Ozi's Guide to Table and Seat Selection - NL 6max and Full Ring Edition

Tl;dr version: –
- Seat selection probably more important than table selection.
- Don’t need the best of it but avoid the worst seats and tables where practical.
- Pick seats that give good position on targets.
- Be prepared to change seats and tables if a better one arises.


Introductory stuff: Why create this thread?
This post discusses some techniques I use to do table and seat selection when playing NL Holdem. It is intended to give you other things to think about when finding a seat...it seems to me that most people either just find the first available seat or do some very basic selection by sorting by, for example, potsize in the lobby and hitting up some wait lists. This post basically expands on these methods....alot. Now, Im not crazy, I dont use them all the time so think of this as more of a brain dump. Its not perfect or absolute or brilliatly worded but thats ok...because this post is intended to make YOU think about how YOU select tables and seats so that YOU can apply it.

Q: So, Who the hell is this mod ive never heard of and whats he doing posting this here?
A: Those of you have have visited microstakeslimit, beginners or limit-NL forums may well know a bit of my history. I have a limit background and started modding microstakeslimit a few years ago. My homebase is MicroStakesLimit but at the start of the year i switched to NL 6max which ive found to be rather profitable. Anyway, the original version of this post was written for LIMIT and was also a rather comprehensive braindump and can be found at http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/35...ery-long-1851/. You will note that alot of it is unchanged because alot of it applies to NL.


Ill say upfront, that I put a big emphasis on using a HUD in the selection process. Buddy lists have merit but i dont play a bazillion hands a month and most of the big fish never seem to be around from one session to the next. I have also experimented with table tracking software and i believe that they can definitely be useful, i just havent used them much. Anyway I am posting this here in microstakes nl cos theres alot of traffic here but Feel free to crossreference this thread from other 2+2 forums (eg Fullring) and to provide a link to it appropriately when someone inevitably starts yet another thread asking about how to do selection

This thread also contains examples and i encourage you to try and post in their threads if you find them of interest.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69...7/#post7740740


Getting Started: You cant always get the perfect table or the perfect seat
Table selection is not an exact science. In an ideal world there will be a spare seat at the best table online in your game of choice and that seat will be the best at the table. In reality you rarely get that luxury but it is pretty easy to pick the low hanging fruit...which isnt hard to do with regards to table and seat selection.

The great thing about it is that being good at table/seat selection is easier than actually being good at poker. A good way to view table and seat selection is as something which, on average, improves your chances of getting a good seat and therefore improves your table EV. You don’t even have to be that good at it or that selective because even if all you do is show a little selection and refuse seats at the worst tables or the worst seats then you still are getting it better than you were before.

I also want to say that I believe that seat selection is actually more important than table selection. I’d rather have the best seat at a reasonable table than the worst seat at a juicy table (yes there probably exceptions LDO). The best seat should lead to more chances to isolate ‘targets’ and less difficult decisions. See, playing hands in position against bad players is the bread and butter of poker.

Table Selection: The Basics
I’m sure many people practice table selection is a subset of what this post covers. No worries. Most of what i cover in here isnt new or unique and probably has been discussed before. But this is my speil and these things work for me.

LET ME REITERATE THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ALL OF THESE THINGS cos doing so might drive you crazy and there is Opportunity Costs to consider. If you take too long selecting you cost yourself table time and losing table time is losing pontential monies for good players. I suggest that you take on board what works for you and adapt it as you see fit.

Anyway, heres the way I start a typical session
- Open sites, Pokertracker/HoldemManager and start datamining if possible
- When ready to play, open lobby and scan limit of choice in terms of Plyrs/Pot, Pot Size and Wait Lists
- Sort by Plyrs/Pot (eg Stars) if available or Potsize otherwise
- If not many free seats and/or long waiting losts, then start opening tables and joining wait lists. Hint: Join MORE than you intend to play, better to have to not take a seat than miss a live one.
- Since I normally 4 table and want to get playing asap I try and sit on 2 reasonable tables as soon as I can (ie ones with no wait list or that are shorthanded/fillingup). I don’t need best position but I just don’t want the worst position if I can help it
- IF waitlists are long, be prepared to start new tables and let the fish come to you (this works even if you sit out and don’t sit once a there are a few people sitting in)
HotTip: Dont be too picky, I like to get a decent seat and play some poker. See, you don’t win monies by sitting out/waiting and a simple guideline to gettting started is to find some decent +EV tables and to avoid taking the worst 2-3 seats.

