4 Signs You're 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.

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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.

---

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.

8 Signs You Are the Fish at the Poker Table

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

Skilled poker players are called sharks because they can recognize a fish a mile away.

As Mike McDermott (played by Matt Damon) famously said in the movie Rounders:

“If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.”

I would even go a step further and say that if you can’t spot the sucker in the first five minutes, then you ARE the sucker.

That’s because recreational players make glaring fundamental mistakes that put a huge target on their back, sometimes even before they sit down to play.

In this article, we’ll take a look at 7 obvious signs of recreational poker players.

You should avoid these at all costs, and look out for other players who exhibit these signs, as they are more than likely to be your best customers.

1. You Play Too Many Hands

One of the most common mistakes amateur poker players make is playing too many hands. This is also one of the most obvious tells that someone is a recreational poker player.

As a general rule, the more hands a player chooses to play, the worse poker player they are.

That’s because in no-limit hold’em, most hands miss most flops, so the more hands you play, the more flops you miss, and consequently, the more money you lose. 

Good poker players only play hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop in some meaningful way, and ditch the rest.

For Example (6max):



And 9max...

Check out my other article on EXACTLY which poker hands you should play and how to play them for more info on this topic.

Recreational poker players, on the other hand, don’t care about this. They primarily play for fun, and folding a majority of the hands dealt to them does not sound like fun.

Instead, they just want to see a bunch of flops and hope for the best.

The problem is, most hands miss most flops in no-limit Texas hold’em. 

You are going to miss the flop completely 2 out of 3 times. 

And if you play a bunch of trash hands, you’re going to miss the flop even more often than that.

That’s because trash hands have less ways to connect with the flop in some meaningful way.

For example, a hand like Jack-Five offsuit (J♥️5♣️) is going to miss the flop far more frequently than a hand like Jack-Ten suited (J♦️T♦️)

By playing a bunch of trash hands, you’re automatically putting yourself at a disadvantage against players who play better starting hands on average.

Players who only play strong starting hands make stronger hand combinations more frequently than players who play just about any random hand and hope for the best.

See my latest video for more on this...

2. You Are Open-Limping Instead of Open-Raising

Open limping means just paying the big blind instead of raising when you are the first player to enter the pot. 

This is a telltale sign of recreational players, and you should avoid it unless you want to get targeted instantly.

In fact limping is literally statistically proven to be a losing poker strategy at this point, as I provided all the evidence in my first book.

So it is crazy to me that some people still use this strategy. But I will save that rant for another time!

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

There are multiple reasons why open-raising is better than open-limping.

1. You can often win the pot outright preflop.

If you open-raise, you can often win the pot if other players fold. When you open-limp, on the other hand, you can’t get your opponents to fold, meaning you’ll need to play the rest of the hand to try to win the pot.

Trying to win more pots preflop is a great way to quickly boost your poker results. For example, try these 6 easy strategies to make $20,000 a month from poker.

2. You win more money with your strong hands.

If you have a strong value hand, you should build up the pot as soon as possible. 

By failing to build up the pot early on, you’ll end up with a significantly smaller pot on later streets. This has to do with pot geometry: small changes in your initial bet sizing leads to drastically bigger pots on later streets.

By the way, if you're serious about taking your poker game to the next level I have just opened up enrollment in my brand new advanced training program, Play Fearless Poker.

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3. You will have the initiative in the hand.

If you enter the pot with a raise, you are the one that’s perceived to have the strongest hand. This puts you in the driver’s seat throughout the hand; you are the one dictating the tempo.

If you are the preflop aggressor, you have the opportunity to make a continuation bet (or a c-bet for short) on the flop.

If you make a strong hand on the flop, you can build up the pot further with a c-bet. 

If you miss the flop, you can still take down the pot with a bluff c-bet (or a light c-bet), because you’re the one that’s perceived to have a strong hand.

Either way, c-bets are usually profitable, and knowing when to c-bet is an integral part of the winning poker strategy.

Check out my other article on everything you need to know about flop c-betting for more info on the topic.

Learn to Make $2000 Per Month in Small Stakes Games With My Free Poker Cheat Sheet

Are you struggling to create consistent profits in small stakes poker games? Would you like to make a nice part time income of at least $2000 per month in these games?  

If so, then I wrote this free poker cheat sheet for you. 

