How to avoid playing against poker stables

One of the best ways to game select is to find tables where poker stables don't have horses, says Dara O'Kearney.

I'm a big advocate game selecting small fields, and also playing on smaller sites in general, for reasons I have outlined at length before (low variance, lots of ICM practice, good for mental game).

There is another reason why I think it's wise to play on small sites and in small fields, and that is the absence of poker stables.

Some of the bigger sites are rife with stables of staked players, and they are one of the reasons why the fields are so large. The bigger stables even have influence with the big poker rooms. The rooms that do not cooperate with stables tend to be softer. 

Reg avoidance>>fish finding

You simply don't get these stables on smaller sites, they tend to stick to the big fields with big guarantees.

I know a lot of pros who prefer playing mornings on the bigger sites, where the fields are smaller, because most of the stables avoid them.

Stables make the games tougher because they are broadly full of decent winning regulars; in the worst-case scenarios, they are a massive collusion risk.

When you are considering game selection, it holds true that avoiding good regulars is more important than finding the whales.

You can get Dara's free book on effective poker study by joining his mailing list.