very random thread...just posting stuff related to game selection

1.) Does the ability to game select mean it's impossible to know how truly good a player is?

I assume that even the best players have to game select sometimes, excluding perhaps only a handful of the "best of the best."

The ability to avoid competition seems unique to poker as a game and profession.

2.) Can a person be "bad" or merely "average" in poker and yet make a very good living merely through game selection?

1) no unless they only play fish/whales exclusively.
2) yes

Not bad but average definitely.

I think RakeBack deal is also important if you are only bad or average.

answer to 2 is yes.

I spent the last 4years in vegas gamboolin. There is a dude there who is well known for his bum hunting prowess. He is not highly skilled and is not feared at the table. His win rate is quite good and he knocks back a solid income year in and year out.

I think the answer to both questions is yes. Game selection basically IS poker. You make money by playing worse players. (Or by getting lucky when you play better ones).
Some professional boxers have a great talent for avoiding the people who would beat them.

Now begs the question: what filters are we using for table selection ?

Agree and if player A is technically weaker than player B but has superior game selection and therefore makes more money, then player A is more successful at poker.

500NL zoom probably has some of the toughest games around but if you grind it for rakeback only, you might be wasting your talents

I used to use VPIP and plyrs/flop, but then I noticed that I just ended up on long waiting lists full of nits that were chasing the same fish. Starting tables or joining short-handed tables got round that problem. But then I had a better idea:
Move to a site that doesn't have table selection.

Sites that don't have bumhunter-friendly lobbies (i.e. they have random seating) have much softer games.

The answers to some of these have changed recently. At stakes at which it's possible to make a decent living, 'game selection' is no longer really a thing, and 'holding a lobby' has become much more of a thing. Fish like to join games which are already running, and because everyone has a script now, good regs don't like to leave it to chance, so will jump on tables and play with the people who are already playing in the hope a fish sits. This is why you'll see a lot more 3-5 handed reg only games at midstakes now, whereas a couple of years ago 'table starting' meant playing HU until a fish sat.

Therefore, the second answer is also 'no' unless you're talking about live poker, where actual poker ability is significantly less important than being able to get into good games.