cash advice / table selection

[AdamM]

I've been pretty much exclusively a STT player online for a long time. this weekend I had a pop at some .25.50 PLHE on stars and had a bit of success. i've since moved onto .50/1 PL if it's available or .25/.50 NL if not. when selecting a table any advice on what I should be looking for. So far I've been looking for tables with a relatively high avge pot but without any large stacks on. I'm buying in for the maximum so I don't want to have someone on the table who can dominate me.

edit I'm actually playing 2x .25/.50 NL or 1x.50/1 NL

also anyone got any suggestions / advice on rakeback deals incase I stick with cash

[matt674]

cant offer any advice about table selection as i dont play cash but i will say that you wont ever get any rakeback from playing the cash games on Pokerstars as they dont do it. All you get is FPP points and VIP points to spend in their shop.

[way_too_tight]

My cash table selection for NL games:

 1) Multiple big stacks are good - the more cash on the table the better your chance of getting a decent amount.
 2) Players making exploitable mistakes - these are great - obviously - but the ones I'm looking for are over-playing their hands, rather than failing to bet enough.
 3) Position on the loons - ideal to have them on your immediate left, I find - but this is debatable - better players might argue some other way - I think it gives you maximum information / advantage.
 4) Position on the loose crowd - punish those people who like to limp-call with AJ / 56 type hands - isolate them and give em a slap (hopefully)
 5) Staying away from known-good players - I worry less about this - but since we're doing a selection thread I'll chuck it in.

As for you not wanting to get dominated by other big stacks - it really doesn't apply in a cash game. If you're better than the people you're playing against then ideally you want them to have you covered when you've got as much as you can bring to the table. Especially in NL where you can take it all in 1 hand. It should also be obvious that their stack size is unimportant once it matches yours - you can only win/lose the $50 you have infront of you - IF they have 8k with them - who cares - they can't hurt you with it until you win a bunch. If you feel that them having a big stack would make them more inclined to call with marginal hands and more inclined to gamble then you might be right - and that's a good thing for you, as long as you adjust to value bet slightly more and bluff slightly less.

  As for bonuses - FullTilt do a reload bonus every other minute that gives you a bunch of cash back up to around $600 - you have to play a lot of hands but can clear it easily if you play a lot.

  Good luck mate

P.S. the fish like me prefer the NL tables - cos it's like what we saw on TV with that Gus Hansen guy - he's cool.

[Bongo]

Don't know about on stars but on Laddies the winning players at these levels tend to be unimaginative ABC rockoramas who only play about 14 hands a yeae - as such I don't want to avoid them as much as make sure the table isn't full of them, stealing blinds gets boring fast.

I agree with WTT about big stacks too - they don't scare me away, whatever happens i'm in for my stack and if everyone is bigger than me it just means i'll win more when i get it all in with the big hand. If they want to "pick" on me, fair play i'll adjust  my play accordingly and hopefully win some nice pots from them.

[Longy]

First thing like yourself i look for is a big average pot, it normally means there is fair bit of action. This allows me to rock up and get value for my premium hands. The people seeing the flop % can be quite telling as well anything 35+ is normally a good loose table.

One thing i would recommend is tracking software, my personal choice being poker tracker. It gives you a massive headstart on your opponents and you can quickly assess if you use the game time+ thing with it what the table is going to be like and who the donators are likely to be.

Good to see you give the cash a go mate, I honestly think that it is the easiest way to make a consistent profit on the internet.

[Bongo]

I also find cash far more interesting than STTs, I tend to get bored of them before i've even finished the first.

[totalise]

be careful when looking at the "av" pot as a basis of table selection.

What happens with frequency is that there is a huge pot, someone gets stacked for a buyin or so, and that drives the av pot up.

The person who lost the pot then leaves, as does the person who won the pot (not wanting that much money on the table)... and THEN all the nits who have grand designs on sitting there and nut-peddling there way to glory descend on the table as if there is a crock of gold just waiting to be snapped up... so the end result is that the people giving action are gone, and the table is full of nits, which is the exact opposite of what you are hoping to get. Its called "missing the boat" syndrome

This doesn't happen so much at the higher levels, but at the small stakes tables, its quite a common occurance.

The one thing I look for is % players seeing a flop. This generally indicates that there is little raising, but a lot of calling.. so you can just get in cheap, hope people marry 2nd best hands, and then get d00lar.  You also consequently will get action when you raise, as they call to see flops anyways. Win Win.

I also agree with other posters about looking for tables that are stacked... the more chips they have, the more chips you can potentially win, and as the alleged better player, this cant be a bad thing.