Where to sit?

[lapoker17]

I tried searching for this, but had no luck...

I play in a deep, live NL game - Stack sizes range from $600 (the min buy in) to $10 or $15K. When a seat opens and we're waiting for a must-move player, a few guys are constantly moving seats. For some it seems as stupid as "that seat's hot" or "my seat's cold", but a few of the guys are definitely moving seats for strategic purposes. I've heard the snippets of wanting a Maniac to be on your left rather than your right etc., but I wonder if there is an overall seat choosing strategy that factors in player-types, stack sizes, your own style etc..

This is probably a fairly elementary concept - and perhaps one that someone who plays in a big game should already know, but I don't.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks as always.

[Wayfare]

I don't sit that high, but I always want to be across the table from a maniac.

This is in line with what R+C say in their PL/NL book, which is that if you are to the right you are going to get snapped off a lot and give up too much EV preflop, but if you are directly to his left and raise you will give the rest of the table chances to re-isolate him through a reraise and then have to play out of position between the solid player and the maniac.

By sitting across from the maniac you can have position on him roughly half the time, and have a better sense of what the table is going to do before you act.

[turnipmonster]

I move seats all the time. I've been in situations where I've felt my position made the game unplayable (I had a 300BB stack with a LAG 500BB directly on my left.

basically, I hate playing pots out of position and don't want to play out of position vs. another big stack. it is very hard to exercise pot control out of position, and in a game where you have mostly heads up confrontations relative position goes out the window. in a loose, ramming and jamming game relative position is more important and I'm ok with having another big stack on my left.


--turnipmonster

[TomCollins]

You always want a LAG on your right. I hate trying to limp in 98d after tons of callers and then having him raise it to 20x the BB preflop. He made a lot of playable hands unplayable.

[schwza]

[ QUOTE ]
For some it seems as stupid as "that seat's hot" or "my seat's cold", but a few of the guys are definitely moving seats for strategic purposes.

[/ QUOTE ]

i've been known to say dumb stuff like that when moving. it's a lot easier than "well, i feel like relative position on this post-flop LAG over here would be valuable" or "i don't want to talk the really annoying guy any more."

[B Mando]

About two seats to the left the LAG...If you sit directly on his/her left I think they *might* notice if you always isolate-reraise them...ALWAYS on the left though, let them bluff all their chips off to you!

[TomCollins]

I tried the whole "I can see when its my blind a lot better in the 4 seat than the 2 seat." The LAG scooted over to the 4 seat and left me with the 3. Bastard.

[kagame]

ok im just going to respond to TomCollins here.
you always want the LAG on your right?
im curious as to whether youve read R+C.

there is an important element of getting to see how the rest of the field is going to react to the preflop raiser(assuming that often the field checks to the preflop raiser on the flop). if you have to act immmediately after the LAG and before the rest of the field you are probably going to get trapped quite often. Imagine a scenario where you flop top two with AK, reraise the LAG, and run into bottom (or other) set trapping LAG. this is an extremely difficult spot and if you instantly realize you need to get the **** out of the pot youre a better player than I am.

[ML4L]

Hey la,

[ QUOTE ]
For some it seems as stupid as "that seat's hot" or "my seat's cold", but a few of the guys are definitely moving seats for strategic purposes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I move seats all the time for strategic purposes, but when I do so, I verbalize that it's because the seat is hot/cold, that I want to get away from a smoker, etc. Makes for a nice cover-up.

[ QUOTE ]
I've heard the snippets of wanting a Maniac to be on your left rather than your right etc., but I wonder if there is an overall seat choosing strategy that factors in player-types, stack sizes, your own style etc..

[/ QUOTE ]

As turnip said, for me, it's generally more about stack size than general player characteristics. If there are only two deep stacks on the table, myself and an opponent, I almost always want position on him. That way, if a big pot comes along, I'm going to have the edge. But, here are some other thoughts:

- I like having position on a calling station. This lets you make big bets on the turn/river with hands such as top pair. A calling station will pay those bets off, but if you're out of position, you might have to check.

- I want position on any player who plays predictably. In order to take advantage of a person whose decision to check/bet gives away their hand, you have to act after they make that decision...

- I'll give position to any player who is susceptible to continuing bluffs until the bitter end. Check/call can make you a TON off of these players, and you gotta be out of position to do that.

- I'll give position to someone who raises a lot preflop (particularly someone who likes little "pot-building" raises). This lets you limp-reraise, even from middle or late position. A POWERFUL play in pot-limit. Giving position to this type of player is especially good if they auto-bet the flop, because now you have good relative position to trap other players with a flop check-raise).

- Lastly, I want to have position on any player that I really want to avoid for whatever reason (e.g. tough to read, deep stack, etc.). That way, I know whether or not they will be in the pot before I decide whether I want to get involved and how deeply I want to get involved. There is nothing wrong with admitting to yourself that, all else being equal, you'd rather not tangle with a certain player.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but this should at least give you an idea of what to think about. Hope it helps. Good post...

ML4L

[Vintage]

nt