This is a concept that could easily be applied to any level and even though it was played at the $10-$20 no limit Texas Hold’em level, it could just as well be played at any other. In fact, this has nothing to do with the actual playing of the hand but in the decision taken before I even sat down at the poker table. As players start to progress up through the limits then game selection becomes ever more important. The problem is that many players do not do the necessary ground work in order to be able to get themselves into beatable poker games.

This may seem obvious but if you are in a game that is too tough for your abilities then your expectation will be negative.

You may win or you may lose during any one given session but if you persist in sitting in poker games where your expectation is negative then you’re not going to become a winning poker player! At the lower levels, game selection is not as critical mainly because any player with adequate skills and a good rakeback deal will likely earn money. But as you begin to move up, the players get far tougher and the effect of a rakeback deal is offset by the increasing stakes that you are playing for and this is when game selection is critical to success.

But we can take game selection a step further and move into an area that few cash game players ever consider and that is one of seat selection. It is a common fact in poker that money flows in a clockwise direction and this indicates the importance of having position once again. This undisputed law of poker is basically set in stone and is why players who flout this law will be long term losers in poker.

But a bad seat in an otherwise good game can be almost as bad as a bad game. If I go onto a poker site and see a couple of players who I know to be good sitting in a game of $10-$20 then I may sit and watch that game for awhile to try and assess the other players or I may jump straight in if I can get a good seat. But what I don’t want to do is to jump into that game and take any old seat and have a good player having position over me on every single hand. Or worse still, what if I just sat down with both of the strong players sitting in the two seats to my immediate left?

It is bad enough one strong poker player having position over you but two is a bit much. On many occasions, I have simply refused a seat on a certain table because of who would be holding position over me. This handicap isn’t as pronounced in Sit and go tournaments as stack sizes shrink relative to the blinds very quickly and decisions become easier. Please keep a good lookout for part two of this hand example coming shortly where I will be finding ways to add metagame value to your poker game.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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