Cash Game Selection

Poker Helper, Nov 2007

If you want to be a winning poker player, you need to focus on strategy related to the playing of hands. But that’s not the only thing worth your attention. One aspect of poker playing that goes largely ignored is table selection. Sure, occasional articles talk about it (hey…you’re reading one such article now). But how many players actually engage actively in the process of intelligent table selection?

Many players believe that table selection is simply about choosing beatable tables. Therefore, many players view table selection as an implicitly self-deprecating act. And poker players could never engage in self-deprecating acts, right? After all, we poker players tend to be an ego-filled lot. Pretty much every poker player thinks that he is the world’s greatest player. Pretty much every poker player thinks that he can sit down and beat any game that he’ll encounter.

So yeah, self-deprecation and ego don’t exactly mix. But the disciplined few who are quite successful at making money from poker take the following mantra to heart: “leave your ego at the door.” If you can’t look at yourself honestly, then you can’t be a good poker player. (Okay, fine, some very well known poker “pros” don’t seem to be very honest with themselves, so I’ll edit to say that looking at yourself honestly will substantially increase your chances of being a profitable player.)

Focusing on table selection goes way beyond the basics of whether you can beat a table. Even the world’s best poker player can benefit substantially from table selection. I believe there’s a saying that goes something like “it doesn’t matter if you’re the ninth best player in the world if you’re sitting at the table with the top eight players in the world.” You’ll need to face tougher competition occasionally to get better; however, a vast majority of your sessions should be spent at tables playing opponents against whom your hourly win rate is the highest...

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