HotTip: you can also use table tracking software such as SpadeIt or even the extra table selector option in PT3 to help with selection. At the time of writing i havent really got much experience in using these types of software so i wont comment further so google is your friend if you want to find out more.

A few pointers:
- The juicier a table is the more better seats there should be and the less fussy you should be
- Don’t always just aim for ‘The Best’ table(s) because all the other tags are probably doing the same thing and so it may not stay ‘The Best’ for long. Simply put, the table with the highest vpip and highest pots is going to flooded with tags but they'll be less interested in tables that are comparatively less attractive but that are still decent.

During the session and/or once I’ve started playing a few tables
- I continue to scan the lobby and tables I’m wait listed on join new waitlists/tables as required
- Look for fishy buddies or players with fishy stats at open and wait listed tables and mentally pick the best seat(s). This can be helpful because seat available notifications often pop up out of the blue and when multitabling it can be a little tricky to fully gauge the seat in the few precious seconds you get between action on other tables.
- When I get the popup I usually take the seat and Ill post in CO (this is basically netural EV for full ring only, at 6max you should just wait for the blinds regardless) if table is clearly juicy or wait til BB otherwise. When waiting to Blinds to come round I make time to quickly assess the seat again…do I want to stay?
- As a seat becomes available, unless the seat obviously sucks I sit and then take a few moments to assess it. This can include recheck the lobby stats for Plyrs/Pot and Potsize, particularly if i was on the waitlist for ages cos the table. Basically i want to see if that table still showing as juicy or have TAGs taken the place of the fish?
- When assessing the seat/table I compare it to other ones Im already playing at….is it better than other tables Im at? If yes, and at too many tables….choose one to ditch.
- Remember, that newly started tables are often very juicy and it should be fairly obvious as to why…..well, because tighties dont like and/or cant play shorthanded so instead they hit wait lists…action junkies just sit…they came to play not wait
- Hot Tip: Don’t be too picky with seat selection if there is one big donkey at your table. Cos your target might be on his last orbit. Hint: have multiple targets at a table
- When the table or entire site turns bad.....get out of dodge unless you’ve got a clear reason to be there (eg whoring or desire to beat tough games).

Note: I realize all this seems like a lot and you might be wondering how the hell I get reads or actually play hands Im currently in? Well, I find that all these little actions that I take really can be done very quickly when I get a little table downtime or if Ive dropped a crappy table.. Its easy to scan the lobby, open a good looking table, join the table, join waitlist, minimize it then come back to it a bit later and look at the HUD stats.

So, what makes for a good table?
Q: What are your minimum standards for playing at a table?

Before I even talk about table and seat selection in more detail I want to say that I want to be playing against PREDICTABLE players. Predictable players lead to less tough decisions and less mistakes. Predictable and loose opponents are your bread and butter. Additionally, generally speaking I want position on unpredictable players. Im less concerned with having tight players on my immediate left...i dont expect to play many hands against them and i want to get first crack at the bad players. At low stakes it is pretty rare to find players who can both realise you are doing stuff like isolating light AND have a big enough pair to do something about it.

Anyway, I have no hard and fast rules but once tables VPIPs are consistently low (what is low differs for diferent games types and buyins) and potsizes are small then that’s a good time to get out cos any edges unless you have a great seat will prbobably be small and tiny edges are harder to exploit. That and playing with nits isn’t much fun. Anyway, Ill look at a table makeup and assess. If the table is tight but Ive got good position on the 1-2 fish them Ill stay and exploit. If its nitcity or too many decent tags or the dynamics make it a tough table to play at then sit out.

I prefer to look for a high VPIP aka Plyrs/Pot rather than just search out high pot sizes because I know I can beat people who play too loose preflop and because on average those same players put in more bets postflop and even if they don’t they still can be outplayed.

I do also factor in Pot Size and look at it in conjunction with VPIP. Higher pot sizes come about because of a combination of betting and/or lots of calls or raising. On subtle point is that there are certain types of tables where seat selection becomes important. These can be the ones where there are a few players ‘giving action’. You want position on the guys giving action.

For example, if i find a table with 1-2 fish sitting (ideally) next to each other and i get good position on them then i have no problem with the rest of the players being tight (tight doesnt always imply good btw).

Table Shopping?
Q: Do you continue to shop for tables and move to better ones while you are playing?

