Don't you just love it when new and feeble players land at your table? A lot fo people see frustration, but you should see opportunity! There are so many things we do in life where we know how good we are. It’s so easy to know you’re good at math, or science or history at school. At the yard or in the gym – if you play sports – it’s so easy to spot the better players in things like basketball, football, chess, billiards, bowling, etc. It’s just so easy to know who is skilled and who is unskilled.

The same thing should apply in poker. At a table I can tell who I am better than and who I am worse than. But you know, these things you know in the live game don’t really translate so fluidly in the online game. I hardly see the skill discrepancy in the low limit online players compared to the medium ones. Skilled players are easy to spot though. Not that it makes much difference that I don’t know the difference between the less skilled and the medium skilled, because I win a fair amount off of them obviously but it wouldn’t hurt to know right?

Of course, everyone knows the saying, "If you can't spot the sucker at the table, then you're the sucker." But spotting the sucker in online play, especially in the low limit tables is just a bit challenging. And don’t tell me they all suck the same. That may be a given but you know, as an exercise in psychological poker play, it’s nice to be able to try and gauge the skill level of each one you’re playing against on a table. This makes it a heck of a lot easier to figure out their range when you go head to head.

The regular tips really don’t apply here. You can’t read a person’s face, his body language, and eyes etc as well, you might be playing with people from halfway around the world. It’s only the computer monitor you can see and the actions that they do on the table, or tables if multi-table.

One tack I’ve found useful is to try stat-tracking software. Software makes it really easy, and you don't even have to go to showdown. The player that has 40% VPIP/6%, PFR/1.2 AF can be considered loose/passive; player 2 who has 20/10/2 would be a nit; and Mr. 75/35/5 is a aggressive. Of course, that’s just my take.

Another way is to just simply pay attention. Pay attention to the ones who cold call raises, or those who fold river bets in big pots. There are guys who limp in with low suits, and those that can’t take advantage of AK’s QQ’s, JJ, and AAs. Some just jump in there, you know, those who just gamble, without knowing the odds. This is helpful in developing your own criteria and skill in sensing player skills will go a long way in helping you select tables to play on.