Online Poker Secrets
Table Selection Tip



Online Poker Secrets table selection tip: Once you become a winning regular SNG grinder at a particular site, the other regulars will know you. So if you register early for a SNG, it will tend to discourage those regulars from registering for that same Sit-N-Go.

Don't expect to scare them all away, but if they have a close decision on whether or not to jump in, your presence will sometimes be enough to deter them from registering. When that happens, you make money.

This is because it leaves room for a recreational player (fish) to take a seat. The fish won't have the knowledge or the inclination to table-select. They won't look before they leap. So a table where your expected ROI would have been 5% had the other good player entered, could now be something like 5.7%.

You will need to keep an eye on the SNG lobby as the game fills with players, so you yourself can table select. Be ready to quickly unregister if too many competent players appear. A lot of 12-tabling type players don't game-select at all, therefore you won't deter them by registering early, so when 6 or 7 players have registered, if you don't see much value, just unregister and look for a better game. Don't let your ego get in the way of smart table selection.

Work hard to find juicy games. This will increase your ROI and lower your variance. Don't jump in a game where you have a tiny advantage, because playing that one extra table can lower your edge on your other tables by enough to more than erase that tiny advantage. Even it's not causing you to play an extra table, it's probably taking up a slot that could be filled by a juicier game that starts something like 5-10 minutes later. So aim for quality rather than quantity.

Online Poker Secrets #2: I mentioned that a lot of 12-tablers don't game-select, but some of them actually do. You may wonder how they can table-select when they have so many tables going. The answer is with the use of a third-party software program such as Full Tilt Shortcuts.

Programs like this can be set to auto-register you for a certain number of SNGs at certain stake levels and can table-select by not registering you for SNGs that have too many sharks already entered. The user tags certain players with the shark label. If you are a good player, you'll soon be getting tagged by such players.

And this is good for both you and the other shark. It helps you by keeping winning opponents out of some of your games, and it helps them by helping them avoid games with little or no value.

This is why you want to jump in and register early but be ready and willing to unregister if a juicy line-up doesn't materialize.

Remember your goal isn't to play every SNG that comes along. Your job is to seek out games that will increase your hourly rate and skip the rest.

Full Tilt Shortcuts is a very useful (and completely allowable and legitimate) program, which has a lot of nice features that help multitablers. I highly recommend it.

Online Poker Secrets table selection summary: So in summary, you want to register early, keep an eye on the lobby and be ready to unregister if the SNG doesn't have enough value. If you simply wait for a game that looks juicy, you will actually find fewer juicy games, because other regulars that might have refrained had you been entered will now have jumped in. This leaves you on the outside looking in.

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