Seat Choice Question

Newbie question about choosing a seat at a table: I have read that it's better to have loose maniacs on your right than your left side. I've also read that it's better to have tight players on your left, rather than your right. Why?

From a tourney stand point, you want loose players on your left because their action dictates what you are going to do. For example, if you have a lot of loose limpers before you, they will limp and then you can be sure you have odds to limp behind them if you wanna play say suited connectors. Or for example, if you have pocket twos and you consider limping them, if one of the loose players before you raises it up, you don't have to waste chips limping, you can dump it right there. If these players were on your left, you would limp, they would raise, and then you would have to fold, wasting valuable chips.

The value of having position on players (you have position on players on your right) is the information you receive. The players on your right act before you, and you can use the information from their bets (or non bets) to decide what you want to do.

It's nice to have tight players to your left in a tourney because it generally means that they will let go of your blinds. You don't have to worry about them raising too much because they're tight -- they won't raise or play very much anyway. So, loose players with chips to your right, tight players to your left. If the loose players to your right fold to you, you can raise it up and the tight players to your left will fold and you can steal their blinds.

Having the loose players to your left helps when you get hands too. If you notice that the players on your right have been raising a lot of hands, you know that they can't have a premium hand every single time. So with that in mind, you could potentially get paid off for monster hands when you finally get them. If someone to your right is raising every hand, you could finally call one of his raises preflop and trap him with your pocket aces. Or you could reraise him and get more money in preflop. There's lots of options, which is why it's nice to have these types of players acting before you. Position is all about extra information.

Kind of scatterbrained post by me, hopefully others will add something more general regarding this topic. Your post mentions choosing a seat, so I guess you're talking more about cash games. The same general ideas apply, but I'm sure there's more to add when it comes to ring.

Hey read this post, it's excellent for illustrating the importance of position.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ic.php?t=27458

In general you do want the loose players on your right, with position on the players most likely to be in the hand, and tight players on your left so you can steal their blinds. But the maniac is a totally different animal. You want the maniac on your left. The reason for this is that you are going to use the maniac to bet and raise your strong hands for you. With a maniac immediately to your left, you can flop a monster and check, let the maniac bet, and when everyone calls (knowing he is a maniac and likely has little to nothing), you trap them for more chips with the check raise. You use a maniac best by having him on your left to get more value out of your premium holdings.

Originally Posted by Bugeye

Newbie question about choosing a seat at a table: I have read that it's better to have loose maniacs on your right than your left side. I've also read that it's better to have tight players on your left, rather than your right. Why?

Left side.. So you can check huge hands like a set .. To them.. or you can check a draw to them .. and if they offer you a nice odds bet .. You can call . Also .. When you raise up something.. And you flop it.. You can check into them praying for a bet then check raise.

good answer courtie... That applies just as well for cash games as it does for Tourny games (probably more so since you actually get to chose where you sit in a cash game).

Id actually change it a little to "you want predictable players on your left and unpredictable players on your right". The whole point about position is it lets you know what people are going to do before it is your turn to act so use it against the ones where you dont know what they are going to do. If hes a maniac you know he is going to raise. If he is a calling station you know he will limp/call. If he is a TAG then find out if this is the hand he wants to raise, or if he is folding like usual.

Ill add that in general you want "good" players opposite the table from you. If they are next to you (on either side) then you could get into alot of blind wars with trash when really you dont want to get involved with them at all. Better to have them where you have a nice fish shield.