Know your table limits

[twizzybop]

Excerpt from an e-mail..

If you're playing to learn, nothing will challenge your poker skills like being at a table with Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon. If you're playing poker for entertainment and making money isn't your goal, by all means choose your tables according to where you'll have the most fun. But if your only goal is to make money, forget about everything except picking the weakest game at a limit you can afford, even if it's the $1-$2 game when you're itching to play $2-$4. In ring game poker, it is better to play smaller at the table you're likely to beat than it is to play bigger at a tougher table. You also need to take your time about moving up a level. I have seen many $1-$2 players sustain steady win rates at those stakes for a month, then disappear for weeks after taking a shot at the $2-$4 game.

Knowing where to play is as important as knowing how to play. If you pay close attention to your game selection, you'll grow the kind of bankroll that will allow you to have more games to choose from.

 

[titans4ever]

Totally agree. If it is money you are looking for, then check the ego at the door and find the easiest game going and sit there. I don't care if you are use to playing $10/$20, if you see a bunch of idiots throwing there money away at a $3/$6 game, you are obligated to get in there and take it all from them.

If your buddies who play 10/20 give you a bad time, then so be it, you just made a couple hundred bucks the easy way. I would rather work as easy as I can for my money.

I set up my home game with really good players to keep me sharp. I go to the casino to find the easiest table to play and will sit there.

 

[Jesus Lederer]

If it´s money what you are looking for or if you want to take the challenge of playing and beating tough games, either way you need to choose the games according to you bankroll. The most important thing at the moment of the table selection is to consider the limits in relation to how much big is your bankroll.
Then if your goal is to make money you must choose the tables where you can actually have a profit. But if you are like me and play poker for the glory of beating others and not for the money, then unless you have a huge bankroll, you need to select the lowest quality games where you make a profit. In my experience i don´t play for the money but i´m obligated to choose the games i can beat. Why? The reason is simple: with my bankroll i cannot play in the games i want. I don´t want to be risking almost all my bankroll on just 3 or 4 games where i know the quality is better. So as gfpokerfan said i have to leave my ego at the door and play just the easiest games. Without making a deposit i have managed to get more than $400 distributed on 2 sites. With that money i could move up from levels but i still play $5 & $10 SNG. The reason is that i know i can beat that games, but probably if i move up from limits i could lose a big part of my bankroll. My goal is to keep increasing my bankroll until i can play at higher limits without risking too much, so even if i don´t get what i want now (playing for the challenge), i have to assume that i can´t do anything else.

ps: it´s true that if you see Phil Gordon playing at FTP you´ll learn some things. He´s the nicest guy there, and he´ll answer to almost every question you make him. Even sometimes when he wins a pot he shows his hand and explains why did he do that move. Once i played with him at a low limit ring table and it was a good experience...

 

[stunno]

I've been playing for a few months and trying to learn something in the process. I played mainly on the freerolls on Jetset and invested the 'winnings' in the low limit SNGs, which is a different game again!

When I got up to a stash of about $10, I tried the low limit cash tables and lost the lot, very quickly. So I built it up again through the freerolls and started on the cash tables again this week. So far up to £75 from 10/20c and once on the dizzy heights of 25/50c!!

Some of the guys work with are cashing $1000 a month out of 888 and keep trying to get me to join in, but I am quite happy where I am for the time being, thank you very much! Even if they do laugh, but then again, I have never invested a penny of my own money in a poker site!