This is the best completely free poker strategy guide available online today. It shows you how to crush the small stakes games step by step. 

Learn exactly what hands to play and when to bet, raise and bluff all in! 

These are the proven strategies that I have used as a 10+ year poker pro to create some of the highest winnings of all time in these games. 

Enter your details below and I will send my free poker "cheat sheet" to your inbox right now.

 

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3. You are Betting a Minimum Amount Into a Huge Pot

Min betting means betting the minimum amount into the pot, and it’s another telltale sign of recreational players you should avoid at all costs.

For example, let’s say you are playing NL5 online. The pot is $2 and you bet 5 cents.

In poker, there are two main reasons why you choose to put money into the pot.

You can either bet for value or bet as a bluff.

When you’re value betting, you are looking to get called by weaker hands. When you’re bluffing, you are hoping to get stronger hands than yours to fold.

Min betting accomplishes none of those things. 

If you have a strong value hand, you want to bet more to build up the pot. 

If you are bluffing, nobody is going to fold their hand if they’re getting 40:1 odds on a call!

In other words, min betting accomplishes nothing except announcing to the whole table that you are a fish.

So for the love of God, please avoid this...



Some players use min betting as a sort of a blocker bet. A blocker bet is a small bet (usually made out of position) used to discourage the other player from raising.

The idea is that the other player will simply call a blocker bet instead of making a bigger bet themselves. This way, you get to see the next card cheaply, or even get a cheap showdown.

But here’s the problem. Betting a minimum amount into a huge pot is not an effective blocker bet. In other words, there’s nothing stopping the other player to raise you.

If you want to make a blocker bet, you should aim for something in the range of 20% to 40% of the pot.

For example, if the pot is $2, a good blocker bet would be somewhere between 40 and 80 cents.

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4. String Betting - Never Do This!

This one is only applicable to live poker.

String betting is the act of calling, betting, or raising, then quickly adding to the betting amount after that.

String betting looks like this:

I call your twenty dollars…AND I raise another twenty.

Not only is string betting a sign of a recreational poker player, it’s also an illegal move.

In the above example, your raise wouldn’t be valid, and it would be considered that you only made a call.

When you make a certain action in poker, be it calling, betting, or raising, you have to do it all in one motion. 

For example, if you’re making a raise, you can’t keep splashing one chip after another into the pot. 

You have to prepare the amount you decide to bet or raise, then put it in the middle in a single motion. You also need to verbalize what you are doing in order to avoid confusion.



For example, if you put a single chip in the middle without announcing that you are making a raise, this would mean you are in fact calling, not raising. 

One of the reasons string betting is prevalent among recreational poker players can be attributed to Hollywood. 

This is also why no good Texas Hold'em player will ever do this.

If you watch any poker scene in a movie, there’s a good chance the players will make some form of string betting.

I see your 10,000 dollars…(dramatic pause) AND I raise to 50,000 dollars.

This may make the scene more compelling, but it doesn’t make for a realistic poker scene. Then again, if you were to make an accurate depiction of poker in a movie, it would more than likely flop spectacularly.

The reason string betting is frowned upon is because it’s a form of angle shooting. 

Angle shooting in poker means certain actions that aren’t necessarily cheating, but go against the spirit of fair play and gentlemanly conduct. 

It’s also worth mentioning that the line between cheating and angle shooting isn’t always clear cut.

If you’re string betting, you can theoretically gauge your opponent’s reaction before making the “official” bet, so you can adjust your bet size according to your opponent’s reaction, or simply just call instead of raising altogether.

For more information on how to read your opponents without resorting to angle shooting, check out The Microstakes Playbook.

5. You Buy in For Less Than the Table Maximum

If you’re playing cash games, you should always buy in for the maximum amount. This way, you’re giving yourself the best chance to maximize your potential winnings. 

You can only win as much as you put into the pot, so good poker players will always try to have as much chips in their stack as possible.

A lot of amateur poker players, on the other hand, aren’t comfortable with buying in for a full amount, because they’re afraid of losing their whole buyin. So they settle on buying in for only 40 blinds instead of 100, for example.

However, there are a couple of problems with this approach.

First of all, as mentioned, you can’t win as much money if you buy in for less than the maximum amount. It’s also true that you can’t lose as much, but this brings us to the second problem.

