Picking the Right Table

On entering your favourite poker web site, where do you aim for first? Your preferred card game, a ring game with a stake limit that you are most comfortable with, a tournament with a monster jackpot or all three? Depending on what sort of player you are, the funds that you have available and the limits you have on your time, there are thousands of opportunities to explore, and thousands more games to get involved in. However, the sharpest players use a different means of selecting their tables.

If you look in the lobby area or game menu, you will find statistics displaying the average number of players that see flop each hand and the value of the pots. Regularly, there will be some correlation between the two. Top players see less than 30% of the flops in the course of playing, and they are the best examples to follow. If you see figures that indicate a much higher volume of players getting involved in a game, you should ask yourself why.

Normally the highest “flop per hand” percentage occurs on low stakes, cash ring tables which are populated by new players to the game. These “newbie’s” are keen to see the flop every hand, and have yet no great knowledge of position or strategy when it comes to deciding when to bet – we all had to learn how to successfully play poker, and many of us will have made some primary errors during our basic education. These are the tables that that good players will want to get on and exploit – as the waiting list to join these tables will demonstrate!

Other reasons for high flop percentages will be down to factors such as tiredness, playing under the influence of alcohol or a lack of concentration due to multi-tabling. In respect of tiredness, the game menu also displays the country or location where the player(s) are located. Quite often there is a spread of players from all continents, but let us say that it is mid-morning and you are based in Europe, and you discover a table comprised of players from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean where it is still 2.00am or 3.00am. It is likely that you will be the more alert player and be able to take advantage.

In the case of players who have had too much to drink, it is unlikely that you will find a table full of them mid-morning, but it is still worth investigating the table to determine why the flop percentage is so high. Players who multi-table run the risk of making poor plays when decisions have to be made simultaneously, and again these may be hard to spot without the use of player tracking software. Even so, these players will not have studied their opponents or how they play given certain circumstances.

In conclusion, if you are selective in choosing on which tables to play, the results could be highly lucrative.

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Playing Short Handed Poker
There are two meanings for the term “Short handed” in poker games. The one most frequently applied, is when players are playing on a ring table comprising of only 6 players, however the phrase can also relate to the endgame in a tournament or single table Sit'n'Go, where the number of players has decreased as the competition progresses - ultimately resulting in a “Heads Up” scenario. Short handed poker is an area of the game that every poker player will experience at some stage, and should learn how best to manage to their favor.

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