I've been noticing a lot of comments around the topic of table selection on the forum, but only in passing ("table select better" is common advice), but what does TS mean to you?

When you enter the poker room, how do you go about choosing your table? What's the first thing you look for?

How long do you spend observing players? Are you simply looking for fish you recognize, or avoiding tough regs?

I tend to just take the first seat that opens if there's a list going. If there's a list, do you think you end up waiting longer if you request a specific table? I'm usually pretty eager to get started. So, yeah, right now I'm not being selective because I'm afraid it will cut into my playing time. That's probably the wrong mindset to have. I have an idea what type of players I want at my ideal table but I'm not sure I can always walk into the room and divine which table will play best.

Any advice is much depreciated, thanks.

Just get seated at your assigned table and then constantly evaluate your table with the other tables. If your table looks like it is full of nitty tight nutpeddlers without any loose payoff monkey fish, while another table looks the opposite, request a table change button and they'll seat you at the other table when a seat becomes open.

Things I consider:

Number of chips on table
Seat avail with respect to big stacks
Tough regs...often at best table, often make it the worst, too
Small winners (nut peddlers) who are good at bumhunting
known regs who like to gamble.
I also really like tables with tighties to left. Love them.
Dealer I want to bang

What I look for in a table when open seating is available in order:

- Table with most money on it for the level I'm playing

- Open seats to the left of biggest stacks

- Table with the least <50bb stack players

- Open seats to the right of the "I watched the WSOP on ESPN once" looking people... which is flawed because sometimes nit/idiot looking people are actually sick players, but at least that's entertaining to me in an ironic sense of humor sort of way.

If I'm playing somewhere with a list or limited seating, then I just take the first seat at the game I like to play and adjust to my surroundings... this is also a better learning session, whereas in a situation with a selected seat/ideal conditions it's more an "applying what you know about playing that situation" session.

I'm also Uranus rising, so I'm out of my mind.

What I look for when "table selecting"

How many young people at the table? Not to be stereotypical, but young players are usually far better than the older crowd.

How many women are at the table? Women in general are awful (ironically, young women are more awful than old women).

Are there deep stacks at the table? I'd like to see at least everyone to have 1 buy-in of stack in front of them.

Is anyone drinking? People that are drinking (even the good players) are just looking to have fun and there for a good time. Don't piss them off.

So the perfect table is full of young deep-stacked hot drunk bitches? Sounds right.

1) Amount of booze at table
2) Amount of money at table
3) Amount of old people at table

haha, yes.

You know, I hear this stereotype all the time, and I'd just like to say, this is absolutely false where I play. At most tables I play at the female regs or semi-regs are better than most of the men.

But you live in canada.

Where I play you get seated by the floor. If there's only 1 seat then that's what you gotta take. If there's more then one, and they're all unknowns then I generally make sure I sit to the left of any big stacks or drunks.

I do sometimes have trouble seeing paint cards from the outside seats, so I tend to go for 1,10, or 4-7. I'll get new contacts eventually I swear!

I usually give it a little over one dealer change (30-45 minutes)to really feel out the table. In that time I might not see the tighter players playing too many hands, but you're definitely going to see the looser players. You'll also see how aggressive the table is in general.

Also if there's not a whole lot of money on the table I tend to leave a little quicker.