Nine players are a lot to keep an eye on. When you’re playing poker online at a 10-handed table, it’s not easy to pay close attention to all of the players at the table. If you sit back, don’t play too often, and don’t talk or be sociable, you might be able to do this pretty well, but chances are no one will like you. When playing online poker, it’s a little easier to keep tabs on players. You can make player notes to help you remember the action. Action is clear and previous hands can be replayed at the click of a button, not to mention the clarity of stack sizes. There are even a slew of programs designed to collect information on how your opponents have been playing.

Again though, in the live atmosphere, this is not the case. You’re relying on your own mental recollection and observation. Sometimes, if you’re playing in a new environment, this is the first encounter you have with all of your 9 opponents.

In this instance it is sometimes appropriate to pick one or two players at the table and make them your targets.

Watch their hands from start to finish. If you see how they began a pot, and watch them play through to a showdown, you will probably have a good idea of how/when you can take a pot away from them. Maybe you will even catch a visual tell because you’re entirely focused on that one person, as opposed to scanning the entire table when the hands are dealt.

After a while, they might notice that you are playing back at them more often than others, so you want to be discrete about your observation gathering. Sometimes this will put them on tilt, which is probably a good thing for you. Frustration makes people to odd things.

So, when you’re overwhelmed by a table full of new online poker opponents, take a look around, pick one player and set a mark on him. Concentrate on how to get his money first, and everyone else’s second.