In poker, losing some money from time to time is inevitable. You should be comfortable with this fact, and be prepared to lose your entire buyin at any moment. 

Only then can you play your best and make the best decisions possible. 

If you constantly worry about potentially losing a coinflip, you’re doing it wrong.

If you’re not completely comfortable with losing your entire buyin (or a couple of them, for that matter), you shouldn’t be sitting down to play poker in the first place.

If you’re not completely comfortable with buying in for a full amount in live poker games, you can try playing poker online where you can buy in for as little as two bucks on most sites.

Check out Nathan’s article on how to crush NL2 online poker cash games.

You should bear in mind, however, that there’s a relative skill difference between live and online poker players, and the stakes you can play aren’t correlated. 

For example, you might find a bunch of amateurs in your $1/$2 cash game at a local casino. 

But if you play a $1/$2 cash game online (or NL200), you will likely run into a bunch of skilled, regular players, and even full time professional poker players.

So you should take the relative skill difference into account and start at the lower stakes, and gradually work your way up.

Whether you play live or online poker, buying in for less than a minimum amount is usually a bad idea.

One of the main reasons for this is that it puts a huge target on your back. Everyone at the table will immediately peg you for a recreational player, and they’ll do their best to take your money away. 

Another reason why you shouldn’t buy in for less than the maximum amount is the fact that short-stacked and deep-stacked poker require different strategies to be played successfully.

When you are playing with a short stack, there’s not much manoeuvrability available, as most of the money will usually go into the pot on the flop. 

For more info on how to dominate in today's small stakes cash games, check out Crushing the Microstakes.

6. You Tilt Easily

Another telltale sign of recreational poker players is poor emotional control. If you’ve played poker before, you already know it can be incredibly frustrating at times.

Sometimes you can lose for prolonged periods of time, even if you play perfectly. You can’t control how you’re running session to session. 

You can’t control the cards you’re being dealt, you can’t control whether or not your draws will complete, and you can’t control your opponents’ actions.

The only thing you can control is trying to make the best decisions possible and playing to the best of your abilities.

This is easier said than done, of course, but it’s the only way to achieve long term success in this game.

The problem is, most amateur poker players aren’t focused on the long term. They are focused on the here and now, and they often can’t get over the fact that they’re running badly at the moment.

But here’s the rub: everyone will run bad from time to time. 

This is the great equalizer in poker. Play it long enough, and everyone will get their fair share of both good and bad luck, respectively.

Therefore, what separates the winners from the losers is how they handle the inevitable periods when they’re running badly.

Despite the widely available information on winning poker strategy today, a lot of poker players still have very poor emotional control.

Everyone can play well when the deck is hitting them in the face. But when fortunes inevitably swing the other way, few players are able to keep their calm and keep playing their best.

Check out Nathan's recent video where he discusses what truly separates the winners from the losers in poker.

7. You Complain About Your Bad Luck

Another telltale sign of a recreational poker player is peddling your bad beat stories to anyone who’s (pretending to be) listening.

Here’s a protip: nobody cares about your bad beat stories. 

It’s like telling somebody about what happened to you in your dream. It’s boring, it’s only interesting to you, and people only pretend to listen to it out of politeness.

This may seem harsh, but it’s the reality. 

There is a reason why bad beat stories are boring. It’s because bad beats happen to everyone. Secondly, all bad beat stories follow the same format, and they only differ in minor details.

You put the money in as a clear mathematical favourite, and some idiot player called you down with J3 suited and caught a backdoor flush draw. Riveting stuff right there.

The problem with bad beat stories is there’s very little substance in them, and there’s no point to them. 

Poker is unfair at times, and sometimes you lose despite playing perfectly.

Everyone who has played poker for some time knows this already. 

Good poker players have already made peace with the fact, and they know that bad beats and suckouts are an integral part of the game.

When you play versus crazy wild players, the suckouts will simply happen to you sometimes.



That’s why they don’t complain about it, and they don’t have the need to lament about their bad luck.

In poker, everyone gets their share of good luck and bad luck, respectively. 

Ironically, those that complain the most about their bad luck don’t even realize when they are the beneficiary of good luck. 

You can’t always be unlucky. It’s statistically impossible.

In other words, you need to learn to take the bad with the good, or just take a break from the game.

Peddling your bad beat stories won’t give you any sympathy. You will get an indifferent reaction at best, and other players will deliberately target you at worst, because they’ll sense that you can be thrown off your game easily.

