what do you look for before siitin down at a cash table

jobless

i've recently started to dabble in 6 seater cash tables 0.5/1 with varied success.
I'm just wondering what i should be looking out for before sitting down at a table....often i just log in and sit down at the first available table...
should i watch the table first for a few orbits before playing?, what other things would you look for before deciding to play one table over another?

ianmc38

Number of players in each pot, average pot size. The higher the better.

Bandana boy

in levels of imporatance
1-If anyone from my buddy list is playing
2-Amount of money on table
3-postion on the larger stacks
4- average pot size

fuzzbox

I look for Bandana Boy

Bandana boy

I look for fuzz

and then pick a different table

Oh and if the g-man is around thats pretty good he has a habit of really aggroing up the other punters (me 2 sometimes)

ntlbell

fuzzbox wrote:

I look for Bandana Boy

I look for fuzz looking for bandana boy blah blah blah

ianmc38

Bandana Boy is the man calling with a bare flush draw on the turn and pot odds of <2-1 and 0 implied odds (hitting the flush on the river precisely 99.85% of the time)

I'm the one asking how he could call the bet on the turn :rolleyes: :mad:

Ste05

Bandana boy wrote:

3-postion on the larger stacks

This is much more important than 3, you need to have as much money behind you as possible, I won't sit down at a table if there's more money ahead of me then behind me.

EDIT: Unless one of my Buddies is a calling station and he has somehow developed a big stack, in which case I want him ahead of me... :rolleyes:. As with everything it depends, but in general at a table of mostly unknowns the above is my default...

accensi0n

Ste05 wrote:

I won't sit down at a table if there's more money ahead of me than behind me.

Could you explain please ste. cheers.

Ste05

Well the basic reason that I want more money behind me is simply so I have position on the big stacks, and the majority of the money on the table.

It also means that when I'm in pots with the big stacks I'll usually have more information when playing for my stack, due to being in position in the hand. You can also adjust easier to their style, if they've ammassed their stack by being uber aggressive, I'll know to let them do the betting for me, or if they are like a rock and I see them entering a pot, I can get out of the way without something that will play well against their probable holdings

Another thing that comes into play is the effective deepness of the hands that I'll be playing, if I'm playing against a big stack the hand could be 200BB's deep, however if I'm playing against a shortie the hand might only be 40 - 60BB's deep and obviously in a deeper stacked hand I want to be in position as there will more likely be difficult decisions to make and I want as much information as possible before I make my decision. However in a short stack hand the decisions will usually be alot easier and straight forward and so I don't terribly mind making these decisions OOP. As I'll usually be the PF aggressor in these hands and so my decisions are generally easier to make, and I'll also usually have control of the pot naturally.

Also in general big stacks are the better players (huge generalisation and not something I automatically assume, in fact my initial thoughts are that the player is a lucky fish until I have seen otherwise) or the more aggressive players and again it's good to have position on these players.

The ideal table for me would be to have 4 big stacks behind me and 2 or 3 medium stacks in front of me.

I'm sure there's loads of other advantages to this rule of thumb, but this is all I can think of right now...

Aedh Baclamh

One other thing I've noticed myself is that my returns are much, much greater late at night rather than earlier in the day.

Gholimoli

fuzzbox wrote:

I look for Bandana Boy

LMAO

Gholimoli

avarage pot size is pretty important as it tells you alot about the game as Ian already said.
it tell you what type of a game your in for and depending on your style then you have an idea whether its good for you or not.
also its generally not a good idea to sit on a table with more than a couple of big stacks as your in a disadvantage.
position on the players is also important but depends on your style.if your a real tight player then it does not matter that much where if you pick your weak opponents and try to get involved with them with a wide range of hands then you want to have position on them.
also avoid table with a lot of shorties as they fock up the game and it becomes a much more pre-flop game than anything else.

DapperGent

A seat.

Bandana boy

Ste05 wrote:

This is much more important than 3, you need to have as much money behind you as possible, I won't sit down at a table if there's more money ahead of me then behind me.

EDIT: Unless one of my Buddies is a calling station and he has somehow developed a big stack, in which case I want him ahead of me... :rolleyes:. As with everything it depends, but in general at a table of mostly unknowns the above is my default...

postion is very imporatant esp to a button whore like me but
Would you sit down at a table with 4 short stacks(25% of buy in) and 1 semi decent stack(say 3buy ins) even with postion or would you rather find a table with 5 players but 9 buy ins on the table? even if your where oop on the 2 biggest stacks