At time of writing, there are over 50 tables of six-max $0.25/0.50 No Limit Hold'em running on iPoker. And it’s only 4.20pm on a Thursday afternoon, not exactly prime time hours for playing online. Now, unless you’re some kind of machine, it’s unlikely that you’re going to want to play every game that’s running. If you are, then good luck to you. For the more human amongst us, I’m going to discuss some of the methods I use to select which tables to play, and which to avoid. I think game selection at these stakes is something a lot of players don’t practice as much as they should, and that by playing the best tables at all times you can significantly increase your hourly rate.
Buddies
The Black Belt Poker software has a few features built in which you can use to identify profitable games without the purchase of any costly third party tracking software. I make a point of checking my buddy list when I log onto the software, and seeing if any of my favourite benefactors are online. I look to place any big fish I find on my buddy list, and after just a few weeks of doing this I have quite a few names coming up every time I log on, which is certainly helpful in deciding what games to play.
I initially had some trouble using the buddy search feature, but if you hit ‘Buddies’ at the top of the lobby screen, check the ‘Only Buddies’ box, and then hit the arrow next to the ‘Search Player’ box, the software will display all of your good friends who are currently logged into iPoker. So, whenever you see someone making terrible plays, or even someone with spewy HUD stats, right click on them and select ‘Add Buddy’, and start building up a list of pals keen to help you build your bankroll.
Filters
Having made a point of greeting my buddies, I use the filters to remove all games I’m not interested in playing, so at the moment, that’s anything that isn’t $0.25/0.50 six-max. I then sort the games in order of decreasing players per flop. To do this, simply click on the P/F heading at the top of the list of games. Some people prefer to list the games by average pot size, but I believe sorting by players per flop is more advantageous. Obviously games with a big average pot size are potentially more profitable than those with smaller pots, as this indicates that people are playing big pots with more marginal holdings. However, I feel that players per flop is a more reliable indicator of a soft game: average pot size can easily be skewed by a few recent pots in which people have got stacks in, possibly the result of two big hands going up against each other rather than people shipping their money in light. Players per flop, however, is less likely to be affected by a scenario such as this to any significant degree, and is thus a more accurate reflection of how the table is playing.
HUD
So, after looking at my buddy list and sorting the table by players/flop, I get on a ton of waiting lists, and ensure my Hold’em Manager is set to import. Although I don’t like playing more than four or five tables for a prolonged period, for the first thirty minutes or so of a session, I will often be eight-tabling. I want to give myself the best chance of playing the softest games available, and playing eight tables at the start of a session allows me to take a look at a greater number of games than if I stuck to four.
The new iPoker update seems to have resulted in my HUD numbers coming up on the tables in a quicker time than before, which significantly assists in game selection. When a space becomes available at a table, I’ll take my seat and wait for my HUD to load up. If it turns out to be a table full of 19/17 regulars or something similar, I’ll normally just close it and look for a softer spot. I tend to look for tables with at least one notable fish, preferably seated one or two seats to my right, and thus perfectly located for extracting value.
Ideally, I’m looking for people with a high VPIP stat; for obvious reasons these people are likely to be spewing money. A stat I have recently added to my HUD is ‘open limp pre flop %’. I feel that this stat is invaluable as a game selection tool. Anyone that’s open limping on a significant basis is likely to be relatively poor, and an ideal target (for example) to be isolating pre and continuation betting a lot of flops. It’s also a reliable indicator of how the player is playing over a small sample size, and doesn’t require a massive sample size to converge. I really recommend incorporating this stat into your HUD layout somehow, as it is a very effective way of quickly identifying the fish in the game.
Often you will find that you load a table and find players who you do not yet have any stats on. I recommend playing a few orbits on these tables to pick up some numbers or reads on these new players: often they are less likely to be regulars (most of whom you will probably have played with before), and more likely to be casual players dipping their feet. Getting 30 or so hands on them will give you some indication of how they’re playing, and looking at their VPIP and Open Limp % should allow you to determine whether or not they’re likely to have significant preflop leaks. If they seem solid, then move on and look for softer spots.
Short Stacks
Regularly you will encounter the dreaded short stack at a table. Short stacks come under heavy criticism from players buying in full, a debate which I’m not going to go into in great depth here. However, I would advise against leaving a table merely because it has a player buying in short at it. I feel it prudent to discern between a true ‘short-stacker’ - someone attempting to manipulate their different stack size to gain an edge - to a ‘shortie’ – someone who simply cannot afford to buy in full or reload after losing a few pots. Quite often these ‘shorties’ are simply bad, casual players, who don’t have the money to rebuy to a full stack, or indeed, someone to whom the idea of reloading does not even occur. These are players you definitely want to be playing against.
So, before you close a table when you see a small stack sitting, assess whether they’re a proper ‘short-stacker’ or a casual ‘shortie’, or else you might be missing out on a very soft game.
Summary
• Use your buddy list
• Sort by players per flop
• Incorporate new HUD stats
• Don’t rule out the short stacks
I feel that by just following these few simple steps, you can take great leaps towards improving your win rate in low stakes cash games.