How to Pick the Best Poker Table

Finding the best table to play at is a skill in itself. Normally, table selection doesn't come into play if you're accustomed to playing in anything but big casinos, where you might be able to select your table. Most of the time however, the floorman directs you to a table to be seated at and that's it. Online poker is very different in this aspect, because you can come and go as you choose.

One of the main reasons I play at Party Poker is because their table selection is simply put, unbeatable. If too many sharks sit at your table, no problem, get up and go. If too many people are drawing on you, same thing - leave. Nothing keeps you at a table except for your own will to continue. I can't stress enough that if you are losing at a table, it's time to go. Even if you know you are better than the rest of the players at the table, when you no longer have table image, you can no longer play at the top of your game.

When selecting a table on Party Poker, the biggest thing to notice of course is the average pot size listed for the table. Most people automatically select the table with the biggest average pot, but this is usually the wrong move. Example: In a rowdy 3/6 game with 10 players, the average pot is shown to be $80 while the other 3/6 tables show average pots around the $45 range. It's true that the $80 table will be getting the most action, but that is a double-edged sword.

In the arsenal of the strong player, bluffing and deception are two main weapons. On purely theoretical odds, you should only win your fair share of hands. So in a ten person game, if everyone plays each hand and calls to the river, you should win 1 out of 10 hands. If poker was played this way, no one would play poker because no one would ever win money. In order to win then, you must win more than your fair share of cards. However, if everyone draws to the river, this will be impossible to do in the long run because only the best hand wins.

To win 1 out of 9 times, you need to win with the non-best hands- which means other people need to fold what would have been the winning hands. In a heavy action game with people drawing with everything, it really does come down to a 1/10 game, because many of your opponents will simply not fold. No matter how skilled you are, you cannot win other than showing down the best hand. The only way to win in games like these are to know how to juice the pot when you're winning and when to get out when you're the loser. This however, is much much easier said than done.

So, what should you look for in table selection? From my experience, I find that tables in the range of 8-10 times the BB (big bet) are usually the most ideal tables. So in a 3/6 game, you want the average pot to be 48-60. In these games, you will usually find a good variety of players that actually improve your game if you are playing at a skilled level.

What you always want in a game is one or two people who see every flop. These people contribute to the pot immensely by constantly fueling odds while usually playing weak hands. At the same time, you want 2-3 tight players who are the type to fold any hand unless they make top pair. The rest of the players you want to be more or less average joes who play mediocre hands and mostly call raises instead of doing them. This is an ideal table because it gives you a wide range of angles to work.

When up against callers, you can be confident in betting out your top pair or even mid pairs for the most part. Getting raised back of course is a warning sign from someone who usually just calls. But for the most part, it's straightfoward betting to the river until they fold out or call. When you showdown your hands against these players with your top pair and hopefully good kicker, you will also develop strong table image from the tight and mediocre players. This gives you room to bluff them out when it's just them in the game.

You will find that as pot averages go down, bluffing becomes more viable as less people are calling the flop- which also means less people are hitting their cards. The best types of tables, thus, aren't necessarily games where people are betting out anything, but games where people will fold to you more often than not. In both cases, you are playing against bad players: those who play too much and those who play too little. It's your duty to find a good balance between the two that suits your style of play.