Online poker moves so fast that you don’t have hours and hours to spot the sucker. This is especially true if you’re playing the fast fold poker formats that are popular on the major sites. That’s why in this article we’re going to explain a few easy to recognise signs that a fish is on your table. By recognising who the fish are, you will be able to target them for the rest of the session and increase your win rate.
Sign 1 – Open Calling
When a player open calls in Texas Hold’em, they are giving away free information at the table. They’re saying “I have a hand I want to see the flop with cheaply”. You will never see a winning player open call. This is a huge leak and considered very weak amongst experts. They realise open calling is likely to see other players raise over you, isolate you and bully you post-flop.
Ask an expert what is limping in poker, and you will get a wide smile. Limping is a no go if you want to win at poker in 2021 and something fishes love to do. This is an easy sign of a bad player and something a tight aggressive player avoids.
Sign 2 – Min Bets
The minimum bet is another sure-fire sign of an inexperienced player. A regular knows about bet sizing and will be betting accordingly. A minimum bet does not accomplish anything. It’s like a cheap steal that the rest of the table can see right through. If you’re playing a cash game or tournament and see someone throwing out a min bet, you can safely tag them as a fish. Min betting is just bad poker strategy for both online and offline poker.
Sign 3 – Filling Up Chat Box
When online poker took off, nobody knew poker especially well. OK, there were some great players but most of us were just better than the rest. We made foolish mistakes like chat and make comments after hands in the chat box.
Nowadays, the chat box is an unused feature. But not for the fishes! They love to chat from what they folded to trying to get a response to a big bet. This is a definite sign of a fish when they start chatting to you online.
Most experts are playing many tables and don’t have time to discuss strategy or tell you what hand they had. Frankly, they don’t care and aren’t looking! If you see your opponent mouthing off in chat, he’s almost certainly going to be a one-tabling losing poker player.
There you have it, three signs to watch out for to identify if someone is a fish. If you enjoyed this article, read our top ten poker tips article for more help on how to win at poker.