If you want to tell a bad beat story, do it with a sense of humour, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Make other people laugh.

Don’t tell a story in which you’re a noble victim of the cruel poker gods and idiot donkey opponents. Nobody’s buying it, it’s not helpful, and bemoaning your bad luck begets more of it.

Check out my other article on how to deal with poker variance for more info on the topic.

8. You Are Playing The Wrong Stakes

It’s important to recognize that a poker fish is a relative term. Players vary greatly in their abilities, from beginners who barely know the rules of the game to world class professionals who have all but mastered it.

So whether or not you’re a fish at your poker table will depend on the table you’re playing just as much as your own skill level.

For example, you may have studied a bit of advanced poker strategy and you can crush your local $1/$2 cash game. But if you were to play high stakes against professional poker players, you’d be considered a fish.

Unlike other competitive arenas, poker does not reward going toe-to-toe against superior competition. 

You can be the sixth best poker player in the world, but if you constantly play against the top five players in the world, you’re going to be a losing player.

Of course, playing against tougher opponents is a great way to improve your poker skills, but the level of competition you choose will dramatically impact your results. 

If you set the bar too high, you won’t make progress. You’re just going to get frustrated and lose money. 

Progress happens when you’re playing in games that are just slightly above your current skill level, but you still have a reasonable chance of winning.

This level is likely to put you in the zone, where you can play your A game. 

If you play the stakes that are too low for your skill level, you’ll get bored and you won’t make any progress. 

If you play the stakes that are beyond your skill level, you’ll get overwhelmed and frustrated, and you will more than likely lose your money. 

So how do you find the appropriate stakes for your skill level?

This depends on a lot of factors, namely your bankroll, your risk tolerance, the goals you’re trying to achieve and so on. It will also depend on how comfortable you are with losing money. 

If you’re more risk averse, you should stick to lower limits and occasionally take a stab at higher limits to test out your abilities. 

Then again, if you’re too risk averse, you wouldn’t be playing poker in the first place.

If your goal is to become the best poker player you can be, then you’ll need to be comfortable with playing higher stakes to keep pushing the envelope. 

This will mean more losses on the way, because the higher the stakes, the tougher the competition.

If you’re currently a losing player, though, start at the very lowest limits, study the fundamental winning poker strategy until you’re winning over a significant sample size.

After that, you can gradually climb up the stakes. Just remember that poker is a marathon, not a sprint. 

You shouldn’t feel pressured to play the limits that you’re not comfortable with.

Always practice proper bankroll management and play only with the money you’re comfortable losing.

8 Signs You Are the Fish at the Poker Table - Summary

To sum up, here are 8 signs of recreational poker players. 

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but most recreational players will exhibit at least a couple of these.

You should try to eliminate these from your game altogether.

1. Playing too many hands

The more hands you play, the more often you’ll miss the flop, and the more money you lose as a consequence. 

You should only play strong starting hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop in some meaningful way, and throw away the rest.

2. Open-limping

If you are the first player to enter the pot, do so with an open-raise. 

This gives you the initiative in the hand, allows you to extract more value out of your strong hands, and gives you a chance to win the pot outright preflop.

Open-limping accomplishes none of these things, and makes you an easy target for other players.

It also announces to the entire table that you are a losing poker player.

3. Min betting

There are two main reasons to put money into the pot: You can either bet for value or as a bluff. Min betting is ineffective either way. 

If you want to make a blocker bet, it will be more effective if you make it around 20% to 40% of the pot.

4. String betting

String betting is not only a sign that you are a recreational player, but it’s also illegal. When making any action, be it betting, raising, or calling, you should do it in one single motion.

5. Buying in for a minimum amount

This is a great way to invite other players to take away your money even before you start playing. 

Skilled poker players always want to have as many chips in front of them to maximize their potential winnings. Recreational poker players, on the other hand, want to protect their downside with buying in for less.

If you’re not comfortable with losing your entire buyin at any moment, you should either drop down in stakes, or play poker online where you can buyin for smaller amounts.

6. Tilting easily

Poker can be incredibly frustrating at times, whether you are a total beginner or a seasoned pro. 

But the way you deal with that frustration is just as important as knowing the ins and outs of the winning poker strategy.

