Factors for picking a table?

[pokergal]

I saw this in another post and wanted to know what are the major factors in picking a table. I am still a newbie and I just picked a table and went for it. What should I be looking for?

[TexasGal]

You mean there's more to picking a table than choosing the one that looks like the most fun with the friendliest people? Wouldn't fun and friendly people be more inclined to help a newbie learn?

[PokerPrincess]

Well the people at the table, if you are playing money, are looking for "fish". If you go to the table because you think they will teach you how to beat them then you are sadly mistaken. The whole purpose for them to be playing is to make money not be a teacher.

Yes you should watch a table for a while before picking it. See what kind of hands are winning, what kind of people are there, i.e. bullies, fish, etc.

If you intend to win money you better know what you are doing before you sit down. If you want to learn the go to play money tables and make notes as you play.

[TexasGal]

Good point! I didn't think of that. Why in the world would they teach me how to win their money. LOL! I just remember how kind and helpful the folks at the craps table were the first time I played. But poker and craps are nothing alike.

[pokergal]

I was thinking about that. I know if I come to table completely lost I might as well just hand over any money that I brought with me. I only recently started keeping notes. I have noticed there are a few players that frequent the same table often.

[The Professor]

Well obviously this only works with online poker as you don't get the same sort of stats offline.

When you select a table to play at - you want to try and get a seat at the most profitable table for the kind of strategy you are going to be playing.

For the Tight-Aggressive strategy that is taught in the Winning Poker Strategy Guide then we want to look at two key statistics for the table.

The first and most important is the Players per Flop %. Now we are looking here for the highest % we can find - why? - because a high percentage means that people at that table are entering hands with a wide array of marginal hands so we know that we are in good position to win good money with our better starting hands.

The other key statistic to look at is the Average Pot, and we look at this to ensure that the Players per Flop % isn't artificial in that alot of players see the flop and then just fold there - we are looking for the tables full of fish who will chase marginal cards against the odds and build up nice pots for us to win - so by looking at the average pot and ensuring that it is a decent size and in combination with a high Players per Flop % means that it is a good chance that we will get this situation.

[catanner]

I've noticed in the low limit tables (which is all I play anyways) that the high flop% tables tend to get infiltrated by sharks after a half hour or an hour. It's one reason I never autopost blinds - I always try to check the percentages of my current table compared to others before I commit another big blind. Quite often the soft table with the 60% flop percentage and a bunch of short & medium stacked fish has become a tight table with 7 sharks and a 25% flop.

But the turnover in online tables is so fast sometimes it's hard to get it right. Sometimes it's worth it to stay and let a couple of maniacs go broke before moving on.

But I'm still a novice, so what do I know.