10 ways to Spot a FISH.

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People who buy in short (i.e. like 25BBs) are almost always fish.

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Buying in TOO short may be a sign, but I've seen many poker experts recommend coming in under the max in order to force yourself to play tighter. The Professor recommended coming in at 60xBB in order to play properly.

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Or just play tighter.

Also note that players buying for less than the max are more likely to be tight.

I'm not nearly a good player

but how about someone thats full of himself on the chat and u can checkraise him twice before he knows u have him beat?

Did this once when I had two pair on the flop.. check raise, he called and the turn gave me a full house. So I thought why not check again to let him catch up, he bet I raise and he called again. On the river I bet out and he fold.

[ajmargarine]

Preflop, a bunch of limpers, a minraise from the SB or BB is a sure sign.

[kurto]

First- Its not wrong to call them fish. Its a short term that everyone recognizes that's easier then writing "horribly stupid players"

1) People who open-minraise or minraise when the're closing the action -- but then fold when anyone makes a real raise. (These are great people to have at the table if you want to checkraise)
2) People who minbet into a huge pot (then fold to a real bet)
3) people who have no idea what the language of betting means
4) people who limp on the button and slowplay their high pocket pairs
5) People who bet with a hand, but bet so small that any draw has the right odds to call.
6) people who play any 2 suited cards
7) 'any ace' players regardless of the pf action
8) This may just be immature and annoying, but when people sit at a table and says something like, "Let's go douchebags. All your chips are mine." -- you usually know an ATM has just joined the table.
9) I know you said this but... 99% of the shortstack players I see are not playing a shortstack strategy. They are most just scared fish who don't want to lose it all in one hand.
10) Last- its pretty obvious that some players don't give a second thought to hand reading. How many times are you at a table thinking to yourself, "what the heck is (insert fish)__________ calling with here? Its clear that the other person just made his straight/flush/has a set, etc." (Hopefully, this will never change)

That's my 10. (I agree that #s 1, 2, 5 and 8 on the other list says a lot about a player)

[FlyingStart]

Sometimes when SB does that and I am the first limper in I make a big but not huge reraise with any pp I limped with to isolate or knock out the SB minraiser. I to this partly because I'm annoyed with the donkraise forcing me to put more money in the pot, and partly because I think players who does this do it with a hand they think are good multiway and want to
"sweeten the pot"

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I'm not sure exactly who fits in the fish category or if it's a descriptive way to describe them, but apparently
they have been around for quite some time



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LMAO, you can't argue with that, you win!

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First- Its not wrong to call them fish. Its a short term that everyone recognizes that's easier then writing "horribly stupid players"

1) People who open-minraise or minraise when the're closing the action -- but then fold when anyone makes a real raise. (These are great people to have at the table if you want to checkraise)
2) People who minbet into a huge pot (then fold to a real bet)
3) people who have no idea what the language of betting means
4) people who limp on the button and slowplay their high pocket pairs
5) People who bet with a hand, but bet so small that any draw has the right odds to call.
6) people who play any 2 suited cards
7) 'any ace' players regardless of the pf action
8) This may just be immature and annoying, but when people sit at a table and says something like, "Let's go douchebags. All your chips are mine." -- you usually know an ATM has just joined the table.
9) I know you said this but... 99% of the shortstack players I see are not playing a shortstack strategy. They are most just scared fish who don't want to lose it all in one hand.
10) Last- its pretty obvious that some players don't give a second thought to hand reading. How many times are you at a table thinking to yourself, "what the heck is (insert fish)__________ calling with here? Its clear that the other person just made his straight/flush/has a set, etc." (Hopefully, this will never change)

That's my 10. (I agree that #s 1, 2, 5 and 8 on the other list says a lot about a player)

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WOW, great list. you get the prize for most ways to spot all in one post. kuddos. 4-7 are all great thx for the post

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(full ring) VERY Fishy = over 40% V$PIP, less than 4% PFR, less than 1.0 total aggression factor not including preflop numbers, a high %Went to Showdown along with a less than 50% Won$atShowdown. Non-stat comments might be "routinely takes TPTK and TPWK too far" and (as you pointed out) calls with Axo and other weak hands OOP in raised pots.

FWIW, maniacs are bad, but they are a special brand of bad who I wouldn't call a fish. I typically think of fish a loose-passive/passive, the guys that Dr. Schoomaker (sp?) says plays for "social" entertainment, always like to see a show down, and mentally write off losses as "just the cost of my otherwise enjoyable hobby playing cards...it is gambling after all..."

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This whole post was detailed and informitive. thx alot. But i don't have PT, (doesnt work at pacific), so can you give me a sample of what you have found the stats are for the avg. "good" players? thx for the post

Good stuff in here, but thought I'd chime in about the time meter idea. I definitely agree with whoever said it is a POOR tell. I'm always multi-tabling and my time to make decisions is so incredibly varied it'd be impossible to learn anything from them. Sometimes it's instantaneous, sometimes it's nearly time, and it's all dependent on what's happening on my other tables.

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Good stuff in here, but thought I'd chime in about the time meter idea. I definitely agree with whoever said it is a POOR tell. I'm always multi-tabling and my time to make decisions is so incredibly varied it'd be impossible to learn anything from them. Sometimes it's instantaneous, sometimes it's nearly time, and it's all dependent on what's happening on my other tables.

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I concur, it was a kinda crappy 4:30AM example and i play on a site where multitabling isn't allowed. So that example rang true more for me then most people i guess. thx for the post