[pritz]

now everyone knows that the most important part of playing poker is playing people who are worse player than you, much worse or else the only person that wins is the rake, so here is my question... how do you guys go about choosing a table?

do you look at the % of people who see the flop? do you observe the table and watch what cards people play? maybe track certain people who u konw are fish and follow them? what qualifications does a game require for you to sit there... and how do u tell it meets those qualifications? what makes a table passive how many hands do u hafta observe, because there are many people i noticed who sit down and get right back up in a matter of 1 or 2 rotations at the lower limits i play at... your thoughts?

[johnf]

I check out table size (, average pot size (7-9 for a .50/1 table). I play party, so I don't have % seeing the flop readily available. I then watch the table for two hands, looking for 5+ seeing the flop and little or no preflop raising.

I also consider money at the table, but not as much as I used to. I used to assume that someone with large $$ was a good player, but I'm finding there's plenty of fish who like to sit down with their entire bankroll.

If the table looks good, I jump in if there's an open seat 1 or 2 off the button, otherwise I join but wait for the big blind.

[lork]

I agree with johnf's comments. Lots of limpers and little raising pre-flop. Totally agree with the bankroll comment... Can't believe some of the play I've seen from the bigger stacks.

[chris]

I'm still at the intermediate level but I've spent a lot of time on the .50/$1 tables to improve my play and my bankroll. I play at PartyPoker, so understand that the only statistics available are number of players, average pot size, and the amount of people waiting to join at that table or the first available table.

When I log on, the first thing I do is look at the top 3 10-player tables in terms of pot size and get on the waiting lists. While waiting, I'll take a measure of how many people are getting into each hand and narrow down my selection to whatever table/tables are showing about 6 or 7 players participating regularly. For the remainder of the waiting period, I'll watch the individual player actions to try to get a feel of their game. Party Poker allows you to take player notes, so I'll add the info to each player's bio while making sure to note that it's a first impression. Those players present that already have a bio from past play I especially pay attention to, as there's a chance that they've improved somewhat since I last played against them.

Anyway, no matter what your play style, I think it pays off to devoting some time to observation and notetaking before joining the action. I tend to focus on loose games with 1 or 2 rocks and a lot of chasers. Typically, I can get at least 2 big bets before things start tightening up against me. If there's still a few callers or chasers participating after that, I'll still play somewhat tight. If not, I'm usually off to another table (Party Poker has so many that it's easy to just hop from one to another every 20-30 minutes).

As to people posting their entire bankroll (ie. 750 bucks at a .50/$1 limit table), it used to intimidate me but I've come to realize that for the most part it's just a cheap tactic to promote a player's image.

[ballen]

I look at pot size and %/on the flop, if available, the larger the pot size the better...my thoughts are the looser the table the better, but i dont spend too much time looking for tables as players come and go so frequently that the makeup of the game changes quickly...

[arcfinn]

By the responses I'm guessing this is online. As far as real poker goes, the rooms are full from coast to coast. This means many times you gladly accept the seat you finally get. You have to use your skills to get a feel for the game and the players individualy. THATS THE TRUE SPIRIT OF POKER.

[sours]

At the casino I sometimes have to wait two hours for a seat, so I gladly take any seat I can get. If I don't like it, I get on the seat change list ASAP.

[ThomasR]

I don't think it matters. Fish can beat you as badly as professionals, though at least with fish everyone knows they just got lucky.

I take a seat, and I play. If there are tight players, I deal with them. If there are loose players, I take their chips with pleasure. Being a good poker player is about adaptation to situations, making the best of a run of "bad" cards - that involves playing all comers and being confident in playing at least a reasonable game against them if not always a winning game.