Post your pre-game routine

[x2ski]

Hi all,

I'm still trying to get a solid routine going when I start a session, Unfortunately, my impatience usually gets the best of me and I end up in frantic-mode for the first half-hour or so before I finally settle in.

I'd like to know what others do to get set up at tables (waiting lists, table selection, time spent scouting etc.)

Here's what I'm doing at the moment.

I fire up PT for auto-importing, PA HUD, Empire and Eurobet.

Starting with Empire, I sort by pot-size and put myself on the waiting lists of the first 6-8 tables. Then at Eurobet I sort by waiting list size and put myself on the first 6-8 tables with the smallest waiting list, preferably with pot sizes of 5BB or more. This strategy hopefully prevents me from being on the same table lists at Empire/Euro.

Now I wait. It usually begins as a trickle, with one or two tables opening up. I sit at the tables and deal myself out, expecting to wait until I have 8 good tables running before I start playing.

This is normally when all hell breaks loose. Some of the initial tables suck, so I leave, but by the time I'm "sitting out" at 3 juicy tables, I get restless. I don't want the fish to bust out before I start playing, so I sit in. Within a few minutes, the tables open up like wildfire, and I'm stuck trying to play hands, select tables, close tables etc.

What frustrates me most is when I've just played the blinds at an "OK" table, and all these tables are opening up and I have 4 Empire and/or Euro tabes open already so I must make the decision to leave "OK" tables in the middle of an orbit while risking sitting down at "even worse" tables, or sitting down at tables that I'm already sitting at (on the other skin). The "let me think about it" button gives you like 5 seconds to think about it, and that thing popping up constantly while I'm in the middle of hands and all this other crap popping up makes me want to pull my hair out.

After about half an hour of this, I just give up and take the first tables available until I have 8 tables going. Now 5-6 my tables are 17-22 vpip and I won't leave until they get below 15, for fear of going through the stress of table selection all over again.

There's gotta be a better way.