If game selection is the single most important decision in poker, then opponent selection is undoubtedly one of the most significant factors in making that decision. If you play regularly at the same limit at a single site, then you will often run into the same opponents whom you have faced before. At one of the smaller sites, you should be able to identify the good and bad regular players quite quickly, whereas at a larger site there will probably be a number of unfamiliar players in almost every game (set against this, the larger site will have the wider selection of games overall).

Whatever site you choose to play at, if you take the trouble to take notes while you play, you will quickly be able to identify whether there are any players whom you would particularly like to play against, choosing one table over another in order to target the weaker players and avoid the stronger ones. Sometimes it is even worth stepping up or dropping down in limit if you spot one or two of your favourite opponents playing in a higher or lower game than you would normally play. Often a game can be good even if it features just a single player who is almost guaranteed to lose all of his money.

But what if you don’t know anything about any of the players, how do you then decide to play at one table rather than another? In that case you may choose to sit out and watch a few games to see which might be most suitable. If you are playing regularly at the higher limits of a particular site, games in which you don’t recognise anyone can actually be potential goldmines, absent all the regular pros and perhaps instead filled with inexperienced players.

Many players, however, like to get stuck into the action as soon as possible. Instead of actually watching the games, they make their game selection according to the lobby information on the average number of players per flop (or fourth street for stud) and average pot size, if such information is provided by the site. Broadly speaking, games can be classified as follows:

High flop seen percentage and high average pot size: loose-aggressive

High flop seen percentage and low average pot size: loose-passive

Low flop seen percentage and high average pot size: tight-aggressive

Low flop seen percentage and low average pot size: tight-passive

Depending upon your style of play, one type of game may be more attractive than another. Some aggressive players often prefer tight-passive games, where they can use their forcefulness to steal more pots both before and after the flop, whereas many other players prefer loose games with normal-sized pots, where they do not have to pay too much to see the flop, but figure to be able to outplay their opponents from the flop onwards. Bear in mind, however, that it is very hard to beat a tight-aggressive game.

In general (using $3/$6 and $5/$10 online games as an example; micro-limit games will usually be somewhat looser), any game with more than 30% of players seeing the flop is certainly not prohibitively tight, and a figure of 40% or more indicates a very good game. An average pot size of around six big bets is fairly typical, and a pot of eight big bets or more is certainly on the large side.

However, you should exercise some caution with such selection methods, since with so many players coming and going online, the complexion of a game can change very rapidly with the arrival or departure of one or two loose players, either once you are involved in the game itself, or even just while you are sitting on the waiting list!

For example, it is not uncommon for tables with high flop seen percentages to attract long waiting lists as the vultures sense blood and start to circle, ready for the kill; by the time you reach the top of the waiting list they may have already devoured their prey and the game may no longer be good. Furthermore, it is possible that the current averages are not really a good reflection of the game as a whole - the inherent short-term fluctuations of a game of poker are such that the last 20 or so hands may not necessarily be a particularly reliable sample.

If you do decide to use the average players/flop or average pot statistics in game selection, it is important to check back to the lobby at periodic intervals to ensure that the game still meets your criteria.

Another factor that you may like to consider when making your table selection is the stack sizes of all the players. Whereas in a brick and mortar cardroom buy-ins can vary hugely from one player to the next, online they tend to be much more standardised. For example, if the maximum buy-in in a pot-limit game is $100 and there are three or more players with stacks of over $300 then you may be up against some quality players (or at least some players on a hot streak) who have been busting out their opponents, whereas if everyone has $50 or less then there is probably less to fear.

In a fairly recent (2002) article at casino.com, Andrew Glazer suggested that a similar concept may also apply to low-limit games. If there are several players with substantially larger stacks than the cardroom’s ‘recommended’ buy-in for that limit, this may indicate that they are better than average players. Whilst this is obviously less reliable for limit than for pot-limit games (since in limit games some players like to buy-in for more than the recommended amount anyhow) it may still help to lead you away from the tougher games. However, Glazer’s theory is probably more reliable when you are considering a table in which only one or two players are playing with even the recommended buy-in and the rest are short-stacked, either because they have already incurred losses (either through bad play or bad luck) to recently departed winners, or because they are inadequately bankrolled and were forced to opt for a short buy-in from the outset. In these circumstances, you can be fairly certain that at least the game is not full of sharks!

Finally, it is worth mentioning one final game selection ’shortcut’ you could just look for a player whom you know focuses carefully on game selection and join the game in which they are already playing!