Yes, I table shop whilst playing whenever tables start to get tight. If Im sitting at 4 tables with 30%+VPIP and a decent pot size Im probably pretty happy and shop less cos i shop less when well seated. The tighter the games are the more I shop. I check the lobby periodically because sometimes you gotta be opportunistic in getting a new table and seat. For example, it plays to be aware of when new tables start….the first minutes of a new table can be very profitable if full of action monkeys, especially if you aint scared of shorthanded play which if you play 6max you shouldnt be.

Note that table shopping does tend to distract you from the tables you are currently playing which may affect reads so don’t overdo it. From a practical point of view you may just want to flick back to the lobby and take a few seconds to see if there are any really juicy tables with open seats or no wait list.it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds to do this and shouldnt hold up play too much.

Waitlists and Other Considerations
Q: but Ozi, wait lists suck and often make it hard to change seats/tables. What gives?
True, Waitlists can be a blocker to the avid table selector. Remember, you came to play poker and if you are actually good at it then you want table time. Also NL is a pretty popular game...at lower limits there is a plethora of games available so if you cant get a seat change to take advantage of fish and therefore figure your current seat isnt that good...then leave and find another table (or get on waitlists and leave your current seat when you get a better one).

If for some reason you are not happy with your seat at a table or the table itself then you should weigh up the pros and cons of changing. It may well be that you wont be able to get back on this table or that no other tables are much better and you would be better off continuing to play your current tables if you think you can profit at the table or staying has other +EV (eg clearing bonus).

Also get to know how the waitlists work on the site you are playing. Eg at Stars where you individually select each table you know the 7 ppl in front of you want to play THAT table but on ipoker people can easily waitlist all tables of a given type so all of a sudden a wait list of 7 doesnt seem quite so long as people routinely dont accept table join invitations when they are on the waitlist for every table.

Table Selection: Some finer points
Here are some things that I tend to do (much of this is a rehash of what ive already said in this post), and that I do more often when Im not totally happy with my current tables/seats
- if I want to 4 table I try and at least make sure ive got 2-3 tables where Im dealt in at all times but if Im playing my max number of tables then I am prepared to rotate out my worst table with a new table that appears better. If a table clearly sucks then it is often better to go to a new if somewhat unknown table as long as the lobby stats don’t obviously indicate it sucks.
- Sometimes you just have to suck it up and realize that it is also okay to not play your full quota of tables, especially if they are tight tables and require more reads etc to squeak out a winning session
- further to this, in NL when big pots matter there are sometimes cases when it really pays dividends in paying careful attention to the 'live one' because as bad as his stats might be....if you can identify tells or leaks that his stats dont show (eg betsizing etc) then you can have a better chance to stack him which you wouldnt if you were playing alot of tables and so dont have a read that means you make a bad and costly play against a guy who you know is going to be busto soon
- I'll get on waiting lists even if Im not sure Ill take a seat (even if you only single table you can do this and if a seat comes up that you like you take it and sit out until you finish your orbit or whatever on the current table…remember you can usually sit out for like 3 orbits before you get booted)
- When a seat at a table comes available I assess it to see if it looks better than my current tables (this includes looking at what the lobby NOW says for the table plus who is at the table)
- If all table have big waiting lists…be prepared to start a new table (and if you don’t like playing really shorthanded then sitout)…and wait for it to fill with guppies etc
- Its better to get on tables with short waitlists or no waitlists at all.....maybe its obvious but if you think about it, what sort of player joins wait lists and why do they do it as opposed to starting a new table?
-
Tip: One observation I’ve made is that whenever you see all tables for a given limit with big waiting lists this may well mean that the games are about to get tough…especially if the lobby shows they are juicy right now. This doesn’t mean you should quit or leave but if you are about to start a session you may find that it will take ages to get a seat, you often wont have much of a choice as to which seat you get and as such perhaps you should look at a different (in my case lower) limit or even a different site.


Seat Selection: The basics

Its widely believed that you generally want loose fish, lags and maniacs to your right (yes, there is a counterargument for having a true maniac to your direct left) and tighties to your left. I basically agree with this. A quick google search such as “table selection holdem” should be all that it takes to find a few decent articles and guides to table selection. I will however expand on all of this in this post with my thoughts on the subject.


PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT EVEN THOUGH I PUT TABLE SELECTION STUFF FIRST DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS MORE IMPORTANT. SEAT SELECTION IS PROBABLY MORE IMPORTANT BUT LOGICALLY YOU HAVE TO FIND TABLES BEFORE YOU FIND SEATS.

So, googling “seat selection holdem” should give some references that are better than what I can give so this section will be short but Ill expand on seat selection with practical examples as per below. I hope the examples are useful and relevant.

