Seat Selection

Most players will spend time selecting the most profitable tables to play at, but do not take into consideration there seat position.  Obviously online you can not pick the seat you would like to sit at, but you can choose to stay or leave a table if your seat selection is not profitable for you.

You look for tables with a high amount of players seeing the flop and where the average pot is fairly high. This tells you the table is very loose and willing to play for big profits, but what happens when you sit down and find that the players around you make it very difficult to play any hand at all.

If you find that the player who has position on you is a perpetual 3 bettor, or a player that never gives up and forces you to make a hand, it might be better to move onto another table.  Ideally you would like to have position on the weaker players at the table and hopefully no players in position on you that know how to use that position.

If you find yourself at a table with a few weak players, but with a couple very strong or difficult to play against players who have position on you, there is no shame in moving to another table with more profitable overall conditions.

Just because you find yourself at a table with a couple weak players does not mean the table is most suitable for you to make a profit.  Find tables that allow you to have the most profitable seat selection to maximize profit.  For each player this will be different depending on your playing style and ability to adapt to the table conditions. 

Making Big Laydowns

In order to be a big winner you have to be capable of making the big laydown when you know you are beat.

We have all been in that situtation on the river when your opponent suddenly bets into you after calling on the other streets.   There really is nothing that we beat that he would be doing this with, but we call anyways just to prove to ourselves that we are right.

In order to be a successful player we have to learn to trust our reads.  If your read is telling you that you are beat, even with a really big hand, then fold.  Calling to prove that your read is correct or being stubborn and not wanting to believe that you got sucked out on will eat into your profits. 

The Squeeze Play

A loose opponent raises from early position and gets called by another player.  The caller probably has a marginal hand or they would have re-raised the initial loose player.

The play is now on you and you re-raise knowing that the initial raiser is loose and could have a wide range of hands and that the caller must have a marginal hand or he would have re-raised himself.  A large amount of the time both players will fold and you will win a large pot without seeing the flop.

The move is most effective when you are in position on both players, making it even more difficult for either of them to call your raise.

Table Selection

Almost all poker site have made table selection a lot easier with lobby stats.  They display the percentage of players seeing the flop and the average pot size among other stats. 

What you want to look for is tables where the players per flop is at least 30% and have an average pot size of 10 big blinds or more.  These will be the most profitable tables to play at.  Many sites will also allow you to color code players.  You can then see these color codes from the lobby allowing you to identify players that you have marked as being profitable to play against.  It is good practice to always mark players, wether it is regulars or the fish for quick identification from the lobby.

When you do find the right tables to play at and sit down don't be afraid to continually re-assess and change tables when you feel the table conditions have changed. You could end up with a loose aggressive player who has position on you, making it very difficult to play any hands, or being sitting with a bunch of rocks that aren't going to part with their money easily. 

There are plenty of tables out there, so find the ones that have the most profitable conditions for you and your playing style.