When it comes to picking online cash games, most poker players just like to jump in the first open game they see. There’s no rhyme or reason to the way they select cash game tables because it’s all about open seats. But if you truly want to be a successful online texas holdem player and find tables filled with fish and find great Internet casino, then you’ve got to be more selective when picking cash games.
And your primary tools for finding ring games filled with bad players are the flop-viewed percentage and average pot size. Both of these statistics are available in online poker lobbies so it’s just a matter of looking at each table to find the most favorable games.
When looking at flop-viewed percentages, you want to find tables with a high number in this category. The reason why is because people who don’t know how to play texas hold em very well tend to see the flop a lot instead of using good hand selection. And people who play poor hands will give away lots of money to better players who stick to playing good hands.
On a 9-player table, you want to find tables that have a flop-viewed percentage above 35%. With short-handed tables that have 6 players or less, you want the flop-viewed percentage to be 50% or more. Keep in mind though that the amount of players currently at a table can artificially inflate the flop-viewed number – i.e. 5 players at a 9 player table could produce a 55% flop-viewed number, which doesn’t mean much.
Moving on, the other thing you want to look at is the average pot size. With pot sizes, you’re hoping to find lower amounts so that you can play with non-aggressive players. And if you can find non-aggressive players, you’ll be able to steal blinds and small pots easier.
5 times the amount of the big blind is a good number to shoot for in regards to pot sizes. So if you play $2/$4 No-Limit Hold’em, an average pot size of $20 indicates that the table is pretty non-aggressive. Again keep in mind that the table needs to be nearly full to make this an accurate number.
So before choosing your next online cash game table, make sure to look at the flop-viewed percentage and pot size.