Your tips for best table selection

Here's mine. I use Full Tilt's color coding notes option to quickly note opp's vpip after 60 - 75 HH's. vpip > 40 is orange (think hot), vpip > 30 is red, vpip's ~ 25 pink, vpip's in teens purple and vpips in single digits are icy cold blue. Full Tilt displays the color codes next to SN's in the lobby as you're looking at tables. So I can include that info when scanning for tables. A red/orange triangle by an SN at a table means two things:

1. I have some significant reads/HH's on at least one player at the table
2. There is a known feesh sitting at the table.

When I join, I also learn:

3. Do I have good position on the feesh?

All before I play a single hand and even well before any HUD stats have popped up.

What are your favorite ways to table select? What table vpip's are you looking for? What avg pot sizes? What stack sizes for players at the table? When do you get up and leave a table, and why?

Give some suggestions. I have a couple more, but you go first.

Watch Jyms' video on table selection.

Best advice I got was from Fnord, which was every 10 minutes close your worst table. Lots of people practise table selection when starting up tables, but dont re-evaluate as they go. Often good tables turn bad but people stay on them anyway.

I look for stacks between 50 and 100bb. These players started with a 100bb (likely) and have lost some of their stack, and aren't reloading, making it less likely they are regs and more likely that they are feeshus.

I really like Robb's idea of using the color coding system. I might implement that. ty!

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Best advice I got was from Fnord, which was every 10 minutes close your worst table.

It's good advice. I use more 15 - 20 minutes, but it's good technique for sure.

Robb's Tip #2:
Find feesh. Ctrl + F "Find Player". Sit in on as many of the feesh's tables as possible.

I tried Robb's thing for color coding villains, HIGHLY recommend it for anyone playing on FTP. Its pretty sweet being able to tell without having to look around at HUD stats to see if you have position on the fish, OOP on the LAG, etc.

Good advice, my addition is to look for tables (5NL) where people are trash talking each other, usually their not paying attention/are donks.

Robb's Tip #3:

I sort tables based on avg pot size, then scan down the list for high "see the flop" percentage. When I click on the table, I have the table's "stack size" column sorted from least to greatest. I'm looking for 4 nearly full stacks and/or 5 stacks of 60BB or more.

Generally, I can find enough tables with >30 vpip, >3 full stacks and with avg pot size >20BB so that I can happily multitable 5-6.

Of course, as per Fnord's advice relayed by BJ, I also wash/rinse/repeat every 20 - 30 minutes at least.

Just click on any one of the tables in the bottom window

/thread

i felt that searching avg pot first was a bit of a misnomer unless you like laggy players.

high vpip and low-ish avg pot is where you find your loose/passives.....the easiest of the feesh. even at that, you need to make sure you get a good seat as said table. after an orbit or two, you need to re-evaluate your seat.

good seats on bad tables > bad seats on good tables.

ps.. i 2nd watching jyms' vid. must see if you have this question and/or dont use selection at all.

1. sit at empty tables
2. wait
3. fish sit down
4. ?????
5. profit!

Originally Posted by amir is cool

1. sit at empty tables
2. wait
3. fish sit down
4. ?????
5. profit!

QUAKELIVE4ROLLZ?!?

I'm starting deep stack ante tables at FT lately with 100bbs. fish come in and the beauty of the ante's is that when you steal the blinds as much as I do there worth double when the table fills up with passive fish.

Open 4 tables with decent stats (big pots, fewer hands per hour, etc.)

Get on waiting list for the best tables with usually 3 or 4 waiting. As soon as one of the good tables opens dump the worst table. Rinse repeat.

I do need to re eval every 20 min or so. I prob stay a many tables too long.

so, this is an 'in theory' daven approach to table selection.
Table selection is not the same as fish hunting, unless it is.

my notes are also colour coded.
Red are the good players, typically the 2-4/3-6/5-10 regs that drop down sometimes when there aren't good games running higher, i think I grant 'red status' to only 3 regs at my stakes.
Green is the default and i leave the notes that way until I develop reads that mean I want to always sit with the player
Purple means dead money.

