In a full ring game would you prefer to have position on a fish, but have a tough player have position on you, or vice versa, where we have position on a strong player but OOP against the spot at the table?

How "strong" is the "strong" player? Strong enough to 3bet our isos with any 2 and generally be a pain in the ass? Or do you mean a regular TAG, who *may* try that once in 8 hours and fold the rest of the time unless he has it?

What kind of fish is the fish? Maniac? Passive station?

This is a pretty dumb question imo.

for me personally, I'd take being in position on the strong player because I don't like folding very much and especially to someone who is seemingly capable.

When you get a choice, the more aggressive the player, the more I want position.

However, I don't know what you mean by "tough".

Tough isn't the right word, but its generally more important to have players that raise and bet a lot to your right, imo.

There are advantages to having this type of player to your direct left, as you have relative position on the rest of the table after they raise/bet. This is trickier with a big stack, but its useful if you're playing a shorter stack (75-100 bb) when you can shove over top of a raise and 5 calls.

It's an interesting question but needs way more context.

Type of fish and type of tough player both matter. I want to be after a loose/aggressive fish but against a real maniac I would rather be right before him. Even if they are fairly good I don't much care where a very tight player sits, I'm just avoiding pots with them. Relative skill levels matter. If the tough player is a very good tag but the fish is only a run of the mill over loose/passive fish I'm more worried about the TAG. If the fish is a super stationary whale I'll take a very good player behind me. Stack sizes matter. Short there is going to be a lot of all in preflop/flop and position matters less in general. The deeper we are the more I'm concerned about the tough player then the fish.

It's the opposite. I want strong players on my right, and weak players on my left.

You have to be able to play all of the people at the table, not just the "spot" (unless he's a whale lag).

For me, seat position revolves 100% around deepstacked difficult players (especially ones who are loose preflop and in a lot of pots plus aggressive and non-ABC). Sitting OOP to them is simply not going to be profitable, regardless of how many fish we have at the table. So I do my best to sit in position on them, or at the very least get across the table from them.

If the deeper stacked players are totally face up ABC non-difficult, I don't mind sitting OOP to them. If the tricky difficult players are shortstacked, I don't mind sitting OOP to them. And in those cases, then I could more sit in good relative position to the fish.

ETA: The exception is the super aggro loose maniac who is raising big with every hand preflop, in which case having him to our immediate left is fine (for playing fairly tight and setting up limp/reraises with our big hands).

GimoG

I like the 3 seat, then 7 seat, and sometimes if I'm feeling social, the 10 seat (so I can chat with / distract the dealer)

Have position on the tough/aggressive player and be OOP against the fish. The fish is easy to handle by value betting. How we play against the tough dude is self-evident.

But these issues are small potatoes in comparison of how we handle the FLOPS. Specifically; how many "outs" we can find/invent in order to take the pot away from opponent or to lure him by special sophisticated setup plays on calling us when we got strong+/big and nut hands. No matter how good or expert a player is he still needs to have a hand and be able to get called when needs to be called. That's the secret of making money.

same, but any 7-9 is fine w/ shuffler on that side as i'm a fold and glide pro. on the other side i just aim for the muck and hope it hits right and makes the "tschh" sound while perfectly being absorbed into the pile

Here is something I've noticed. When a new game spreads, new/inexperienced players will go straight for seats 4, 5 & 6.

have position on the tough player, not as worried about the fish

I find "favorite seat" ideas to be in the same vain as "favorite hand" ideas. Many people have them and they're usually focused on the wrong things





Pro tip: if you're called in a new game, hang back a little to see where a few people sit and then choose accordingly. Don't just run for your "favorite seat"

Simple, position on the good players. Money tends to flow left in NLHE, good players tend to buy in full and eventually get deep. Fish tend to buy in short and rarely are deep stacked for long periods.

Just don't be a jerk about it. At Parx it isn't uncommon for new 10/10 games and other medium-high stakes games to fail because everybody hung back waiting to see where everybody else was going to sit.

