Playing poker at any time of the day from anywhere in the world is easier than ever. Whenever you get the urge you can sit down and play poker online. There is always a game going somewhere. The question is, “is there a good game going?” If you’re just sitting at the first table that becomes available, you’re probably costing yourself money.

The United States Constitution says that all men are created equal. I don’t know if that is true, but I can tell that the same is definitely NOT true of all poker games. There are good games and there are bad games, and playing only in the very good ones can have a huge impact on your bottom line. So how do we find these hidden gold mines?

One way is to look at table averages. This may mean finding games with a high number of people seeing the flop, very few preflop raises, or generally loose, passive play. Its easy to see table data if you play online and use any type of tracking software. Live games can be more difficult to gauge, but a close eye for an orbit or two should give you the information that you need. These loose passive games can be hard to find at times and can be nearly impossible to find at some limits. If you find yourself in this situation it may mean that you have to have a more specific approach to find the best games to play in. This is where your buddy / fishy lists and notes come into play.

Often the most profitable thing to do is find one specific player that you know plays quite poorly and exploit their well known weaknesses over and over. This may well mean sitting at a table that otherwise looks like a tough table. If you can get position on an extremely weak player you may well make a living by just isolating that player every chance that you get. If the player is unable to fold, you may want to raise with any hand with showdown value in an attempt to isolate their weaker hand. If they tend to raise too much with weak hands you probably have a good reason to re raise and isolate them with position. If you want to hunt down specific players you need to make sure to keep detailed notes and a list of those players that you want to seek out.

If you are not practicing any type of table selection, do not have a buddy/fishy list, and are not keeping notes on your opponents, you will probably find that your win rate will significantly improve once you start implementing these simple yet effective techniques.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker and receives Rakeback at Ultimate Bet and Rakeback at Absolute Poker.