How Long?

[RiverQueen]

So when you go to play in the ring games/cash tables do you watch the table for a while before you sit down and if so how long do you watch and what do you watch for?

Personally, I watch to see the type of hands that are winning because I feel there is definitely what I call Table Flavour. I have noticed that certain tables there will be a lot of flushes and straights and on other tables you won't see more than about 1 or 2 in an hour. I also watch to see how the players are betting. Are they donkeys, are they tight, are they aggressive.

After watching for a bit and getting a feel then I will make a choice to sit or leave and watch another table.

[pocketjacks]

I see a lot of patterns in cards. They seem to vary from site to site as well. When I first started playing I noticed that some site were more prone to flushes, some you saw a lot of full houses. It's smart to keep notes on what patterns you see if you play a lot of different places so you remember what to expect. So it's smart to wait a few hands at least, and get a bit of a feel for the players AND the typical types of hands that come out.

[Sweetness]

Yes I have notice a lot of difference on sites. For instance the Playtech sites show a lot of flushes but Absolute Poker you very rarely catch a flush. These are the types of notes I make and when I'm going to sit at a new table at a new site quite often I will play in the play money games for a while just to get a feel (if they have play money games). Otherwise, I will watch a couple of tables at the same time to see if I notice any patterns happening.

[PokerPrincess]

Yes I agree with both of you. There definitely are patterns in different sites. In "team play", one of my team members played the board more than he did the players. His justification was that he knew what kind of hands were going to hit on the site and the strangest thing was he was usually right.

So unless he was playing against someone he knew well, he would always play the board.

I do play the board sometimes but probably not as often as I should.