Situation: your about to sit in your regular limit game. It's playing 5 handed at the moment. Seats as follows:

1 seat: known donator. loose passive fish type.

2 seat: open

3 seat: solid TAG type. plays fit or foldish postflop. is a winning player at this level.

4 seat: open

5 seat: decent LAG. plays too many hands preflop, but is good at reading hands and putting TAGs on tilt with his play.

6 seat: open

7 seat: a mouse. rarely raises without the nuts. plays very tight preflop

8 seat: open

9 seat: a unknown, you've never seen him before. call him "average joe" - i.e. an average breakeven player.

10 seat open

wheres the best seat? and why?

Does the tag have a good read on me? I think I sit in 2.

reasoning?

Oh yeah...reasoning

If seat 9 is average I am going to take his money because I am above average.
Seat 1 is terrible. I am going to take all of his money.

I want to know if these two players are in the pot (pf) so I can act accordingly and maybe get in some marginal situations. I also want to decimate them post flop. Generally I always try to get the worst players (loosest, most passive ones) on my immediate right and don't put much stock in anything else.

The tag on my left is a little troubling, but if he doesn't know I'm a TAG I have a while before he 3-bets me with KTs.

Generally I try to put the good players on my left and the bad players on my right.

I think I'm sitting in seat 6.

I'd like to be able to see what the two best players at the table do before making the majority of my decisions. Based on your notes the TAG is going to be telling me a lot about his hand by playing fit or fold, and the LAG is going to give me numerous opportunities to 3-bang him with premium hands preflop (likely getting Seat 7 and possible Seat 9 out). I'm also going to avoid getting my speculative hands ruined by the LAG player's preflop raises, and I can get away from marginal strength hands when the TAG enters strong in early position.

Finally, I'm looking to face the field with 2 cold frequently when the LAG bets into me, or trap them all for 2 when I bet into him.

Second choice... Seat 2.

I want to use this position to knock the TAG out of as many hands as possible. I also want to use the LAG a couple seats away to pump my super premium hands, either via limp/reraise or getting him to 3-bet me preflop. Similar options apply post-flop either for knocking players out or padding a pot that is likely coming my way.

Seat 6, please. LAG on my immediate right, TAG a little further right and Mr. Predictable on my immediate left in a seat with good vision of the board and all other players.

I hate letting good LAGs have position; seat 4 is the worst, you're trapped between the two most aggressive players.

I don't mind the TAG having position, when I raise he will usually fold. He plays tight anyway so we won't have many clashes.

I don't care where the mouse sits. He folds all the time.

You will make most of the money from Seat 1 and Seat 9, so Seat 2 allows you to intercept the money that is flowing clockwise from them. Letting the LAG have position more often is not great (you may leak a few chips to his stack) but at least you can pull a checkraise to build the pot on the flop, or bet into him to make him raise and face the field with 2 cold.

If you sit in Seat 6, you can beat the LAG & TAG marginally but they will be taking all the easy money from the two fish and will often be forcing you to fold or 4-bet preflop. Seat 10 gives you position that is neutral relative to the LAG and good position on the Average player. Plus the fish coldcalls a lot I'm assuming so whatever.

2 > 10 > 8 > 6 >>>> 4

8 really just about = 6
but I hate seat 6 a little bit more because it's in the middle and I can't see everything at once without turning my head. Plus I sometimes get paranoid people can see my cards or the dealer will sweep em away.

2 for me. I like Stamos uttered, like to have the gooduns on my left and badduns on my right. A lot of people like to have the good players on their right so they can have position on them but I never thought along those lines.

Six seat, not close. If this were a nine handed game things would be very different but if there's a tricky LAG in a SH game I want position on him every single hand I can.

ss,

suppose the game was 9 handed, other seats filled with unknowns. you could take your pick as to what opponent you wanted position on. what seat would you pick?

yeah thats what i was getting at. in a full ring game, why do you prefer to have position on the fish rather than the tags or lags?

in a shorthanded game, does your opinion change and why?

I think the implication here is that the other seats will be filled by random variables in the next 20 minutes.

six, because you will have position on the LAG and the donator.

When I imagine hands that will go down from seat 2 I picture fish limping UTG, you raising, and LAG cold calling or 3-betting. The TAG will get to chose when to battle with you.

From seat 6 I picture you fish limping UTG, then you get to see what TAG does, the LAG raises, then you get to CC or 3-bet.

Finally when a new player will join the game there is a 50/50 chance that they sit your your left making your seat choice even better.

Seat 2 easily. Get position on the fish. Sure having the LAG behind you isn't ideal but when selecting your seat getting position on the worst players who you're going to play the most pots with is your biggest concern. Also, if you pick any other seat you're going to be denied the chance to isolate the fish as often as you'd like to while the table is playing short-handed.