Game/Table Selection

A couple of days ago, I enjoyed a great dinner at a new restaurant in town: Koi at Planet Hollywood. They offer Japanese fusion cuisine and, while the portions are a bit small for the price, the quality is excellent. I sampled a smoked salmon tartar with avocado and rice crackers that was to die for! Also, they offer a variety of interesting fru fru drinks, including some creative martini and cosmo concoctions that appealed to my love for "chick drinks." After dinner, and some cocktails with friends in the new media lounge (surrounded by Karaoke singers whose enthusiasm exceeded their talent), I headed over to the poker room to see what was shaking.

At one point Planet Hollywood was one of my most frequented late night Hold Em hot spots. But when I separated from my ex last year we split poker rooms like some couples split friends or pets or children. Truthfully, I was a little scared to go back. I had heard that some nasty rumors had been spread. But here I was, yards from one of my favorite places to play and accompanied by a handsome, poker-playing date, so I thought, "Why not? Now or never." I'm super glad that I did.

Not only did I get to see lots of people that I'd missed, but everyone was really nice and told me that I'd better come back more often. There was absolutely no awkwardness at all, in fact one dealer mentioned that I was always the "better half" of that equation anyway.

Also, returning to a game that had always been profitable for me reminded me how important table and game selection can be. It is tempting sometimes to fall into the trap of listening to other players describe a "juicy" game and assuming that the game they describe will be good for us as well. The fact is that different players play well at different types of games. A game that is perfect for Devo's hyper-aggressive style, would be WAY too loose and wild for someone with a more conservative style like Bear. A small stakes table with a bunch of drunk college kids and complete amateurs looks like heaven for Happy Donkey, because he is still at the stage where his bluffs are relatively simple and his play is somewhat straight forward, for me, however, that type of game is almost as painful as gouging my eyes out with a pencil.

As I played at Planet Hollywood, I remembered that the reason I loved to play there so much, wasn't just because the dealers are fun, the floor has half a clue what they're doing, and there aren't too many locals hanging around, it's also because the game is almost PERFECT for me. A tight, conservative game, with lots of calling stations who tend to play relatively straight up so I always know where they are at...sounds like heaven to me!

My point in all of this is that in order to maximize your profit potential, especially in live play, you need to first identify what style of poker you tend to play. This goes beyond classifying yourself as Loose Aggressive, or Tight Aggressive, or whatever. You need to honestly evaluate not only your over-all mode of play, but also your level of play. How sophisticated are your bluffs? Do you regularly attempt two barrel or three barrel bluffs? Do you check raise your draws? Or do you pretty much bet it when you've got it? How many flops do you like to see? Do you prefer to enter every pot with a raise or limp in a lot? Do you prefer to play deep stack poker or short stack poker?

Once you identify these tendencies within your own game, you can then look for the type of game that best suits your play. For example: If you are very patient, content to wait for premium hands and then play them aggressively for big pots, then you would probably do well in a relatively loose game where players don't mind giving action and you are more likely to get paid off. On the other hand, if you like to be the bully at the table, play lots of pots, and bluff people off of their hands, then a tighter, more conservative game might be more your style. If you are good at making sophisticated bluffs and giving people really good reasons to believe you, then you need to play in a game where the other players have a sufficient skill level to be able to respect your bluffs, and the game should also be deep stack so that you have enough leverage to execute. On the other hand, if you like to play straight up poker, then you can get away with smaller buy ins and more casual players.

Identifying what type of game works best for you is only the first part of the puzzle. After that, you have to locate your ideal games. Shop around. Play in different casinos, at different times, and for different stakes. And, of course, keep track of your wins and losses RELIGIOUSLY using a spreadsheet that allows you to enter the dates, times, lengths, and wins/losses of each session.

BTW...Happy Donkey is in the final stages of developing a KICK ASS spreadsheet for tracking live and online play complete with graphs, averages, and more data manipulation than any tracking program I have ever seen. It's taken him FOREVER to put it together, but I can't wait to share it with everyone as soon as it's done. Trust me...you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Until next time...remember, it's better to be a shark in a small pond then a fish in a big one!
Happy Hunting!