Knowing how to handle the inevitable losing periods in poker is what truly separates the pros from the rest.

7. Complaining About Bad Luck

Nobody is impressed with your bad beat stories. Poker can seem unfair at times, but complaining about it only makes things worse. If you insist on telling a bad beat story, at least have a sense of humour about it.

8. Playing the wrong stakes

If you have a feeling you’re constantly losing in poker, you may be playing the stakes beyond your skill level. Try dropping down in stakes and gradually work your way up once you build up your bankroll and your confidence. 

Just remember that success in poker takes time, and there will be plenty of ups and downs along the way. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

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.

What to Do Versus a Pot Sized Bet From a Fish

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

Facing a pot sized bet can be a difficult spot to play. 

We are faced with a big decision, often in marginal situations, and have to decide then and there whether or not to continue and potentially put our entire stack on the line on consecutive streets, or give up right away and relinquish our equity. 

The problem becomes even more complicated when the bet we face comes from an erratic and unpredictable opponent, aka the fish.

What the hell are they doing this with? Why are they donk betting? Do they have the nuts or complete air? 

You want to find out, but it’s expensive to do so. And it’s very difficult to put them on the exact range, let alone narrow it down to a couple of hands.

Facing a Pot Sized Bet By a Fish

So what do we do in a situation like this? Unfortunately, the answer is all too familiar: it depends.

But that’s not really helpful, so let’s break it down in this article.

But before providing some answers, let’s first define the questions and narrow it down to make our lives easier.

This article will focus on facing a pot sized donk bets in single raised pots and 3-bet pots from recreational players on the flop and turn, because: 

A) it’s a spot in which players tend to struggle the most, and... 

B) because these situations are more common than facing a C-bet against fish, as fish usually call more than they raise.

Also, when playing against fish, you should be the preflop aggressor most of the time anyway. 

The article was written with cash games in mind, but is applicable to other formats to some extent as well.

By the way, if you just want to learn my simple no BS system for exactly what hands to play, when to bet, raise and bluff, I cover this in extensive detail in my brand new training program, Play Fearless Poker.

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Definition of a Recreational Poker Player (Fish)

For the purpose of this article, a fish is a recreational player that plays too many hands (typically 40% or more). If you play online you can use a HUD to show you this right on your screen.

They also play fairly passively both preflop and postflop (with the exception of aggro-fish, more on that below) and makes huge fundamental mistakes and all kinds of crazy nonsense plays. 

Or in other words, our most beloved customers.

By the way, if you don't know the basic strategies to consistently beat these kinds of players, check out the brand new BlackRain79 video with the best 14 beginner poker tips:

And subscribe to the BlackRain79 YouTube channel for weekly small stakes poker strategy videos like this.

A few more quick definitions, so that we are on the same page here:

A single raised pot (SRP) is a pot in which there was a raise preflop, and the other player(s) just flat call instead of 3-betting.

A 3-bet pot is a pot in which a player re-raised the original raiser and other player(s) call. A 3-bet pot will usually have a much more shallow stack-to-pot ratio (usually 5 or less).

By the way, if you need a reminder on SPR and how it affects your preflop strategy, BlackRain79 already has you covered in a recent article.

What is a Donk Bet?

In a broader sense, a donk bet is a bet made out of position against an earlier street aggressor. For example, you raise preflop on the button, villain calls in the small blind, and fires up a bet on the flop.

 

It isn’t necessarily a derogatory term, as there are situations where it might be a correct play. 

But as this article will hopefully demonstrate, when fish make a pot sized donk bet, it’s rarely an optimal play.

We already said that our decision on what to do against a pot sized bet depends on a lot of factors. So let’s break them down, starting with how committed we are to the pot.

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SPR and Pot Commitment

The smaller the SPR, the more committed we are. If the stack-to-pot ratio is 3 or less, we are committed with a top pair hand or better. 

This will happen often either in 3-bet pots, or when fish are playing shortstacked (i.e. their effective stack size is significantly less than 100 bb, because they bought in for a minimum of 40 big blinds, for example). 

So when we face a pot-sized bet against a fish on the flop with a made hand, we should be inclined to get all our money in the middle, preferably as soon as possible.

Top pair hands go up in value in shallow SPR pots, as opposed to speculative hands that perform better in deeper SPR pots.

 

The reasons we shouldn't try to slowplay in this situation are abundant.

