I just thought I would make this post and for many players here I guess I'm preaching to the already converted however because I feel it is so important to improving a players winrate it's worth making it in any case.
So like most reg players who are playing your limit stakes you are a decent player. You are positionally aware, you know your stealing, 3 bet and BB defence ranges and you play a decent post flop game. You don't necessarily play a shed load of tables but you have a problem. You have a winrate of sorts but it's very low, maybe around 0.5BB/100 yet you look at some of these regs who seem to have the same kind of stats as yourself but they're winning at 1.5 - 2BB/100. You wonder why their graph seems upwardly smooth yet yours looks like some kind of rollercoaster and you ask yourself why?
Well the answer is most likely this, table and seat selection and if you are not doing it and winrate is really important to you then you're making your poker life so much harder especially in todays games.
Imagine for a moment you are sitting on a 6 max table and 2 players have a long term winrate of -5BB/100. That combined -10BB/100 is going somewhere and mainly to the other players who are fortunate enough to find themselves sitting on that table. In todays games sitting at a table of regs is non productive if winrate is all that matters. In a game full of competent players the only winners at that table long term will be the house.
So what to do? Well if you're not already aware there is a superb free piece of software on the internet that you can download called table scan turbo, why it is still free I'll never know because it is frankly superb. Once downloaded it will link in with your pt or hem database and scan through all the poker tables at your required level and bring up all the players vpip numbers amongst others. You can then list the players by vpip from highest to lowest, you now can see the absolute worst of the worst at your limit and you can hit the waiting lists of the tables with these whales.
Table selection is so important but seat selection is important too. Ideally you want to sit directly to the left of your whale so when he limps in with trash you can be iso raising and start crushing down on him. The grand masters of table and seat selection will wait a long time to get the perfect seat at the perfect table and will forgo the seat at the table and go back to the waiting list before finding that sweet spot. Is it worth the wait? Well yes it is if winrate is all that matters. Many of the top earners deploy this strategy it may sound dull but it reaps rewards long term. Also as soon as the whale leaves the table it's time for you to leave too when it comes around to your big blind.
I know many of you already do this but for the ones that aren't, really make your life easier. I would argue that table, seat selection is worth at the very least 1BB/100 to your winrate at the micros.
It's funny that you post this because I've read more than a handful of articles on 2+2 about seat selection/table selection. I've not really concentrated much on it because Merge micro-stakes games are few and far between and I'm just happy to find a $0.10/$0.20 or $0.05/$0.10 6M table to play on. But recently, I've been attempting to multi-table more (when there are enough tables available). I would notice that I would struggle on one table, but do relatively well on another. Or, well on 2 and bad on 1, break even on another. The other day it finally dawned on me. The tables I were running bad or break even on were tables with 2(+) regs. The others were 1 or less. It became even more evident because on one, the regs left and I started turning positive on that table.
I think the blinders have finally come off and I'm starting to truly understand the benefits of table/seat selection. If it means I shouldn't play, well, maybe I won't.
So thank you for the HU concerning the software. I'm going to use it...DEFINITELY.
Last edited by roadster99; 05-21-2012 at 06:12 PM.
Reason: content!
I've been playing around with TableScan Turbo. Pretty cool software, wish there were more tables on Merge then it would be even more beneficial. Do you use the preset stats for defining "fish" or have you changed them? If so how and why?
Glad you're enjoying the table scanner, as I said I still can't believe it's free. As for the presets to be honest I don't get too technical with it. I just search the player results by highest vpip. Also if you right click on the player you should be able to select join table, join waiting list, it's really nifty.
Two Plus Two
and the amazing thing is, it doesnt think im a fish woopwoop.
Linear Mode
