Quote Originally Posted by Fnord
The other key to getting a bankroll going is GAME SELECTION. If it's looking a little rocky leave. This isn't the time to see where you stand against other rational players.
I think this site points this out as the most important first decision you can make, and if its not the first in every book, site, paper you read, its very near the top.

I was all over this when I was playing at Paradise. They had the %seeflop info in the table selection screen, and I used that alot. When I switched to Party/Empire, it took longer to find a good table, and I started sitting in on bad games too often, and unfortunately I didn't always have the sense to leave. This more than anything else caused a huge variance in win/loss, bad beats, etc.

I'm playing $1/$2 NL at PokerStars now and liking it. I look for a table with a seeflop% of 35% or more (the more the better), a good number of hands/minute (good indicator of how many hands are being drawn out to the river, plus I HATE sitting there while the same guy gets his calculator out hand after hand...) and a reasonable pot size.

With this data, I get in the waiting line for any attractive table and start watching them. When a seat comes up at any of these tables, I take it, regardless of position (unless there's a huge stack that has position on me). After a few hands I get to know if I like the table or not, and I play VERY conservatively until I know I like it. If its not the right table, I'm usually waiting at one or more others and switch to them as they come up, until I find one I like.

I also play only one table, unless I'm still looking for the right one. I like to get to know the players, and PokerStars has a pretty stable population from what I can see so far. At Party there were so many fish coming and going and I didn't run into the same guys very often. I tihnk at Party there also was a tendency for a good game to go bad quickly, as the sharks moved in and the fish busted out. Haven't seen that as much at stars.

The only thing I dislike about PokerStars is that I can't easily view the last hand history, like you can at Party. Anyone know if this is available, or do you have to do the whole e:mail thing?