First of all, implied odds are bigger on earlier streets than the later ones, so fish are more likely to call us down with all kinds of crazy draws, like gutshot draws, backdoor flush draws and so on. 

They don’t care about the math, and the risk-reward concept is only vaguely familiar to them.

 

Secondly, the board runout might scare them off. If they have a top pair or second pair on the flop, they might end up with a third or fourth pair by the river, and won’t be as willing to pay us off. 

And lastly, fish have extremely wide preflop calling ranges. The wider the range, the harder it is to connect with the flop. 

Fish are also notoriously impatient, and if they have little money left behind, they’ll often just roll the dice and try to get lucky with their suited junk, fourth pair, ridiculous draws and so on.

So with a top pair hand or better in a small SPR pot, your best bet is just get all the money in as soon as possible and hope your hand holds up against their nonsense. 

It won’t always be the case of course, but as long as you’re getting your money in with a mathematical edge, you’re good. You did your job, and the rest is up to the poker gods.

This is something that BlackRain79 discusses in much more detail in Crushing the Microstakes.

Example Hand

Effective stack sizes: 80BB.

You are dealt K♥Q♥ on the BU.

A loose passive fish min-raises to 2x in the CO.

You 3-bet to 7x. Blinds fold, fish calls.

Pot: 15.5 BB

Flop: K♠9♦7♣

Fish bets 16.5 BB

You: ??? 

You should raise.

Let’s consider the previous action, the flop texture and villain’s potential range.

A fish min-raised in the CO, which means they probably like their hand somewhat, but since they play north of 40% of all hands, we can’t narrow their range too much. 

We go for an isolation 3-bet and the fish calls. Their range is capped, meaning we can probably eliminate AA, KK, and AK.

We flop top pair decent kicker and face a big bet. We need to make a decision right then and there. Commit or quit.

Folding is out of the question, of course. 

SPR is 4.7, i.e. on the smallish side of the spectrum. We aren’t necessarily automatically committed, but in this spot against this particular opponent we pretty much are, so we should play for their whole stack.

A number of hands that would give us action against which we’re ahead of is through the roof. Any Kx hand, like KJ, KT, a bunch of drawing hands, like QT, QJ, JT, J8, T8, T6, 86, 85, 65, maybe even 9x hands like Q9, J9, T9, 98 and so on. 

Remember, we are playing against somebody that plays nearly half of all hands, so they can have ALL of those hands in their range and then some. 

Sure, there are some hands that have us beat, but those are just a small part of their overall range. 

We are quite comfortably ahead most of the time, and should get our money in and let that edge play out. 

We can call here as well, but a lot of turn cards can kill our action. Remember, implied odds are bigger on the flop than on the turn, so we should take advantage of that. 

What About Drawing Hands?

Having a top pair hand against a fish and facing a pot sized bet in a shallow SPR spot is pretty straightforward, and these hands basically play themselves. There’s not much more to do than get the money in and hold your breath. 

Here is a hand that BlackRain79 recently reviewed on YouTube that talks about this in more detail:

But as we know, most hands miss most flops.

We don’t have a made hand on the flop more often than we do. We usually either miss or have some sort of a drawing hand. Also, effective stacks can be quite deeper, particularly in cash games. 

This is where it gets a little trickier, and we need to rely on math to make an educated guess on how to proceed.

When we face any bet on the flop, it can be extremely useful to memorize certain pot odds in relation to the bet size. That way, you don’t need to waste any brain power to calculate the pot odds in every single situation.

 

Poker is essentially an extremely complex math problem, so it’s useful to use some shortcuts in order to make better in-game decisions.

One such shortcut is to remember that when you face any pot sized bet, you are getting 2:1 pot odds on a call, which means you need to win the hand 33% of the time on average for your call to be profitable. 

So if your equity is 33% or more against your opponents range, you can continue profitably.

 

But how the hell can you know if your hand is good 33% of the time? You can’t. In order to know that definitively, you’d have to know your opponent’s exact range, which is virtually impossible. 

What’s more, that’s only the part of the equation, because you also need to take into consideration a number of other factors, such as implied odds, action on future streets, board runout etc. 

Too many unknown variables, too little time. 

To avoid such paralysis by analysis, let’s try to simplify once again and focus on what we actually know.

We can’t accurately predict the fish’s range, but we don't really need to. We can rely on our intuition backed up with a little bit of math once more. 

