Why is it important to be able to spot the fish? It should be pretty obvious – they’re the players that you want to get in as many hands as possible with. They’ll be making the biggest mistakes for the most amount of chips, and when they do you want to be there raking them in. Here are five instant giveaways of a fishy player. If you’re guilty of any of these leaks you’ve got to plug them immediately.
1. Checking down big hands. Weak players relatively new to the game are often desperate to keep players in the hand when they get dealt or flop a monster. They’re so afraid that they won’t get paid when they’re ahead that they end up checking and then sticking it in when they’re behind – hopefully to you.
2. “It’s rigged!” This has to be the biggest giveaway, when a player refuses to take responsibility for his actions and blames the integrity of a site in the chatbox.
3. Passive play. There are times where check-calling is the correct line for you to take, but it’s just not very often. So when you notice someone is regularly check-calling all the way down with a variety of hands you can safely tag them as a big flapping fish.
4. Sharkscope. If you’re a sit-and-go or tournament player and have never used Sharkscope.com then shame on you! Sharkscope is an incredible resource for checking out who’s who at your table (and also a good way to spot your own leaks and strengths).
5. They have no idea of position. Fish tend to share the problem of having a broken internal poker compass. They’ll regularly limp-call out of position – often with pocket pairs or easily dominated face cards for far more of their stack than they should – which will usually be followed by a check-fold on the flop. Spot players that regularly defend their big blinds with hands like K-6o and punish with a pre-flop raise and solid continuation bet. They may as well ship their money to you by bank transfer.