You wouldn’t take a seat in a restaurant without at least looking at the menu or knowing the type of food served. Why would you take a seat at a poker table without knowing the game and the players at least a little bit? Game and table selection are important factors in playing winning poker, yet most players never consider them before they sit down.

In a crowded poker room there are generally several tables playing the game and stakes you wish to play. Online the selection is even larger. You should take a few minutes to watch several tables to find the mix of players that best suit your game. In a card room if you are forced to take the next available seat than you can evaluate the table while playing very conservatively and if the table is not right for you, you can always request a table change you will be moved to the next open seat at another table.

Watch in any card room and you will see players called for a game who are already seated at another table. Either they will move to the new game, which they originally wanted or they will wave off the table change. There is no need to move if you have found your first table is actually weak or at least suited to your game. But don’t get stuck at a table that is not ideal to your game; if you are online put your name on another table and switch as soon as it is available. In a casino or card room, ask for the table change; the staff handle these requests all the time and expect good players to make table changes.

Game selection also includes the choice of which betting limits you should be playing. In any room the 2/4 game is going to play different than the 5/10. We will cover betting limits in a later post.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #10

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Poker Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.