There is a lot of information about the various online poker tables that is made available to players when they login to the lobby of an Internet poker room. Some of that raw data can be quite valuable to the shrewd observer, one thinks of the pre-flop view percentage (number of players who like to stay in the hand to see the flop) or the average pot size. However, a word of caution concerning these statistics: a lot of poker rooms do not regularly update these figures instead they are cumulative over a long period of time. You might go to a table that you think is loose and features high average pots never to realize that those stats are what happened at the table historically as opposed to in the last hour.
The significance of table selection is common to both online poker and poker in your local card room, and executing this aspect of the game requires observation of the other players. It has little to do with statistics, and much to do with your past experience as a poker player. It is with experience that a good player is quickly able to identify potential donors at his table, or conversely to reach the equally important conclusion that he is the only donor in sight.
Let me explain this in more detail. There are certain tables that combine like a chemical reaction to form a favorable situation for specific players, and similarly your opponents might play in such a way together (without any collusion or underhanded intentions) that it stymies your style and renders your generally solid game ineffective. How does this happen? Surely if you are a good poker player that is always true and when you do lose it is only due to bad luck or an off day on your part. I do not believe that this is true at all.
Let’s say that you are a tight-aggressive player, a by the book type but very solid. You find yourself in a high limit poker game and to your immediate left is a maniac who likes to raise every pot. To his left is another tight-aggressive player who is a rock just like you. This type of table is very problematic for you. If you limp in you face an immediate raise from the maniac, and if you raise to isolate him you still have to deal with the player on his left, who has ideal position. Imagine that the two tight-aggressive players have equal ability and are both playing in the exact same fashion with a comparable number of good hands dealt to them over a single session. The context of the table alone will determine that the player on the left of the maniac fares better than the player who must always act before.
The solution to this problem is really very simple, especially online. Get up and find another table. Your inability to beat a certain game on a given day probably has less to do with the table stakes or the type of poker game as it does the composition of the table itself. This is an interesting concept, and novice players rarely think about it. You can lose your stake in a $2-$4 buy-in and then move to a $20-$40 game and double up in ten minutes. In poker you play the opponents and not the cards. So, it is not the case that you will move up in table stakes and find a better sort of player, the type of guy who doesn’t raise with rags or call you down with bottom pair. The truth is those players exist at every level, and thank goodness they do. Bad poker players are available to donate money at every level of the game, even at the $10,000 buy-in tournaments.
Weak players think they’re followed by cold streaks, bad cards, and unlucky breaks. The real issue is that they have not identified a table where they can thrive. These tables exist for every type of player. If you sit down in a limit cash game with tight players your aggressive and loose style will often pay off. If you are a rock and can find a very loose no-limit cash game you will set yourself up for a big win down the line. Good players also know a little secret: You do not have to be the best player at the table in order to show a big profit. All you need to do is be able to identify and isolate one or two players that you know are worse than you.
Stay out of the way of tough, unpredictable foes. There is always one player who seems to have your number, who can tell when you’re bluffing or who gets out of the way of your monster holdings. Good for him. Don’t make it personal (as so many poker players do) and dedicate the entire session to teaching him a lesson, and showing him who’s the boss. Playing good poker means being unemotional. Instead, focus on the one player you know cannot read you, the one guy who always pays you off. If you cannot find that one person you need to leave the table immediately. If it’s a tournament you need to change your style as soon as possible, because as every good poker player knows, you are the fish at that table.
I play a lot of no-limit cash games and it surprised me how many of the same usernames I see at my stakes level day in and day out. Most of these guys are serious poker players, much like me, and I keep notes on them. For the most part I like to know simply which players to avoid, so when a stranger sits down with his short-stack I can attack him until he proves that he is worth my respect. This is exactly how the big games in Vegas have been run for many years. Whales swim by and sit down in the big game, and the best cash players in the world avoid big contests with one another while they busy themselves with the job of carving up the wealthy tourists.
Keep notes on good players (even if you only remember their usernames it will help) and remember the weak players who couldn’t cope at your table previously. Follow them around by all means, and shake them down until they are penniless. This is what weak players whine about when they say that online poker is unfair or rigged – it is unfair in that it gives good players a ton of extra tools with which to outplay weak players. There is no excuse to sit down at a difficult table online, or to battle against foes that you know are strong players. Online poker, with thousands of active tables at every limit, allows you to pick and choose the right kind of game and the right kind of opposition, and that should go a long way towards making your poker profitable.
