Table Selection
Choosing a table can be really easy. You see a table with 5 people who are double fisting, stacks 2 – 3 times the max buy in, and not a pair of headphones in sight? Go there. Print money.
For those days when you don’t see these tables (we’ll call these days, every day) you might need a little bit more to go on.
The Basics
Generally what you are going to be doing is assessing each player and giving them a ‘score’. This score can be pretty basic and somewhat arbitrary, but it serves as a good way to rank two different tables against each other and give you a starting point for determining which one is best. I generally think of tables and the people at the tables in terms of the # of bb that I think that I can from them per hour. While this isn’t exact by any means (and it is always an overstatement) it is still better than blinding choosing tables and it is a consistent reference point to go on.
The first thing you want to do is look for anyone at the table that you know. You should immediately have a sense of what they do (limp too often, raise too much, ck/rs draws, mouth breathing station, etc.) and they should have a score in your mind.
After that you want to look for people who fit stereotypes. The drinker. The nit. The OMC. The laggy Asian. The solid grinder on his iPad. The MAWG. The MAWW. None of these needs to be perfect, but when we don’t have any information we can generalize based on the past, and then make adjustments as we gain more information.
Finally you want to assign the table a score based on other non player specific things that you see.
A large pot going down (you should watch to see what hands people turn up and how strong they are in the absolute and relative sense), loud talking, conversing about pretty much anything, watching football, racks on the floor around the table, big stacks of chips in front of more than one person, crowds of people watching the table, etc.
Scoring
So lets break down a sample scoring system that we could use to rank different tables.
The OMC: This player isn’t going to play a lot of pots. While we may be able to eek out a small profit per hand that we play with him he will not get involved in many so we will not win much from him per hour. We could give him between a 0 and a 1.
The NIT: If this player is truly a nit, the most that we are going to do is steal their blinds when we have good position on their right so we can raise the button/co with almost ATC and watch them fold too often. However, we won’t get this chance that often and the opportunity cost of playing with the nit is that there is not a loose player in his seat instead. But we shouldn’t lose much to him, so we can give him a 0 to 1.
The Solid Reg: These days there is a solid reg at almost every table. While we may play well against him and may even slightly profit against him, it will be hard to overcome the rake. In addition they will sometimes get in the middle of us and a fish at the table. They may isolate a weak player forcing us out of the pot. His very presence is bad for us and is bad for the game. I would generally give him a negative score, something around -1 to -3. The absolute size of the negative will depend on how good the reg is, how exploitable his exploitation is, how much he is capable of adjusting to you and your plays.
The MAWG: This can sometimes be the hardest group to assign a score to. Mostly because there are so many in any given poker room and they all vary in skill and exploitative tendencies. I generally give them all a 1 – 2 as a default however as most are fairly predictable in the preflop raising range and their continuing frequency/sizing.
After you have given each person at the table you can then compare tables and see which one looks the best and have at it.
Post Table Selection
After you sit down at the table, you should be carefully making a mental plan for how you are going to stack each and every person at the table. In addition you should be refining your initial assessment of the players there and the score that you gave them. As new information presents itself you should be continually making new judgements about your location and its profitability. Note: If you haven’t figured out in 1.5 hours at the table how you are going to stack each (or at least most) people there, then one of a few things has happened:
- You haven’t been paying any attention.
- You are too busy flirting with the cocktail waitress (acceptable).
- The table is full of rocks/pros who are mostly un-exploitable, so why are you even at the table?
- You lack the knowledge or the skill to exploit the weakness that you see in the players. This is fine, but it means that you need to go study up on some particular points and understand how you can make people pay for their mistakes.
Generally you should be getting up from the table at this point (if you are there to make money) as you are not doing something right and it should be corrected before you continue your session and perhaps your goal as a profitable poker player.
Once we have been at the table there are other things that we should be able to take note of that should increase or decrease the score of the table. How many stations are there? This is an easy + 1 to 4 points, as a station is (imo) the unquestioned easiest and most profitable player to play against. Keep the pot tiny until you have a value hand and then blast it. Print money and rub it on titties.
How many people are paying off with overpairs for 100bb+ stacks? Are they doing it in limped pots? Are they doing it with just 1p, or is it 2p+? Each person you can set mine against who has a 100bb+ stack should be a few more points to the score.
And any other factors that you might see that influence your overall expected win rate from the people that you are playing against.
Any by far the most important thing that you need to remember when table selecting:
Do not forget to keep evaluating your options. When you get up to go take a 2 minute walk (at least every hour) you should be reevaluating the other tables that you are in the room, the table that you are at, and if the case gets somewhat dire, don't forget that depending on your area switching rooms might be an option too.
Ultimately this will never be an exact science. But by applying a small bit of consistent logic, we can generally increase our win rate by at least 1 – 2 bb / hour every session.
Good luck.
