Trout-

I play .5/1 a little 1/2 at party and stars.

This is what I do, it requires Poker Tracker and PAHUD. Combined an $80 invetment but SOOOO worth it (free trial for both). For me, this method works best with Party.

Open 4-5 tables at my limit and with the lowest avg pot size (3-5 BB - This may be controversial but hear me out). The reason I use lowest avg pot size is that I have found that lower pot avg's = more passive players. These tables all seem to have small pots when I'm not involved with a hand, but when I am the pot's are nice. When I used to choose higher/highest avg pot it always seemed to be filled with too many TAGs and maniacs. Why play these when you can play uber-passives.

I observe at least 10-20 hands (yes I know your sittng around watching and are impatient to play but the time invested is worth it).

After I have my sample of observed hands in, I choose a table with the highest % of loose-passives (using bison's Notes on Notes. )

If I have a choice of seats I put any TAG's on my right and get into it.

edit: p.s., I also find that lower pot size has no/small wait so once I choose a table I can get right into it.

p.p.s - You can only open 1 table at a time with PAHUD trial version so you cannot do a mutli-table analysis unless you pay the $25 (again well worth it)