or adjust my game to the table. I figured this would be a good table to try out my new, more aggressive game and started raising when I thought the time was good. It was a good lesson on adjusting my game to pick up some BBs at a tight table.
So while I try to continue to use Johnny’s selection criteria for picking a table, I wonder if it’s really worth it at my level. I’ve basically have dropped my standards for picking tables lately. While I do look for that table with over 35% players to the flop, I’m more likely to just find a table with an open seat that maybe has a percentage as low as 27 or 28% and stacks I can handle (and not a lot of shortstacks, either!) and adjusting my game accordingly. So far, it’s been working out, forcing me to pay attention to the table and adjust. After all, as someone once said on the forum (I’m paraphrasing and can’t remember who said it), you don’t get to pick your table during live poker, so it’s a good exercise to just sit down online and adjust. It’ll make you a better player.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Great to see all the progress and critical thinking that you’re doing. As far as my table selection goes, after all this time has gone by I’m more in the Ugi camp myself now. For one thing, I can’t find many tables with those kinds of stats now and at times they are just a sea of 16 to 22VP/75 hands per hour offerings. If you can sit, determine who the weaker players are, and focus on targeting them in the right way you can make money. Those 40VP, 55 hands per hour tables sure are fun when you can get them though!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
If it is really a terrible table, just pick up your chips and come back in 15-20 minutes. It should be no prob to ask for a different table when you come back. People at Turning Stone are always putting themselves on the list for table switches. Unless you are at high stakes, I don’t many people really think much of it as long as there is more than 10-15 tables in the room.