4 Signs You're the Fish in the Poker Game

4 Signs You Are the Fish in the Poker Game


This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.

Experienced poker players can spot recreational players (aka the fish) a mile away.

That’s because poker fish routinely make glaring, fundamental mistakes that cost them a lot of money over the long run.

If you do any of the 4 things on this list, chances are you are the fish in your poker game.

Make sure to eliminate these 4 costly mistakes from your game, but also watch out for other players who may exhibit this fishy behaviour.


Fishy Poker Player Sign #1: You Are Constantly Getting Raised Preflop


If you have a feeling other players always seem to raise you when you try to get involved in the pot, it may be because you’re using the wrong bet sizing preflop.

And if you open-limp into the pot, then you’re definitely using the wrong bet sizing.

To open-limp means to just call the big blind instead of open-raising when you’re the first player to enter the pot.

Open-limping is basically announcing to the whole table: I’m a huge fish, please take all my money!

If you’re the first player to enter the pot, you should always do so with an open-raise.

The standard open-raise size for cash games is 3 times the big blind.

So if you’re playing a $1/$2 cash game, and you get a good hand like A♥️K♠️, you should open-raise to $6.

And if you get too many callers, try making it $8, $10 or even more.

By the way, you can check out my full guide on how to beat $1/$2 cash games at your local casino.

Here’s why you should always open-raise instead of open-limping:

A) To build up the pot


If you are dealt a strong hand, your best bet is to build up the pot with it as soon as possible.

The bigger the pot you build up preflop, the easier it is to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.

For example, if you are dealt pocket Aces or pocket Kings, always raise them preflop!

Avoid tricky lines to try to “trap” your opponents, because this strategy can easily backfire.

B) To avoid multiway pots


A multiway pot is a pot with more than 2 players involved.

If you open-limp, you’re inviting other players to limp behind you, which often leads to big family pots.

The more players involved in the pot, the harder it is for you to win the hand, because every player will have some chunk of equity against you, even if you have a strong hand.

Your hand equity simply refers to the percentage chance of winning the pot if you took your hand to showdown.

Strong premium hands don’t really perform well in multiway pots, because they’re vulnerable to getting outdrawn.

For example, even if you have the best hand in the game, A♥️A♦️, if you let 4 other people see the flop, your odds of winning the pot will be less than 50%.

Many people are shocked to learn this.

C) To gain initiative


If you are the preflop aggressor, you have the opportunity to continue the aggression post flop in the form of a continuation bet (or c-bet for short).

C-bets are usually profitable, so you should usually make a c-bet on most flops unless there’s a specific reason not to do so.

This is something that I actually discussed in my latest YouTube video: 10 Basic Poker Strategies Every Beginner Needs to Master.


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Fishy Poker Player Sign #2: You Buyin for the Minimum Table Amount


When you play cash games, you should always buy in for the maximum table amount.

In most cash games, this is usually 100 big blinds, but some tables allow you to buy in for more than that.

When you’re playing with effective stack sizes of over 100 big blinds, this is known as deepstacked poker.

A lot of amateur poker players just buy in for the minimum amount instead, which is a big mistake.

If you buy in for the minimum amount, you are automatically putting a target on your back.

That’s because you’re telegraphing to the whole table that you’re not really confident in your playing abilities.

Good poker players always want to have as many chips in front of them as possible.

In poker, your chips are your ammunition. The more chips you have, the more opportunities you have to outplay your opponents and win more as a consequence.

For example, let’s imagine that you’re dealt pocket Aces, the strongest starting hand in no-limit hold’em.

Let’s say your opponent goes all in preflop and you happily call them off. Your pocket Aces hold up and you double up.

If you only had 50 big blinds in your stack, you will only win 50 big blinds. But if you had 100 big blinds, you would win 100 big blinds instead (minus the rake, of course).

So if you buy in for the minimum, you’re limiting your potential winnings.

You’re also technically risking less, but that just equates to planning for failure.

When you play poker, you should play to win, and not to avoid losing.

If you want to avoid losing altogether, your best bet is not to play in the first place.

When you play poker, losing from time to time is inevitable, even if you play perfectly.

That’s because poker has a short term luck element involved, so you can still lose despite playing your best.

If you’re not completely comfortable losing your whole stack (or a couple of them, for that matter), it’s a good sign you should drop down in stakes or play a softer game.

If live cash games are too cost prohibitive for you, consider playing poker online.

In online poker, you can find cash games with buyins as low as only $2 or $5. These are known as NL2 and NL5 cash games.

If you play in either of these games, I have already written extensive articles on how to beat NL2 and how to beat NL5.

However, keep in mind that online poker players are usually better than their live counterparts.

While you are likely to play against a lot of recreational players at your local $1/$2 cash game, this won’t be the case if you buy in for $200 online (aka NL200).

At NL200, you will face a lot of tough regulars, and even some semi-professional or professional poker players, with very few recreational players around.

So if you want to give online poker a go, start at the lower stakes and gradually work your way up as you get more experience.


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Fishy Poker Player Sign #3: You Play Too Many Hands


Playing too many hands preflop is one of the most common amateur poker mistakes.

As a general rule, the more hands somebody plays, the weaker the player. Of course, one can go to the other extreme and play too few hands.

These players are referred to as nits, and they usually play very timidly. Nits are usually breakeven players or small winners at best.

However, a far more common trend for amateur poker players is playing too many hands for their own good.

In no-limit hold’em, most hands miss most flops (2 out of 3 times on average).

And since you have to pay up every time to see the flop, the more flops you see, the more money you’ll lose over the long run.

And no, the times you actually do hit won’t make up for all the losses. That’s because not every hand is created equal in no-limit hold’em.

