Choosing a table to sit at in your online poker room

The first step in playing real money online poker, particularly real money Texas Hold'em is choosing your online poker room, but that is just the first step, and leaving strategy aside here, an important part of your game when playing Texas Hold'em cash games is choosing your table from those available in the poker lobby. To play Texas Hold'em cash games successfully then choosing your table can go a long way to helping you do that, and using the information that is available in the lobby is a must. There are a few ways to becoming a winning poker player, you can learn, practice and become a better player than those you are playing against, or you can play against players that are worse than yourself...better off doing both!

When playing in land based casinos you have very little choice of where to sit, and when you do take your seat you have very little information to go on, not player information, info on the table in general, and using data such as average pot size and number of players per flop, as well as amount of hands played per hour can assist you in more ways than you think.

Using the information available to beat your opponents

The first thing you should be taking a look at when checking out the lobby is the average pot size, and it doesn't matter what stake you are playing at, as you are comparing information of tables at the same stake level. For example, if you're playing no limit Texas Hold'em then you'll have say a selection of 10 tables at 0.05/0.10 blinds, so you are comparing that set of tables. You need to look for the highest average pot size and sit at that table. It's clear that by sitting at that table a good hand will make you more money, there's also a good chance that there are a few loose players there too, and they are to be taken advantage of.

Next you'll need to look at the average number of players per flop as this is a great indicator of loose players, and with a high amount of players per flop it means that players at that table may have very low starting hand requirements, or simply want to see every flop...either way that's great for you. A low average number of players per flop will mean that the players sitting at that table are pretty tight players, you may wish to join them if you're a loose player who wishes to steal a few small pots, however by sitting with the loose players at the high average players per flop tables, you will win more in the long run. Another factor is choosing your time to play, and remember that there are way more fish at the tables in the evenings during the week, if possible you should avoid playing daytime poker, as you'll come across many more sharp players and it only takes a few to catch you off guard and crush your bankroll.