Dealing with Fish

A poker fish is any player who routinely plays poor hole cards through the flop, turn and river in the hope of getting lucky and winning a hand. Often a fish will call bets, even large bets, just to see the next card, and whilst the fish will always lose over the long term, in the short term they can make the serious player want to pull their hair out in frustration.

Imagine a hand where Serious Sam is sitting on pocket aces and the flop comes down A2 of hearts and 3 of clubs. Right now he has three of a kind, but he knows that the board makes it possible for someone to get a straight, a flush or even – if the cards fell right – a straight flush. He therefore puts up a solid bet and all but one of the other players fold. The turn is the 8 of hearts. With three hearts on the table Sam has to be careful just in case Loose Liam, the only player remaining, has pocket hearts, but he still doesn’t want his opponent to see a free card, so he bets. Liam calls. The river is the J of hearts. Sam checks. Liam bets. Sam calls and sees that Liam has made a flush. His pocket cards were the 7 of hearts and the 9 of clubs. In other words, cards that should have been folded by a serious player long time ago.

Such fishy play can be extremely frustrating for those of us who want to play real poker rather than video poker, but unfortunately it isn’t uncommon, especially when you are playing at modest levels where anyone can join a game for a buy-in of just a couple dollars. The danger with fishy players is that they can annoy us so much that we run the risk of playing emotionally in order to “get them back”, and this actually decreases our chances of succeeding.

That said, what are the best ways of dealing with fish? Here are a few ideas you can take to the tables the next time you play:

• Make A Note – Most online poker sites allow you to make notes about your opponents. If you spot a fish, make a note of this so that you know how to deal with him the next time you play.
  
   
• Remain calm – It helps if you remind yourself that fishy players only fish because they tend to be rubbish at playing proper poker. The best way to beat a fish is to keep calm and continue playing strategically. Should you find that you can’t remain calm in a cash game, the best alternative is to walk away and take a break or play at another table.
  
   
• Don’t Converse – Entering into conversations with a fish is very unlikely to make you feel any better. If anything, it’s just more likely to wind you up further. We advise staying silent as far as chat is concerned, and if just reading what a fish has to say makes you feel stressed, close the chat window altogether.
  
   
• Tighten Your Game – Many players loosen up when facing a fish in order to try and beat them at their own game, but that is the wrong approach. What you should really do is tighten your game so that you increase your odds of winning with the hands that you do play.
  
   
• Slow Play Monsters – If you are playing a proven fish and you get a monster hand that can’t be out-drawn, don’t bet a very large amount until you have allowed the fish to call you all the way to the river, otherwise you might scare him off. Slow play instead and build the pot up. If the fish is the aggressive type, a check on the river might actually tempt him to go all-in to scare you, in which case you can call and take his stack all at once.

We will never be able to eliminate fish from the game of poker, but we can certainly take steps to avoid getting bitten by them too often. Try applying the ideas presented here and you may actually turn the next fish you meet into your poker supper. Bon Appétit!