A shark – the common name for a solid winning player – is not pre-ordained to win but they are going to make life tougher for you, putting you in some tough spots and making less mistakes than the fish at the table. Determining who these players are and what kind of game they employ will not only reduce their win rate but it will also increase your edge against them. Here are a few tell-tale signs of a tough player.
1. They have a big chipstack. This is truer at the cash tables than in a tournament where players can easily stick it in and run good. When you’re playing with static blinds and someone has built their stack to 250 big blinds or more it’s usually a sign of a good player. This is not always the case but it should be the first thing that you look at.
2. Taking control. Which players are taking control of the hands that they play? They could be loose or tight pre-flop, but if a player is betting and raising every time that they’re in a hand, you can mark them down as having a solid game at the very least. The caveat here is if the player is a complete maniac, spewing chips with wild abandon. In which case, try and hit a big hand against them!
3. What hands are they showing down? When a hand goes to showdown take a look at what constitutes the range of hands that they’re playing. Is there ever any junk? If so was there a solid reason for why they were playing it? Are they the kind of player that raises with Q-x suited from the button? That probably constitutes them as a player with a good knowledge of position, but if it’s Q-5o then maybe they’re a little too loose. There’s often a fine line between a shark and a maniac, so always think back through a hand, because what might look like fishy play on the river could be solid strategy when you check back a street or two.
4. Table chat (or lack of it). Most winning players are fairly silent at the table, not letting themselves getting distracted by moaning about suckouts, coolers or perceived ‘bad play’. Having seen tens or hundreds of thousands of hands they’ll just move on to the next and try to play as close to optimal as possible without lingering over a mild swing in variance.
5. SharkScope. This website is great for spotting winning and losing players. Okay, it’s not quite as useful in ring games, but even then you can still get an indication of whether someone is a winning player in Sit & Go’s and tournaments. Although the skills don’t transfer across 100%, it’s still worth taking a look.