One of the biggest decisions that you can make when playing online poker is choosing the table that you are going to play at. This is even more important if you are playing for a poker bonus offer.
Strangely, a lot of players seem to be picking a poker table based on whether there is a seat available at a table in their stake level or not.
If there is no seat readily available, they will either sit at an empty table or take a spot on the least populated waiting list.
These are not good approaches to selecting a poker table to play at.
There is a lot of information available in the poker lobby of most online poker rooms. You just have to look for it. But it is there and it is there for a reason. So that you can choose the table that best suits your style of play.
In most poker lobbies, the list of active tables has some numbers displayed after each table. Such as ‘viewed flop percentage’. This is a very useful guide to the type of game that is going on at that particular table.
As a general guide, a high percentage here means that the play is very loose, and a low percentage, say about 20% or even less, means that most of the players are super tight.
These numbers are reflective of a full or nearly full 9 or 10 player table.
At some poker sites, notably those attached to an online casino, the viewed flop percentage can be insanely high, sometimes 60% to 70%, or even more!
Tables with very high percentages can be like lotteries. That’s great if that is what you want, but if you prefer to play proper poker, then you shoud be choosing a table that is at the 35% to 50% level.
View Flop Percentages
Once you have selected a table and are sitting down, you really should not post the blind until it comes around to you. The extra time you will have to watch the table can be very informative.
You may even see something that makes you get up and leave that particular table and look for a better one.
While you are waiting to post your blind you should be trying to identify the worst player at the table. You may have heard the old poker saying “If you don’t know who the donkey at the table is, it’s you“.
So look for the donkey, or the two worst players. If you haven’t identified them by the time you have to post your blind, then reconsider your table choice.
You can learn a lot of other useful stuff while waiting for your turn. If there is a maniac at the table you might get to see them in action before you have to post. If there is a maniac and it turns out that they are sitting directly to your left, you should again reconsider your choice.
These two things alone can greatly reduce your losses in online poker.