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Fishing in Shark Tanks Discouraged!

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  1. #1

    Default Fishing in Shark Tanks Discouraged!

    So we’ve determined that table selection is key to a successful strategy. We’ve said that were looking for loose players so we’re trying to find those nice high %player seeing the flop tables right? Right! We’re also looking for a good pot size, like maybe 10-30x the BB.

    But am I the only one who has noticed this phenomenon?
    You login to your favorite site, filter for your favorite game and then sort with the highest Players Per Flop % and start hunting down the list for a nice fishing pond.

    When all of a sudden you see these tables at the $25NL

    Table Name %Plyrs Per Flop Avg Pot$ Wait List
    Guppy’s 65% $3.50 17
    Minnow’s 60% $3.25 12
    Blue Gill 38% $2.75 7
    Shark Tank 8% $.65 0


    Thus my hypotheses is, had you logged in just an hour before, this list would have looked a bit like this:

    Table Name %Plyrs Per Flop Avg Pot$ Wait List
    Shark Tank 88% $5.00 20
    Guppy’s 75% $3.50 10
    Minnow’s 70% $3.25 9
    Blue Gill 38% $2.75 7

    What happens is, all the players looking for the fishing pond all show up and either clean out the whole or scare the fish away.

    Take the Blue Gill table that is currently at 68% with a Avg pot of $2.75, this is, currently, a great game! But if you look you’ll see that one hour later the Blue Gill table has dropped from 68% to 38% and further if you pay attention to the Blue Gill table you’ll likely find that in less then 2 hours it will be below 15% and often as low as 8% or 9%.

    The reason should be clear. The fish have all left and this is now a full table of sharks! Who do you think those 17 players on the list are?

    My strategy ( which for now seems to be working OK ) is to find tables around 20% Players Pre Flop and about 5x to 10x the BB. These games seem to hold around that 20% just a bit better and even can go up when the “school” starts to expand either through attrition or another “avg” player get’s tired of the beats and leaves making room for more fish.

    So, am I the only one who’s seen this?
  2. #2
    lol @ "sharks" at 25NL.

    What's happening is the winning regs find the good tables, sit there and play with the fishes. Eventually fishes go busto and leave and get replaced by someone who thinks its still a good game. Table selection should not end there. Leaving a table when it is no longer a good table is part of table selection as well. When you notice the fishes in the table going busto and leaving and being replaced by a regular, its better for you to leave and find a better game.
  3. #3
    This has nothing to do with table selection. Table selection is a misnomer and what you really want to do is seat select. Find individual players to sit with. A table with 15% VPIP could have 4 10VPIP'rs and a 40% VPIP'r. A looser table could be a fish and some LAGGS that are aggressive gamblers and make the table seem juicy, Read this

    http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...le%20selection
  4. #4
    is there any more good links for table seletion
  5. #5
    Its really just common sense. Figure out which players are the most profitable to sit with and do your best to sit with them as often as possible. If you find yourself at a table (or in a seat) where you dont think you have an edge, or you dont think you have as big an edge as you could do somewhere else, move.
    gabe: Ive dropped almost 100k in the past 35 days.

    bigspenda73: But how much did you win?
  6. #6
    watch the vid
  7. #7
    AnTman_69's Avatar
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    I'm all for being really tedious with your table/seat selections, but at 25nl i wouldn't make it your main concern. Your primary goal at 25nl should be to improve as a player. A great way to do this is to play against better players.
  8. #8
    most important part of table selection is recognizing after an orbit that there's NO ONE to get value from at the table. at 50nl 6m, if i have just one player within three seats to my right who is running something retarded (like 50/5, or 45/25 or something like that) who has more than half a stack, and there isn't anyone to my left who is 3b'ing and squeezing an amount that's really pissing me off, then the table's good enough for me.

    soooo, like antman said, it's gonna be hard to find a table that DOESN'T meet these criteria at your limit (and i don't even have to switch tables all that often at 50nl).

    my main point, though, is that you could simply join every single waiting list there is at your stake and just sit at the first tables that seat you, and if the table isn't juicy then cycle in another one once you're ready to be seated at another table, and this seemingly more random system will do you a lot more good than just looking at stats. i DO look at stats (in fact filter no less than 18bb avg pot and minimum of 30% to the flop) but i join as many waiting lists as i can, and just make sure that i'm never at a table where the biggest fish is like a 25/12 who folds 100% to cbets (obv bad, but not gonna be like printing money).
  9. #9
    Ive always seen table selection like the stock market. You dont buy a stock when it has already hit the roof. You have to get to it early and buy low. Find a table with decent stats, sit down (or watch) and analyze the play. It shoudnt take you too long to figure out who is what. If its a good one, stay there and begin looking for the next table. Sit, find, then look for another. Dont just sit in waiting lists in hopes that by the time you get a seat it will be good.

    The best way to find bad loose players is by playing with them. Asking table selection stats to do the work for you is like going to a live room and looking for the sign with an arrow that reads: "FISH THIS WAY".
    I finally figured out my problem, my logic is flawed.
  10. #10
    Why do we care about table selection? Isn't the point to get better? I basically just sit whever I can find regs, but then again I almost never play cash and I'm down like $180 in 8k hands of 25NL, so maybe I'm not doing it right, lol.

    Though if I ran at EV I'd only be down $54... >.>

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