Anywho, in a nutshell, I want tighties to my left and fish, calling stations, lags, maniacs and loosies to my right. I focus more on getting position to the right of the above mentioned players than I do on getting tags in a position where I can steal my blinds because Im more likely to be playing most of my hands against the fish, lags and maniacs and when I playing Im often looking to isolate and exploit them.

Seat selection is a matter of balance and compromise. I like my targets sitting next to each other and to my right but sometimes youll have 2 bad players (but they could be bad for different reasons) at opposite ends of the table or bad players sprinkled all over the table. In such cases it may well be that there are no perfect seats but no bad seats so you just sit and play solid poker for the situation.

My personal preference is that if I cant get perfect position on a player or group of players then I at least want to be in the same half of the table as them so Ill have position on them for a reasonable number of hands. Eg I generally prefer to not have a LAG in the 3 seats to my left (or for 6max in the 2 seats to my left) if I can help it.

Ive been asked “Especially getting the right seats. With the waiting lines sometimes seen, how do you get the right seat? I hate when I end up with the TAGs to the right of me and LAGs to the left.”. My response would be to first ask you to think about how you came to be in that spot. Did players change and now your position blows or did you just choose poorly? In anycase, sometimes you can’t do much about it but at least try and not put yourself in tough spot in the first place. When faced with a bad situation, if the position is bad enough that it appears to be unprofitable then get up and leave the table, perhaps getting back on the waitlist to get a better seat. If you find that you have a ****e seat but wont leave because you dont want to leave the table because you are down then you, my friend, are tilting. One nugget of advice here is to consider fish to be part of a school....it doesnt matter if one gets the better of you cos the school is big and if you are decent you'll get your fill anyway. Even bad players get lucky...it is what keeps alot of them coming reloading so if a fish pwns you just pretend its a loan that his buddy will pay you back tomorrow.


Seat Selection: Some finer points
- Not all sites allow sorting or give all the data so you just gotta make do (eg party didnt give VPIP last time i checked)
- When you look at tables in a lobby, understand that just because 2 tables have almost identical VPIP/Potsize does NOT mean that they are equal......it all depends on the makeup of the players at the table. (example below)
- Remember, don’t be took picky if all the tables and seats are good … when the action is there, even minimal table/seat selection should still put you in a +EV position
- Obviously, at certain sites you are limited in what you can do in terms of table and seat selection (eg if you cant datamine, cant run a hud or lobby doesn’t give you much information…..so sometimes you gotta do the best you can which may mean that you play an orbit or two and try and pick up signals that your seat or table sucks such as “no cold calls”, few SDs, few limped/community pots. At some sites you cant easily see stats on players with your hud until you are dealt in....in such case it should be routine to play an orbit or two and if the table blows it is time to exit stage left.


Seat Selection: Examples

The following is some real life examples that I gathered from fulltilt. Identifies hidden to protect the innocent. For the purposes of these examples Ive basically used stats as a guide…reads would obviously be great to have and should also be used when selecting tables LDO.

The HUD stats you see are
VPIP PFR AggressionFactor NumberOfHands
CbetFlop Fold2FlopCbet AttemptToSteal CheckRaise
3Bet Fold to 3Bet W2SD W$SD

The shadings on the tables are
Green = Best Seats
Orange = Reasonable/Mediocre Seats
Red = Worst Seats



Note:
1. As per standard seat numbering, Seat number one is the the one directly to the left of the dealer
2. The colour rings represent my preffered seating. Green is a seat i would basically take, Orange is anything from okay to meh and Red probably means i wouldnt take that seat.



Walstone: The obvious target here is the 45/35/2.3 in Seat 5. He appears to have doubled up and whilst the sample size is relatively small it does tell us that he is playing almost 1/2 his hands with preflop and postflop bets and raises. We can also see that he has the ability to checkraise (the last number in yellow on 2nd row is says he has a CR% of 17). Im really not a fan of reading too much into small samples for stuff like cbet/fold2cbet/ 3betPF/ fold to 3bet preflop BUT it doesnt hurt to note that his W2SD is <20 which could be interpreted to mean that this guy likes to make moves and be aggressive but is NOT necessarily going to be a total donk and get to SD without a hand.

The other less obvious things to gleam from this table is that the 31/2 fguy in seat 6 is passive and shortstacked. He might just be being passive right now because seat5 is playing really aggresively but a shorrtstack makes it more probably that he is just a fish or nitfish. The Other 3 players at the table seem to be not that good either and are probably just playing what they think is an ABC game and are probably waiting to get a hand to stack Seat5.

