A little more time today to write this up.
This is a scenario in which 9 players are seated.
1
Pro, 1
Hero, and 7
Donkeys.
This is a pretty good game to be in.
Seating arrangements:
DDHDDDDPD
Optimal
DDDHPDDDD
Also Optimal - You have position on the only good player. And the rest are donkeys!
DDDPHDDDD
Worst Possible Seat out of the 3- solely because the only good player has position on you 8 out of 9 times.
(although it isn't necessarily unprofitable)
However, for the
DDDHPDDDD arrangement any time the Pro decides to play (aside from when he's the button), you will have position on him making it much easier to take advantage of certain plays.
. intentionally playing out of position against the player you expect to win most of your profit from and hoping that it isn't going to matter is flawed thinking.
Well I never said that you would be intentionally playing fish out of position. A fish on your left is fine though. I simply stated that if you end up in a hand with them, you'll still likely be okay. What isn't fine is a solid winning player or a pro on your left.
My whole point is that having a bad player directly to your left is ideal as opposed to the only good player at the table if there is one. Having position is a 2 way street. One other person will have position on you most of the time (immediate left) and hopefully he's not good. Likewise, In the event there is a good player on your immediate right then that's fine, atleast you will have position on him, and you can not only minimize your losses but also take advantage of plays that are available to you in position.
Also Fish are fish... it doesn't matter where they are sitting, they will be in hands they shouldn't be in and try to play you out of position. Most solid poker seating strategies consist of not only having an aggressive loose idiot to your right, but making sure you sit where you have position on good players giving you the advantage. Not sitting where the fish are and ignorantly ignoring that you are putting yourself at risk by giving positional advantages to good players.
Here are 3 sources for you:
https://www.partypoker.com/how-to-play/school/advanced/the-right-seat.html
"Which position? Money generally moves clockwise around the table, so once you’ve spotted where the best players are, sit to their left (if you can)"
http://www.poker1.com/archives/7579/choosing-the-winning-poker-seat
"Okay, so loose players and aggressive WINNERS go on your right." -nits go left.
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/where-sit-relative-player-types-155350/
"Pure fish (35/2/whatever) are welcome everywhere on my tables, because they're clueless. Value betting these guys, since they don't know how to value hands or read hands properly, is generally very profitable."
As far as the jesus seat goes... this really implys that you have a maniac donkey to your right, and have NITS to your left. Definitely no really good players to your immediate left. Its like the perfect seat. You have the aggression leverage over the fish who call all around the table, and have some maniac betting into you when you can hold the nuts. But at the same time if the table has good players, you'd want the best players on your right for that positional advantage not the other way around. Why give them that extra advantage against you? If a fish has that advantage against you it'll hardly be utilized.
Like I said, position is a 2 way street. We can't just ignore who we are inadvertently giving position to when we pick seats that we think will net us profits.