Poker Perambulation

In the casinos, the house will normally try to seat you at their choice of tables. In the online world, the choice is all in your hands. Sites tend toward reputations. But, all of them can and do provide an unusual table.

You will often see more than one seat available. If you observe the table for a bit, you might see that one is far better than the other. In flop games that is particularly true but it also has some benefit in the ante games that vary the leading hand based on the exposed cards. It is still nice to be behind the loose cannon at least part of the time.

Different sites provide different amounts of information. All seem to give average hand values. If you are very comfortable with your game you might seek the action table. If you aren’t as comfortable with your game, you might want to hit the less aggressive table. Don’t take the average hand value as gospel. There may have been an unusual happening with overly large or small pots spiking the value.

The number of people seeing a flop or calling the door is a bit more reliable. Really tight tables aren’t that frequent but they do happen. Thieves will love such a table and the tight aggressive will see that it is less likely he’ll get paid off on his good hands. If you are seeing more multi-way pots, you’ll win more on your good hands.

The only way to really know is to observe for a bit. This is especially true in the single game setting. With my current favorite, HORSE, players bring a mix of skill and comfort to the various games. Original opinions watch one game can be skewed; but, it is still useful. This is a time you may want to pop up more than one table – even if you are a single table player. If the games you like are all full, you may get yourself on several waiting lists. Don’t remove yourself from the one you think juicier; you can always move to that game when it opens up.

Too many of us just want to get a seat – any seat. I’ll admit to that at times. I am a single table player but have multiple monitors. I do occasionally throw another game or two on the other monitor. As a fairly tight-aggressive, I am sitting and waiting a lot. It reduces the boredom to glance at the other table’s play. You just might see it get some juicy players sitting there that could make a table move profitable.

As the limits increase, seat selection is more important. It the cheaper seats, you’re unlikely to find that many good players. As the stakes go up, so does the caliber of play; but, you can still find juicer tables with some extra effort.

Particularly watch raising frequency. If there are a larger mix of those with a raise-or-fold mentality, you’re going to get fewer freerolls with your big blind. That adds to your cost of play. Tables with limpers give you and extra hands to play.

Some tables have little or no chatting going on. Others will have multiple people yelling about a hand, suckout, bad beat that wasn’t, or whatever. This happens all too often – right, Linda? — and tends to tighten a table and reduce its value. Happy tables are more profitable. It helps when you sit to say hi to folks and compliment hands – regardless of brilliance. Nothing wrong with throwing a bone to a luck-box. Don’t get carried away though. Some folks just can’t see a hand end without throwing out NH on N1 or whatever. Be more selective with the hope it means more or keeps the fish swimming in your waters. If someone gets all over some fish, you can change it around with a comment that maybe his betting style or image caused the player to think it a good call; throw it back in his court. You can help maintain or change the worth of a table.

When we invest in a table, we can use knowledge along with chips to improve our situation without any added cost and with value added.

ADDENDUM:
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The forum is talking about the $5/month charge for inactive accounts that Party has instituted. Another thread talks about the problem for Canadians with the withdrawal of Neteller from their market. If you have suggestions on either topic, weigh in
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This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 6:10 am and is filed under Ring Play. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.