fharmas hasn't registered for Wass Gold yet - have you?
Posts: n/a
Different Kinds of Tournament Fish – How to Recognize and Beat Them
There are weak players in all of poker tournaments, from the lowest to the highest buy-ins. Of course, a tournament with a buy-in of 20$ has a lot of weaker players than a tournament of 500$. When you start at an online tournament, you have to evaluate somewhat rapidly the kind of players that surround you, and a fundamental part of it is spotting the “fish”. When I mention fish, I am referring to players whose techniques and knowledge of poker is so poor, that they stand no chance of going deep in the tournament. In my opinion, There are different kinds of fish, which I will group into 4 different categories, according to their playing patterns: -The Passive, limp-fold fish – He limps more than 50% of the hands, he calls every sort of raise pre-flop (except all-ins), and he folds post-flop except when he hits top or middle pair. It is the easiest player to deal with. Every time you are heads up with him, you have to bet the flop, either you hit anything or not. If he calls, it’s because he’s got you beat. -The Passive, limp-calling station fish – He limps almost every time, and when he hits anything or has ace high, he thinks he always has the best hand, so he calls every bet on the flop, turn and river. It’s almost impossible to put them on a hand, but since they are very passive, when they reraise you or lead out betting, they got you crushed. -The Loose Aggressive Fish – He doesn’t play as many hands as the passive ones, but he plays much more than a good tight aggressive player, maybe 30 or 40% of the hands. When he goes into play, he always raises or reraises. A good way to spot them is by the size of their bets. When the blinds are 25/50 and you see a guy raising pre-flop to 500, it’s 90% because he’s an aggressive fish. Abnormal bet sizes usually mean pocket tens or pocket jacks, since they don’t know how to play them post-flop. They also lead out betting on the flop every time. In my experience, a good way to deal with them is knocking them out pre-flop, with premium hands. Also, a reraise all-in preflop with AK or AQ usually is good, because they tend to overrate hands like A 10, or AJ, and since they don’t know hand strength, they will call you. Otherwise, avoid confrontation. -The Bluffer Fish – This is the guy who just finished watching High Stakes Poker or the WPT Tour on TV, and thinks he is the greatest player in the world. When he goes into play, he attempts to bluff 90% of the time, with a big reraise on the river. You see a lot of these in the higher buy-in tournaments. I recommend slowplaying a monster on this scenario, and making less than average size bets on the flop, turn and river. I can’t really give you another hint on how to deal with them, except that you have to use your instinct on this one. You will notice that with time and experience you can spot these bluffs more often.
Last edited by bartyuk : 06-29-2009 at 05:12 PM.
Reason: No Links Please
elbandido32 hasn't registered for Wass Gold yet - have you?
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Eagle Pass, , Mexico
Posts: 286
Must have taken you a long time to do all of this evaluating. Interesting stuff. I like to wait it out myself and set the trap to kill these fishies lol. But you do get irritted sometimes especially when they still suck out even after you do everything right!
decker hasn't registered for Wass Gold yet - have you?
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 93
Bluffer Fish?
Bluffer Fish? You forgot one more...There's the Puffer Fish, the one that's tokin' on the ol' weed, and is somewhere deep, but not really playin' great poker!
Different Kinds of Tournament Fish – How to Recognize and Beat Them
LOL
Member of the WSPCM
Linear Mode
