a question i really should know the answer to.......

[bigmac366]

what stats do you find most useful for table selection? i've been using table average VPIP% and PFR%, looking for a loose passive table. i'm wondering if any of you find table average bb/100, table average wtsd%, and table average w$sd% useful when selecting tables. if so could you please explain how this is useful and what these numbers tell you about the table your at?

[xCEO]

I only use VP$IP

[Dariel86]

VP$IP and PFR

[jtr]

Sadly there's no way that table average BB/100 will settle down in time to be useful, although obviously if you knew the true long run figure that would be great.

I mostly use VPIP overall. Certainly if I have a choice of two tables I'll go for the one with the higher average VPIP.

Beyond that I start looking at individual players. If an individual player has a potentially sensible PFR (something around 10 in my 6-max NL game) then I'll take a look at whether or not his VPIP is also sensible. If he's appropriately aggro but way too loose, that's OK and I don't need to be worried about him. But too many people whose stats are close to mine and I think about leaving.

The other numbers (WtSD%, W$SD%) are also useful in theory but again I am sceptical about whether they'd stabilize in time to be useful in classifying a table. Think about W$SD% for a tight-ish player for a minute: first the guy has to get a hand that he likes enough to see a flop, then he has to go to a showdown with it (not fold and not win without a showdown) and after all that you get 1 and only 1 data point on his long-term W$SD%. It doesn't take much for your estimate to be way off the true long-run figure.