Anyway, Im generally happy sitting within a 1/2 table of a lagtard and generally i dont like to have then in the couple of seats to my right and my table colouring reflects that.

Mayfair: Lets ignore the fact that Seat 1 isnt sitting out (which is probably why seat 2 just got vacated). and has a decent stack and make him our target. Its only a matter of time before he loses his money. Any seat at this table is going to be profitable, particularly if the other players arent going to mess with hero's plan to get the maniac headsup. I usually dont like to let a crazy have position on me but at the extremes i can make an exception . Also note that if we take seat 5 we also have to deal with a non-fullstack in seat 6 who is probably going to get in our way more than we would like making it not a great spot. If there were a seat i wouldnt take here it would be seat5.

Now, suppose seat1 left....i'd still take seat 1 or 2 anyway because of seat 6. One other thing that is worth being able to observe is that Seats 3 and 4 look to be decent tags and probably have been doing a decent job of turning the maniac into sushi. This makes seat5 look worse because if you sit youll find that the pot is going to already be raised or 3bet by the time its your turn to act.


Now, you probably wont agree with all my shadings, that’s okay, no need to be a total nit. Its not an exact science and you may prefer different seats based on how comfortable you are playing against certain players. I tend to do most of my selections based on VPIP/PFR/TotalAggro combinations.

You’ll probably note that on some tables there is lots of green and orange. I hope its clear as to why there are more potentially good seats on some tables than others. I wont comment on all my selections so if I don’t I hope it is obvious.

Its also worth noting that the shadings are for that table only. It is possible that a mediocre seat on Table A is better than the best seat on table B.



Summary
Always assess a table based on its merits. If you think that you have a table worked out and can beat it then that doesn’t mean you should leave just because your perfect seat is now just reasonable.

So, I hope you’ve gotten something out of this from a practical point of view. You should now be better equiped to logical thought process no matter what tables/seats are available.

Now it is you turn…go to the following post and tell me what tables and seats you would take and WHY. There should be something for 6maxers and fullringers alike.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69...7/#post7740740

well, if you got this far reading this post then youve demonstrated more than enough patience to do decent selection.


OziBattler

First

tl:dr will read later, looks interesting though.

tl;dr, ldo

I admit I often just fire up some tables with lots of plrs/flop and have a go. Definitely going to be trying some of your suggestions.

Great post, and um...long.

very good, thanks!

Thanks a lot for this.

Table selection newbie question: how do you determine stats before joining a table? I play on stars and use HEM. I join tables and see what's going on when the hud comes up after I've actually played a hand. Don't use buddy list. What is the best way to look for tables?

There's a lot of great stuff in there for everyone. I'll amend with a few "seat selection light" tips for when there is no data mining (so: no HUD on tables you're not sitting on):
(1) If I have a choice of seats, I'll sit to the right of the biggest stack. This goes on the general principle that money flow clockwise in Holdem, and I want to sit downstream from the biggest wave.
(2) You mention this, but I want to emphasize: when a table starts sucking, just leave. If all other 5 seats are 18/15/3 nits, just get out. If you are 250 BB deep and the good LAG to your left is too, and he starts 3-betting half your iso-raises: do NOT try to play back with 4-bets, just leave. Yes he's messing with you, but there's not a thing you can do about it but leaving.
(3) Seeing "a lot" consistently spelled as "alot" tilts me hard.

Now on to small stakes hmmm

My question is you do not have a choice of seats. You go on a waiting list and wait till you are next and get the seat that is open. You do not have an option of seat changes just back to the bottom of the list

on stars HEM mines a single hand if you are observing so youll get stats appearing that way. i typically sort by VPIP at stars.

where is the Q?

you dont always have a choice of seats and yes i have been known to refuse a seat and get back on a list. in such spots im usually on multiple lists so i can just refuse a bad seat at table X and take a better seat on table Y when it appears.

so which brave soul is going to be the first to actually attempt to grunch the examples in the related posted thread?

Im going to print this out and read it.

Great article, thanks!

Would you mind cross-posting this in Micro Full Ring?

OK I did it to start it off.
Have a look guys, good plain real word examples.

Are full-ring tables really always that weak-tight?

