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Poker Site Selection and Game Selection
Poker site selection and game selection are two hugely underrated soft skills of successful online poker players.
Due to the aggressive preflop nature of no limit texas holdem games, edges can often be tiny between a good poker player and an average poker player. Some players can increase their edge using soft poker skills such as tilt control, bankroll management, table selection and stats analysis to discover leaks in their own games. Using these soft skills effectively can result in a much improved winrate and can really help in increasing your bb/100.
Game selection also known as table selection is the soft skill most commonly practised. It involves the use of datamining software and table selection tools to help in choosing the best tables to play on. Table selection software scans each table at a selected level and builds a table profile based on each of the players at a table. This profile includes statistics for VPIP, preflop raise and aggression, based on hands from your tracking software. These hands are made up of hands you've played as well as datamined hand histories. The table selection software can also be used to find players or “buddies” who you have tagged as fish.
One of the most common questions I encounter on poker forums and in instant message conversation is what poker site are you currently playing on? Everybody reminisces nostalgiacally about how good the games were on Party Poker back in 2006 and how they could all be millionaires if the games were as easy now as they were back then. Players are disillusioned with the sites they're playing on, with regular tight aggressive (tag) multitablers making up the majority of their opponents. They're asking this question in the hope that somebody has found a poker site where the poker fish outweigh the number of sharks and regular tags. They're also hoping that someone who is playing on such a soft poker site will be generous or naïve enough to share their hidden gold mine with the rest of the poker community.
So do these sites exist? The short answer is yes. There are poker networks where there are a greater number of fish than regular players. Before I tell you where, first, let me introduce the concept of poker site selection:
Poker site selection is choosing the softest poker site in order to attain the highest winrate. The most effective way to do this is to choose 3 or 4 sites and spread your bankroll evenly across them. You can then practise game selection on these sites should you wish, though often it will not be required.
These sites are very easy to find and always match a certain profile. Characteristically, they will be independent rooms or part of smaller poker networks. They will have low traffic, even at peak times and generally they will be unsupported by poker tracking software such as Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker. The software will be of a much lower standard than the bigger poker sites and game liquidity will be low.
Some examples of these sites are Fatbet Poker, Raider Poker, Aced Poker and PayNoRake Poker. You may ask why I'm so keen to share this information? Poker players by their nature are generally lazy and unmotivated. I've shared this secret with several players but none of them have actually tried it out. Most people who read this article will do the same thing. They may download the software and see just one game of 1-2 6 max no limit holdem running and decide that it's not worh their while. The more savvy poker players will see one game on each of the sites and realsie they can now play 4 tables where each table is mostly made up of fish. All it requires is site selection.
Poker site selection is more useful for micro stakes grinders and small stakes grinders. At midstakes and high stakes, these sites have almost no action. However, the principles involved can still be used by midstakes pro and high limit poker players. Deposit to 3 or more bigger poker sites and practise game selection on each site. Choose the 2 best tables on 4 poker sites and you can now play 8 tables.
Give poker site selection a shot. Signup at Aced Poker. I think you'll be pleased with the results!
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