[Turtle91]

That's almost exactly what I use. Although, I tighten up the css a little, but that is just technique, not at all required.

table { 
        max-width: 95%;
        border-collapse: collapse;
        margin: 1em auto;
    }
tbody  td {
        border: 1px solid black;
        padding: 5px;
        text-align:center
    }
tbody  td:first-child {
        text-align: right
    }

I usually format headers and footers differently than the body, so I use the "tbody td", "thead th", and "tfoot td" individually.

I have seen css using "id" tags to define something specific...especially if it is used with js, but I haven't figured out if there is a point to it just to say that it is a tag... (especially since the IDs need to be unique). eg. <table id="table">

...same concept as people using classes (<p class="para">, <blockquote class="block">, etc.). Just define the base tag, then use a class or ID for a specific deviation from the default.

If there IS a reason, I would be interested in knowing.

You will also hear that tables should only be used when you absolutely MUST... and anything larger than 2-3 columns should be re-thought as it really messes up the display on smaller screen sizes; large tables usually do better as an image.