Thanks. Nice detailed post, I'm going to read this thorughly l8er.

it took me a while to realise how much the seat to your direct left matters to w.r.t floaters/light 3bettors.

hi, we probably dont want too many crossposts but it might be worth getting a uNL mod to move it there (I cant out of forum) if you guys are finished with it here. Of course, if you post over there and link to here then that will work too.

i do somewhat agree with this and admit that i dont really cover much NL strategy in the post - it is long enough as it is - but yes, there are certain ppl who it is good to ahve a good seat on to float.

Further to this though, the guys who i float are usually not my main targets at my table (many bad players cant fold when they should because they are bad which is exactly why i want to play them) because they are usually tight and aggressive, capable of cbetting and also have a fold button. In a 6max game i dont really mind if i have this guy is a few seats to my right. i dont need perfect position on him to float

Also whilst having good position to float on a particular had is obv good i just dont think its going to happen often enough though to make it something i consider when seat selecting.

i think now might be a good time to just get it shifted.

tl;dr

To be honest .. I think table / seat selection is a waste of time at micro limits. There are donks everywhere and it's not like you will play with the same people for hours. 30 minutes in, 4 of the 5 villains are gone and there are other people sitting in their seat.

Starting at 100NL I think that table / seat selection becomes more and more important as you will be playing with the regulars on a frequent basis. You just don't play with regulars at 50 NL.

fair enough, your entitled to your opinion but personally i know I get an edge by doing table and seat selection and that, as per the post, can be as simple as just taking a few seconds to assess before sitting. Im absolutely sure that if all i do is a little table selection and a little seat selection that im going to have an edge against some random who just joins the first available seat. edge = $ = happy ozi.

also table and seat selection also includes LEAVING when after 30mins the table has changed and your seat is no longer good.

fwiw ive been playing NL50 6max at ipoker and I do see a lot of people with taglike stats so even though there are alot of bad players there are also people there who can make life difficult.

Cheers Ozi, happy holidays buddy.

ty sir. feel free to comment on the content. would be good to hear your opinion.

(to everyone else, this got moved here rather than x-posting. hope u find it useful.)

Great post! I will definitely start to pay more attention to seat selection, only focused on table selection so far.

+1!!!

Anyways, nice post! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this extremely important subject. Even though the uNL games are very fishy table selection can still provide a lot of +EV.

This is gold for you guys.
I have often said how important this stuff is but this post nails it superbly.

For anyone in the TL;DR camp, well you just saved 10 minutes of your day and lost countless months of poker progress.
For anyone in the "LOL this is micros" camp
(a) Some micro players suck worse than others - what's hard to understand about that?
(b) OK, yes it becomes more important as you move up than at uNL. Fair enough but do you want to move up then try to learn skills like this on top of every thing else? How about learn them now.

The only thing I'd put more emphasis on is starting tables. Honestly at FR virtually no regs want to sit HU, even those who do wont sit with anyone they consider half decent. Therefore you get 7 fish at the table, then when you check the lobby you see this great table with 40% VPIP and 7 waitlist but then you realise its the one you started.

Another thing I'd emphasize is reviewing your table after about 45 minutes or so. Rarely does a table at 25nl remain with a 30%+ VPIP and normally has dropped into the 15% range, meaning it is time to move on. If I'm at the max tables I can manage, I just simply take a break and shut them all down unless there is an uber-fish or two playing who are reloading. After 45 minutes, they are usually depleted, though.

For NLFR, the other criteria is stack size. You don't want a bunch of short stackers and over time, your table can crumble from having 6 full stackers to two.

100% agree.

There is a definite life cycle of most tables -

START
(1) Player starts table
(2) Fish Fill table
(3) 40% VPIP 7 deep wait list
(4) 30-60 minutes pass
(5) Fish bust
(6) Reg nit fest
(7) 2 regs notice and leave
(8) Rest of regs see table is short handed, crap themselves and leave
(9) Table empty
Goto START

well done sir.

Havent read will in a sec.

I will only add that everyone appreciates when such an effort is put into a thread.

On topic.

The closer to a spewtards left on a table the better.

yep, i totally agree with this. learning to play shorthanded and starting tables is something definitely worth doing.

this. periodically reviewing ones table, dumping it if it blows and finding a better one REGARDLESS OF WHETHER WE ARE UP OR DOWN is important.

actually i dont mind playing at a table of people who buyin for the default of 60BB. such a table is usually awesome cos all the good players will buyin full so you know these guys are donks. i also like busting shortstack. i play 6max and what i see is loads of shortstackers who arent playing a SS strategy who eventually spaz out with A high or 3rd pair on a wet board. i dont know how many people you get playing 9/7 shortstack in full ring but they dont exist in 6max. shipit.