it is a sure thing you want a fish to your right
but what about stacks sizes?
what do you prefer, full stacks to your right?
what about to your left? and why?

my thoughts were that a player that doesn't have a full stack is
usually not such a good player, that way he
also goes all in faster, but you when he does you don't stack a full stack
?

Given that stack sizes are pretty changeable over even one or two hands I'm not sure it's a decision that matters seeing as how you could choose a seat to the left of a shortstack who doubles up while you're waiting for your blind and is then a full stack by the time you get to play. However I'd say I'd prefer to sit left a short stack as it's usually someone who's either bad or has just lost recently so you should be able to take some pots off them. Deepstack fish ftw though

Sitting to my left basically is where you want to be

Since money usually comes from your right, you want full stacks.

To your left tight shorties are fine, but tight is more important.

Just don't have the fish on your left. Yesterday I had the misfortune of that happening and got reminraised every time I opened. Couldn't hit once...

So the fish was on the right?

I guess so

I meant that he minreraised me, not that I minraised to open haha.

I'd prefer a table with only Big Stacks.
If there are some SS's on the table and they are unknown to me, I always choose a seat after Short Stacks.

I think we should be more worried about how aggressive the players after us are.

Acting behind Short Stackers is less then Optimal due to them putting you in a tough spot when they make a move.

Sitting after a Short Stacker makes you have to make a decision for your whole stack when you call their smaller stack, since you must act before other larger stacks and any of them can come over the top of you.

I would much have the Shorties act right after me so I get relative position on the rest of the larger stacks that have to react to shorty's all in.

Example, we are UTG and open raise with AJs, a bad shortie to our left goes All-In. We now get to see the rest of the table react to the All-in and base our decision on "complete" information. Now if everyone has folded we can easily make the decision to play AJs or a much wider range of hands against the short stacker and know effective stacks are capped at the level of the shortie, perhaps 20bb.

Now Look at the same situation where the UTG Raises, and MP Shortie shoves and you are in the CO with AJs. You are pinched between the desire to play your 20bb effecitve stack against the shortie, but possibly being 100bb+ effective stacks with the rest of the table. Here you would love to call the 20bb shove, but you have to worry about someone shoving over top of you behind you. You have very poor relative position when Shortie shoves.

Just something to think about when you get a shortie on your right. It is not an optimal position to play the shortie, as your relative position on his shoves is very poor.

When it comes to short stacks, I think the most critical thing you need to do, regardless of where you are sitting, is determine right away whether they are playing short stack strategy, or if they are just fish who do not alter their strategy based on their stack size. If it's the latter, then I like to act after them, but if it's the former, then I like to act immediately before them, as Drew has already pointed out.

+1

as Ryan Fee sad, 2 nitty shorties on ur left, 3 lazzy playa w 40+ VPIP = dream table

having a big fish on your right is better than having a big fish on your left, but having a big fish on your left is still better than having a nit on your left. the ideal table is you and 5 big fish, not you, 2 nits, and 3 big fish.

I always sit to the left of 40-90bb stacks because they are usually the fish. Tables are 35bb+ so there are no real ss'rs. At ongame the 5max tables have 10 slots for players so you can move around alot and I use that option all the time. I also colorcode the players that suck so I can see from the lobby what the good tables are and where I want to sit on them.

My ideal table is 2 nits to my left and the rest fish.

You can capitalize so freaking hard on nits in your blinds and on the button (when you are in the CO) you can keep the limping fish pretty much too yourself.

stealing blinds is nothing compared to massive value. wanting a nit over a fish at any seat is just stupid.

I prefer a nit OTB when im in the CO over a TAG or a fish that always calls or a maniac that always 3bets. This way I can thread the CO as if it is the BTN. Yeah, that second nit isnt really nececary. My point was that I hate tags behind me that start to notice I iso alot and then take all the play out by 3betting.

And obv, a table full of loose passive fish is great but its not realistic.

I try to sit next to like 50-90bb deep guys because like (.)etc mentions they usually are fish. It's the only information available before u start playing so you're best of sitting to the left of those guys, and see how they are playing. If they aren't fishy I usually sit out (unless someone else at the table proves to be a fish) and look for a new 50-90bb stacked player to sit next to.
It's nice to have nits (or fish ofc) to your left but I don't really choose tables depending on who's to my left.

Wouldn't playing against an entire table of fish be super variance inducing?

at microstakes there are fish all over the place, and fishcount/fishstacks pretty much dwarfs all other factors. fish lose money at a very high rate, whereas most nits are somewhere in the neighborhood of even. there's no way you can flip the seats around that makes it even worth caring about.

it's not about stealing the blinds, it's about securing you position post flop. A table full of loose passives is still great obv, but a std iso-raise strat would be subpar, you should overlimp more often and even consider open limping some part of your range in ep.

Hell no, a table full of tags is much higher variance.

yes, if you try to bluff them!

LoL. Every decent player should be adjust accordingly, and be more than happy to deal with the swings.

Or you could just move up where they respect your raises.