Cool thing about this approach is that I can see at a glance in the lobby whether a table is reg-filled (green), scary (red), or full-o-fish.
So, I typically sort the tables by pot-size and look through the top-ten and decide which i want to wait-list/join. Then I go through the tables, waitlisting those I want to join. Typically this is about purple notes, deep unknowns, or some other combo of deepness vs unknowns and reg:unknown ratios.

Also, players with 70-95bb and unknown are typically fish.

What I am trying to do right now is assess table conditions every time it's my turn to post a blind, and leave if I should. Good reasons to leave include: out-of-position vs players where that is causing problems, >5 shortstacks (<30bb) and nothing to balance that out, a table that I know is a lot stronger than is typical for the stakes (this unfortunately applies at some times of day, so i just deal with it).

relative position vs maniacs and LAGs definitely plays a huge role.
when i find an uber-fish at a table I typically Ctrl-f and waitlist any other tables that are in my stakes comfort range (I typically won't bother if they're sitting above 2-4).

Other times
occasionally/often (matter of perception) I simply join the tables with empty seats or start my own until I'm running enough. Then I just go-for-coma.

I got table averages VPIP% on top of my tables. Goes red when it drops below 25% green above. Usually bail if it stays >25%.

Originally Posted by WeaselT

I got table averages VPIP% on top of my tables. Goes red when it drops below 25% green above. Usually bail if it stays >25%.

how do u do that?

Don't judge stats by the table for table selection. Having one loose fully stacked fish on a table full of nits will have a tight table stat like 20vpip. If the fish is on the right you will be able to isolate and raise at will vs the fish. Table selection is not about the table itself but the position of certain players and stacks.

Don't judge stats by the table for table selection. Having one loose fully stacked fish on a table full of nits will have a tight table stat like 20vpip. If the fish is on the right you will be able to isolate and raise at will vs the fish. Table selection is not about the table itself but the position of certain players and stacks.

Tru Tru, and I also do all of the above stuff when selecting. BUT, im at 10NL 6m so its ez to find fishier tables. No point trying to stack 1 fish when I can find a table with 5. Higher up obviously fishing is tougher.
(oh and HUD->new group->show: table averages: show on table->stats: VPIP)

Thanks for starting this thread Robb, this is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.

I play a lot of tables at a time so this is a tricky one for me. I have been searching for the best way to table select without having to spend so much time doing so that my play worsens with all the multi-tasking.

What I currently do is filter tables by pot size and sit down at the top 3 tables. Wait for a full minute, then sit down at the top 3 again.. and repeat this until I get the desired amount of tables.

Every 15 minutes or so I spend a round looking at the 3 players to my right. If at least 2 of them have fishy stats I stay on the table. If 2 look like regs or nits, I sit out next bb. (unless I have like 1000 hands on them and can stay and exploit or am 200+ bbs deep)

Pot size overall seems to be the best indicator of showdown monkeys, fish, and players that overall like to splash it around.. which is what we seek.

I steadily replace these tables with fresh ones as I go.

My hourly rate this month was about $22/hr at 25NL doing this and I ran really bad the last week of the month.

Originally Posted by daven

Also, players with 70-95bb and unknown are typically fish.

This is pure gold.

Originally Posted by jyms

Don't judge stats by the table for table selection. Having one loose fully stacked fish on a table full of nits will have a tight table stat like 20vpip. If the fish is on the right you will be able to isolate and raise at will vs the fish. Table selection is not about the table itself but the position of certain players and stacks.

I was implementing Fnord's suggested "close your worst table every ___ minutes" plan the other night and kept eyeballing this vpip = 22 table. Trouble was, there was a 40/30 feesh on my right, and the rest of the table willing to let me isolate him from UTG (seriously, they were that nitty). I think it was my most profitable table all year.

I had another table that night that I finally ditched despite vpip ~ 33, two seriously agro 35/28 types to my left, with a couple TAGG's on my right. If the guys on my right weren't any good, I might've stayed. But the way the table was configured, I couldn't find a way to get into a hand with the feesh unless I was oop.