Table selection shmabel selection

This month I am chasing a $450 rake chase bonus on Red Star, and as a result have played nearly all my sessions on there (Cake). Apart from choosing first the tables with the high % of players to flop, I have virtually stopped table selecting - I just hop on as many tables from 3/6 to about 6/12 as I feel comfortable playing. I am pretty confident that I can beat any table at these stakes (on this site at least), and with rakeback, rake chases and a deposit bonus I am way into green territory. And I am still constantly surprised at the number of poor players who hover around the higher stakes.

Case in point was a nice little half hour heater at 6/12 which netted 25BB or so. The player on my right was an awful, awful loose passive player who would play way too many hands preflop, call too many bets and then fold the river if he didn't have a pretty strong hand. Earlier, I played with a mouthy guy at 4/8 who is a dreadful weak tight player - he plays way too tight preflop and then completely fails to get value from his monsters (his set of kings went check-check on the turn and river because someone raised him on the flop).

It's probably obvious from reading the above that I am running well - up nearly $2500 since the last cooler just over a week ago. I am planning to take a bit of a break once I hit this month's $2500 rake target, since I have been playing way too much and have a lot of other stuff going on in my life.

Semi-tilt

Had a horrific session last night. Played two 1/2 tables on Captain Cook, and found them very tough. Several tight aggressive players, lots of aggressive postflop play, 3-bets preflop most hands. I ended up dropping $100 in an hour or two. I don't think I played that badly, and I certainly had a bad run of cards - but the crucial mistake was not getting away from tables that don't look profitable. One of my major leaks is that I try too hard to dig myself out of a hole instead of just stopping.

I must learn the lesson of bort: table selection is the number one priority..

Loose or Tight?

Many poker books and websites will advise very tight play, especially before the flop.

Tight play may well be profitable, however it isn't very fun. And while I do plan to be a winning poker player, I also want to have some fun along the way. Fold, fold, fold, fold, check, fold, fold raise, fold just isn't my idea of a good time.

How tight I play will depend to some degree on the temperament of the table. My aim is to play slightly tighter than the table, but I also look for loose tables (where a high percentage of players see the flop and the pots tend to be large). Table selection is pretty easy on the iPoker network, as the lobby gives statistics on players to the flop, pot size and hands per hour. You can also see who is on each tables, and how many chips they have. Loose/weak tables with many players calling preflop tend to be lucrative.

I have gained a liking for short-handed tables (maximum six players). This is partly because you are naturally in the action more often with fewer players, but also it is easier to monitor and understand the other players. With only five opponents, you can quickly work out who are the rocks, and who are the calling stations waiting to give you their money. It is also easier to maneouvre yourself into heads-up situations against the weak players that you read well.