If that sort of situation comes up where you play it's better to claim a seat right off by putting your comp card down or other marker without getting setup and then switch when other people start sitting.

how about if a seat at a full table opens to your left - do you move there to have position on the new unknown player when he arrives

Look guys, the whole seat hopping thing, it's just another nail in the coffin of live poker. Try not to do it often if you are a regular grinder in your room or at the very least try not to be obvious about it**

If you are a rec and play once a week then yes seat select away. To answer the op question you want position on those who vpip the most. Sometimes that means having very good players on your left. Stack depth is the next consideration but honestly I don't care if I'm 300bb deep with a 16/14/3 tag on my left, I want the 60/3/0 fish with 80bbs on my right.

**there are alot of tricks for doing this. Say you are in the 4 seat and monkey aggro whale is 5 seat. Ask for seat change button and make some comment about being squished. If 6 seat opens up, DO NOT take it. This makes seat selection look like a comfort decision and nothing more. This is what we want people to think. Wait for the 7,9, or 10 seat, which will put you in a MUCH better position anyway. Make a comment about stretching out as you are moving. Not in a ******ed pandering way. You are being sincere. Seat 5 sucks.

1) We don't want them to realize that position matters (yes most know this to a minor extent but it gets re-cemented in their minds each time a winning player does it)

2) We don't want them to feel preyed upon (really big deal and a big factor as to what has killed the higher stakes games)

I always keep an eye out for who is coming over to the table, and as soon as I identify who it is (my room is reg filled), I make my decision as to whether to move into that seat or not before they even get to the table (I'm also typically sitting with the seat change button so I can just slide over quickly and quietly).

GcluelessseatchangenoobG

Moving seats has little to do with being a nail in coffin for poker. Poker is drying up for a multitude of reasons, not seat changes.

As long as your not a doofus, you can seat change and nobody but regs will understand why. Unless some dildo says "aw, you want position on x".

That's the real issue, not somebody moving their seat, it's so easy to say "this seat's luck is about to run out" or "this seat is unlucky" or "I hate sitting here, any seat looks better".

Come on, you're poker players.

I was specifically referencing high stakes games, and things like snap seat changing head phones + hoodie wearing tools certainly killed those games. It was one (of many) nails in the coffin for high stakes games.

I saw it happen with my own eyes over the last 5 years in Florida.

DGAF, one of the only high stakes players left on these forums (and one of the goat), agrees. That's enough for me.

It isn't even close as long as you're a good player in your own right. Fish on my right-best player in the room on my left is far preferred, particularly if the best player respects my ranges on some level. Even if not, it won't be terribly difficult to adjust to Preflop aggression and frankly, postflop aggression opportunities will be somewhat limited for the crusher in late hand spots when there's a station and a good player in front of him.

Thanks for responses. After writing the question, I realized how vague it was, and depended on a lot of variables. I was in this spot, when I was joining a 7 handed table, and noticed two seats, one with a fish, and another with a tough player. Perhaps a better version of this question in a vacuum would be something like this...

Seat 1: 0bb/100
Seat 2: -5bb/100
Seat 3: Open
Seat 4: +5bb/100
Seat 5: 0bb/100
Seat 6 +5bb/100
Seat 7: Open
Seat 8: -5bb/100
Seat 9: 0bb/100

Where do you think you would make the most money? With position on the winning player? Or position on the losing player? I'm not great at identifying tendencies of players etc. But I can quickly identify when I sit down at a LLSNL game who is going to lose their stack eventually, and who is "decent". A similar spot did pop up for me when I posted this question, so I was jw.

It's kind of a tough question to answer imo, but actually pretty important, no?

Edit: Also a tough question to ask, because I understand how it depends on so many things...

If a player is raising every single hand, I'd much rather be on his right than his left. Being on the left of such a player in a full ring game is terrible.

Whatever seat you choose, sit in both of them & swap them out if need be, so that you have the most comfortable of the 2 seats.