If we have a drawing hand, again, it might be worth memorizing how often we’ll hit our outs.

By the way, I discuss this in much more detail in my new Elite Poker University training. 

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The Rule of Four

 

We can use the rule of four to quickly guesstimate our equity, by simply multiplying our number of outs by 4. This rule becomes less reliable the more outs we have, but it’s accurate enough for most in-game situations.

Here are the chances of improving your draws from flop to river you should have memorized:

• A flush draw completes 35% of the time.
• An open-ended straight draw completes 32% of the time.
• A gutshot straight draw completes 17% of the time.

So we see that calling a pot sized bet on the flop with a flush and open-ended straight draw can be outright profitable. 

Of course, we won’t always be drawing to the nuts, so even if we do improve, it doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily win the hand, so these percentages are only a guideline.

There are many other factors that determine whether or not our play is +EV or not, but since a lot of those factors will be unknown, we can always fall back on the fundamental math to try and make an informed decision.

But like we said, it’s only a piece of the puzzle. It still doesn’t answer the cardinal question of poker: what the hell are they doing this with? 

We need to have at least a vague idea of our opponent’s ranges in order to apply our mathematical knowledge somewhat successfully. 

To do so, we need to know what kind of opponent we are facing. Not all fish are created equal, and it would be a huge mistake to apply a one-style-fits-all strategy when playing against them. 

While it’s true they might share certain traits, it doesn’t mean they all play the same in all situations. Here are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind. 

First of all, the looser the villain, the wider you can call. The higher the villain’s VPIP (voluntarily put money in the pot), the more junk they’ll have, and it will be less likely they’ve hit the flop in any significant way.

Also, when it comes to recreational players, the higher the VPIP,  the worse player they tend to be. A 90% VPIP fish is certainly going to play worse than a 40% VPIP fish.

Next, the more aggressive the fish, the wider you can call. As we’ve said before, not all fish are of the passive variety. 

Some of them like to spew chips around and make all kinds of wild bluffs, betting and raising erratically, and what’s worse, getting away with it a large chunk of the time. 

While they can be frustrating to play against, these kinds of players can actually be your biggest source of income. 

But only if you remain patient and keep your ego in check. 

Also, from time to time you might need to call them down with a hand you won’t be quite comfortable calling with otherwise, like a second pair, or even an Ace high in some situations.

Example Hand

Effective stack size: 100BB.

You are dealt A♣K♠ in MP.

A loose and aggressive fish limps UTG.

You iso-raise to 4x. Folds around, aggrofish calls.

Pot: 9.5BB

Flop: Q♥T♠3♣

Aggrofish raises to 9.5BB

You: ???

You should call.

As opposed to the previous example, we have a much bigger SPR of about 10, so we aren’t automatically committed to the pot, and we have a lot more maneuverability post flop.

Folding is out of the question in this spot, as we are drawing to the nuts with four Jacks, as well as a TPTK (top pair top kicker) with any Ace or a King. 

If we hit any of our outs, we can be comfortably ahead of the villain's range, which is extremely wide in this situation, considering their player type. 

Like in the previous example, it can consist of any number of hands like top pair weak kicker, second pair, third pair, gutshot draws, backdoor flush draws and so on and so forth. 

Too many to even consider counting here. 

We aren’t necessarily ahead with our Ace high hand, but we have a large chunk of equity we aren’t willing to give up. We can consider raising, but if we do, we might only get action from hands that have us crushed. And what if the villain comes over the top with a shove? 

Certainly not an optimal spot for us. 

By flatting, we allow them to keep barrelling on future streets with all their crazy bluffs, while also controlling the size of the pot. 

Then we can assess the best course of action on future streets. We have position and a skill edge in the hand, so we should utilize it.

Answering blind aggression with aggression of our own should be done only if we can conclude with some certainty that we are comfortably ahead with our hand and that we can get action from weaker hands.

What Should You Do Versus a Turn Pot Sized Bet?

 

Here’s where things get a little trickier, because there’s more information to consider.

If you encounter a turn pot sized bet, you should consider all the info mentioned before, as well as previous action, but you should bear in mind that turn ranges tend to be stronger, and there’s a lot less junk in their range at this point.

They will still rarely have the absolute nuts, and practically never have complete air. What this usually means is they probably picked up some equity on the turn. 

