And how to avoid being the fish in your poker game
GOING FISHING This article will help two types of reader. If you’re a poker player with some experience it will help you target easy prey and if you are just starting out it will help warn you about behavioural patterns to avoid when you’re playing poker for the first time. Probably the easiest clue to a brand new fish is the “calling station”. If you railbird a while you’ll spot players calling almost every starting hand they are dealt regardless of its value. It quite often happens that a novice player will call every bet all the way down to a showdown and will be just as likely to reveal a Queen high at the end of it as a pair of Aces. There would have been no clue to them owning Aces because they would not have raised or re-raised at any point during the hand. Similarly their dogged determination to call a Queen high all the way down to the wire, presumably in pursuit of another hopeful Queen, indicates the two tragic extremes of their inability to place a proper value on either set of hole cards. You are looking at a living, breathing fish! All you have to do is reel it in.
OTHER CLUES Fish can also be spotted doing the exact opposite of perpetual calling. Anyone who is rather obviously over or under betting a hand is giving off tells that they are inexperienced. Players who put down heavy bets for small potential pot rewards on risky hands are easily noted from a railbird position. This kind of play reveals a complete lack of understanding of pot odds. Again, you are likely looking at a fish or an idiot. Either will be rewarding and worth pursuing.
SOCIAL FISH TELLS Social tells are of course rather easier to spot than online tells which require a bit of time to get used to and exploit. The classic social game signals would be an uncomfortable shuffle of the cards. Spilling of cards and or chips onto the felt and holding hole cards comically close to the chest with keen interest. Obviously you will need to be streetwise enough to recognise if any of these gestures are deliberate and merely a “con” from a player you haven’t seen before and who is carefully crafting a table image with which to bite you later. If they look like Ed Norton, it might be a clue.
Poker Nutz Online Cash Course: "There Are A Few Simple Secrets That All The Online Poker Sharks Don't Want You To Know. In fact, These Poker Pro's Will Pull Every String Possible To Keep You From Cashing In On Their Massively Hidden Income Streams. Click here!".
THE ACES poker column: Friday, December 15, 2006: "Spotting Fish Tells In Poker Players"
