Table Selection on Party Poker

[Lurshy]

A couple of months ago I switched from Paradise Poker to Party Poker for a few reasons not really relevant to this post.

One of the things that I liked about Paradise though was how easy it was to perform table selection duties. Paradise lobby gives % to see the flop, as well as average pot size. These stats are updated in near real time, and it is easy to see who is seated at a table and what their stack sizes are.

It seems Party has a real delay in updating the lobby stats, shows less information, and is so slow in displaying who is at the table that it becomes nearly impossible to scroll through the tables in the lobby (and see who is seated). Plus there are so many more players at Party that despite over 20k hands, I am still often sitting with 9 unknowns.

Where is this ramble going? My table selection in Party is therefore usually random. My bb/100 I believe is suffering because of it. Occasionally I may find myself at a juicy table, but so often I am not.

At Paradise I would find the right mix of Pot size and % to the flop, and combine it with some known players (be them TAG, LAG, passive fish) and I knew what I was getting into right away.

So what tools, methods, criteria do you use to select tables on Party?

[Rudbaeck]

Two words: Buddy list.

I'll add a bonus word: Datamining.

[Lurshy]

Maybe i'm not using it correctly, but when I hit the buddy list button in table search, it comes up blank (and I have added some profitable buddy ID's under the My Account menu).

I've done some data mining (watching tables and having the HH read into PT), but not extensively, I will increase that effort.

[Harv72b]

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Maybe i'm not using it correctly, but when I hit the buddy list button in table search, it comes up blank (and I have added some profitable buddy ID's under the My Account menu).

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In the table search screen, it will only display names when you click on "Buddies" if one or more of the people on your buddy list are logged on. The obvious answer is to add as many poor players to your list as possible, and update it frequently, so that you will always have at least a few buddies online.

[Rudbaeck]

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Maybe i'm not using it correctly, but when I hit the buddy list button in table search, it comes up blank (and I have added some profitable buddy ID's under the My Account menu).

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For me it takes like 2-5s before the buddy list displays the buddies in search. Notice that it only lists online buddies.

[7ontheline]

Interestingly, lately I've been noticing that whenever I find one of my "buddies" at a table when I join them there's probably 4-5 TAGs who probably had the same idea as me. I wonder what these "buddies" think when the same people keep following them around? I suppose they may not even notice. . .

Anyway, I have also now been more willing to get up from tables where I recognize a lot of the players or where it just seems too tight to get any good action. I feel like my winrate has been improved because of it. +49 BB today in 1 hour at 3/6! Woohoo! Of course, this is making up for the -25 BB from a few days ago. . .

[Lurshy]

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Anyway, I have also now been more willing to get up from tables where I recognize a lot of the players

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Although some players I may avoid, usually I like playing with some known players even if they are tough. It is good knowing what that preflop raise (or limp means). It is good knowing what types of hands they've shown down before. I don't mind giving them a wider berth, and you can often raise PF to isolate against somone else, but if they come....

The unkowns are tougher in mho. Someone mentioned you can see what a table is like in one round. Maybe, but that is a dangerous leap. Is that guy that just pounded with KK tight or a lag? you don't know. That guy that took down the pot on the turn on a draw, or a made hand, or a bluff - you don't know. Is that guy that just open raised with 89s mixing it up, on a rush, on tilt or a LAG you don't know.

Long term I have a VPIP of 19% short term I can be in 5 hands in a round. I limp or raise with big hands depending on the action and my mood (straight forward or tricky) observing a round of mine isn't going to get you that far. Yeah if you don't see me in a hand in a round you can suspect that I'm tight, but thats about it.

I guess the bottom line though it was certainly easier to pick tables on Paradise - fewer players, more table stats, updated quicker. The % of people to see a flop combined with the avg pot size, can really tell you if a table is Tight Passive, Loose Passive, Loose aggresive or Tight Aggressive.

Thanks for all the responses. I will give the buddy list a bigger shot though it doesn't look too promising. I think the datamining will be a big tool as well - PT can gather stats in the few minutes in the day I am not playing [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[GrunchCan]

Don't be afraid to get up and leave a table after just one orbit if it isn't a good table.

[Lurshy]

I probably need to improve on this, as it usually costs me too much to figure out I don't like the table (or my position on it), and I rarely get up before an hour at a table (unless it breaks).

[GrunchCan]

It's easy to tell after only 9 hands if the table you are at is good or bad. A good table has bad players, who will make themselves known to you on almost every hand. If nobody makes themselves known to you after only 9 hands, the table isn't good, and it's time to go. Usually it only costs you 1 big bet to see 1 orbit - the cost of posting in the CO.

I always check my buddy list first, but usually nobody is playing what I want to play, so I just sit at a random table. I may go through 5 or 6 tables before I find just one I like. Nothing wrong with that. That's only 3 BB I paid to find a good place to work, and if I found a good place to work I'll make that 3 BB back in just 1 pot.