You should tread carefully, but if you’re already pot committed, this shouldn’t change your plans too much. That’s why it’s important that you decide on the flop whether or not you want to take your hand to the felt.

As a rule of thumb, if you call one street, you should usually call the consecutive one as well. So if you call a flop bet, you should be prepared to call the turn bet as well, otherwise you’re better off folding right there on the flop.

Bear in mind that the higher their VPIP, the more ridiculous hands you can expect in their range.

These are all just guidelines of course. No two players are completely alike. So take all this advice with a grain of salt. 

So What is Their Actual Range?

Finally, let’s answer the cardinal question, what are they doing this with? As we’ve seen, it depends on a lot of factors, and most of the time we shouldn’t overthink it and play it straightforwardly, especially in shallow SPR pots. 

But if we’re playing in deeper SPR pots, we should take more factors in consideration, including our opponent’s range.

Here’s the bottom line: 

When you encounter a pot sized donk bet from a fish, they usually have a mediocre or a drawing hand. They probably don’t know what to do with it.

They don’t want to fold it, but they aren’t particularly stoked about it either. So they try to “buy” the pot right there on the flop, hoping a big bet size would scare off their opponents. 

They will almost certainly never have the nuts, and they will never have complete air either. 

Why? Well, it all comes down to fish psychology. Fish have a strong propensity to be deceptive. 

They like to slowplay their huge hands in order to trap their opponents, or make huge bluffs, because that’s what poker is all about, right? 

Outplaying people and owning souls. It certainly isn’t about odds and percentages and all that boring stuff.

So if they have a really strong made hand on the flop, like two pair or better, they will often slowplay it, because they don’t want to scare you off. 

And if they missed the flop completely, they’ll just give up a lot of the time, because that’s about as far as their technical game knowledge reaches. 

They see their hand, they have some rudimentary understanding of the flop texture (i.e. they can see if they hit or miss), and that’s about it.

So when they fire off a bet, you can narrow down their range to something like top pair weak kicker, second pair etc. And if they have a drawing hand, they will rarely be drawing to the nuts. 

They will usually have a gutshot draw, backdoor straight and flush draws and all other kinds of nonsense.

Summary

Facing a pot sized bet from a fish can be a difficult spot to play. We are often faced with a big decision with a limited amount of information, and their range is outright impossible to predict.

Now, you don't necessarily need to study a bunch of advanced poker strategy to beat these kinds of players. But in these situations it pays to have a default plan and stick with the fundamentals.

First thing we should consider is the effective stack size and size of the pot to determine our commitment to the pot. If we have a made hand (like top pair or better) in the small SPR pot we should aim to get the rest of our stack in the middle as soon as possible.

Getting involved in shallow SPR pots with fish and trying to take their whole stack is something we should aim to do often anyway.

If we have a drawing hand, we should memorize how often our draws complete in order to assess whether or not we can continue playing profitably. Counting our outs and using the “rule of four” will work in a pinch. 

Some factors to keep in mind are our draw strength, the number of outs, implied odds, our opponent type and so on. The more factors work in our favour, the faster we can play our hand.

As far as our recreational players’ actual range is concerned, it varies wildly. A lot of the time even they don’t know what they are doing. But when they fire off a pot sized donk bet, we can usually narrow it down to some kind of mediocre hand. 

They will almost never have the absolute nuts, but they won’t be bluffing with absolute air, either. The reason for this is that fish love to be deceptive, so they’ll often slowplay their huge hands lest they don’t scare off their opponents.

So you can narrow down their range to something like: top pair weak kicker, second or third pair, weak straight and flush draws and so on.

Also, the bigger their VPIP, the weaker their overall range, so you can call them down more widely.

If they fire off a pot sized bet on the turn, we should be more careful, but hopefully we’ve put the majority of our stack in by now. All the general rules still apply.

When playing against recreational players in general, the best approach is always to keep it simple and stick with the fundamentals. Play your hands as straightforwardly as possible, and don’t worry about being too predictable. Save your fancy plays for players that actually pay attention. 

Keep in mind that most of your money in poker won’t come from your superior skills, but from your opponent’s mistakes, so act accordingly.

Lastly, if you want to learn the complete BlackRain79 strategy for crushing small stakes games, make sure you grab a copy of his free poker cheat sheet.