Some hands have a much better chance of connecting with the flop than others.

And most of the “junk hands” have a very poor chance of connecting with the board in some meaningful way.

And even when they do, they usually make a marginal hand at best.

For example, if you constantly play with mediocre to weak kickers, you run the risk of your hand being dominated.

The kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can determine the winner if both players have the same combination.

For example, if both players have a pair of Aces, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.

So let’s say you are dealt a hand like A♥️3♠️. Your hand is potentially losing to a lot of stronger Ax hands since you have a weak kicker.

So even if you make a pair of Aces post flop, you can still potentially lose the hand.

You also have an offsuit hand, which makes it a lot harder to make a flush.

Speaking of flushes, a lot of amateur poker players also make the mistake of playing just about any suited hand for the prospect of making a flush.

But this is also a big mistake, since it’s actually very hard to make a flush in no-limit hold’em.

If you’re dealt a suited hand, the chance of flopping a flush is less than 1%!

You have a better chance of flopping a flush draw, but this is also far from likely (around 11%).

So what actually makes a good starting hand in Texas Hold’em?

A) Play high cards that can make strong pairs, like AJ or KQ

B) Play connected hands that can make a straight, like JT or 98

C) Play suited hands that can make a flush.

A good starting poker hand will have some combination of the above factors: high cards, connected cards, suited cards.

Again, avoid playing hands with bad kickers, as well as suited junk.

By the way, here is my complete guide on exactly which hands to play in Texas Hold'em.


Fishy Poker Player Sign #4: You Call Too Much


To be a winning poker player, it’s not enough to know which hands to play. You also need to know how to play them.

Aside from playing too many hands, another common amateur poker mistake is playing your hands too passively.

To play passively means to check and call a lot instead of betting and raising.

As mentioned, if you’re the first player to enter the pot, you should always do so with an open-raise.

Example: 

You have A♥️J♥️ in a $1/$3 game, you should raise to $10 (or more if too many people are calling you).

The goal of the open-raise is to get to the flop as the preflop aggressor, which gives you the opportunity to make a continuation bet on the flop.

The preflop aggressor has a much better chance of winning the pot, because they’re the ones that are perceived to have the strongest hand.

So even if you miss the flop completely, you can still often take down the pot with a simple c-bet.

If you call preflop, on the other hand, you won’t have the same luxury.

This means you’ll usually be forced to fold your hand if you don’t connect with the flop (which is most of the time).

However, most amateur poker players make an additional mistake of continuing to call post flop even though they have a weak hand.

They will either keep calling with marginal hands that can be easily dominated, or they will call with any sort of a drawing hand hoping to hit one of their outs.

Your outs refer to the cards in the deck you need to make a certain hand combination (like a straight or a flush).

If you automatically call with any sort of a drawing hand on the flop, chances are you’re losing a lot of money over the long run.

That’s because most draws don’t complete in no-limit hold’em, and drawing hands are almost always an underdog to a made hand on the flop.

By the way, if you want to quickly calculate the chance of hitting your outs, you can use the so-called rule of fours.

Rule of fours: simply multiply the number of outs you have by 4 to get a rough percentage chance of your draw competing from flop to river.

The rule of fours gets slightly less accurate the more outs you have, but it works well in most in-game situations.

If you want to know the chance of your draw completing on the next street (flop to turn or turn to river), you simply multiply the number of outs by 2 instead of 4.

A Bit of Basic Poker Math


With that in mind, knowing the chance of your draw completing is not enough to know whether or not you can call a bet profitably.

You need to compare the odds of your hand improving to the price you’re getting on the call.

In other words, you also need to calculate the pot odds.

Simply put, the pot odds represent the ratio between the pot size and the price you need to call.

For example, let’s say your opponent bets $50 into a $100 pot.

The pot size after your opponent’s bet is $150, and you have $50 to call.

The pot odds are 3:1, since 150 / 50 = 3.

Most recreational players don’t really know or care about the pot odds, which means they base their decisions on gut feelings or hunches.

This is obviously not the best way to play, since poker is actually all about math and probabilities.

This means that the player who bases their decision on sound principles will always outperform players who are just hoping to get lucky.

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4 Signs You Are the Fish in the Poker Game - Summary


You don’t need to study advanced poker strategy all day long to achieve decent results in this game.

All you need to do is eliminate the most costly mistakes that are still all too common among recreational players these days.

To sum up, here are 4 clear signs of fishy poker players.

1. Constantly getting raised preflop

If you always seem to get raised before the flop, chances are you need to fix your preflop bet sizing.

If you’re the first player to enter the pot, always do so with an open-raise instead of open-limping.

The standard open-raise is 3 times the big blind, but you can go even bigger if you’re playing in a particularly soft game.

2. Buying in for the minimum amount

If you play cash games, you should always buy in for the table maximum, which is usually 100 big blinds.

If you buy in for less, you’re automatically letting other players know you’re not really confident in your playing abilities, or you’re playing with scared money.

Good poker players always want to have as many chips in front of them as possible, because this way they can maximize their potential winnings.

3. Playing too many hands

In no-limit hold’em, most hands miss most flops, so you should only play hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop.

This means playing an average of 15% of all starting hands for full ring (9-handed), and 20% of all starting hands for short-handed (6-max) poker.

4. Calling too much

Calling preflop automatically puts you at a disadvantage throughout the hand, because you will get to the flop without the initiative and the range advantage.

Another common mistake is calling too much with easily dominated hands, or with drawing hands that have a poor chance of completing on future streets.

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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games

For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at fran.redline@gmail.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here

Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

4 Signs You Are the Fish in the Poker Game