How To Spot A Weak Player - Gone Fishin Part 1

A “fish” in poker is a polite term for a weak player, a losing player or a beginner.  In poker games the world over, weak players are known by various names and many of them are not pleasant. Be it “rabbit, fish, mug, live one, sucker, chip dumper, greenhorn” or any other of the numerous descriptions that abound, it amounts to one thing…..a person who the pro’s and superior players expect to take money from. A very well used and famous poker quote is “if after fifteen minutes at a poker table you still cannot spot the sucker…..it’s you!“ This statement was heard in the movie “Rounders” with Matt Damon and has been recited in countless poker books and other poker literature.

It is however, very true and is an indication that in most poker games, the skill level of the participating individuals can vary immensely. The truth is that many players simply do not even realise that they fall into this category. Because the poker playing population in general is predominantly male, there is the inevitable ego factor involved. Poker prowess is considered a macho thing by many of us males. Many people think that poker skill is something that one is born with, to a certain extent this is true. There are indeed many skills that a top player needs in order to succeed that simply cannot be taught. However, that does not mean that tuition and guidance can be overlooked.

Because many players do not realise that they need to be educated at poker, they do not attempt to seek it out.  Poker is abound with famous quotes and another famous one is “you can be the tenth best player in the world, but if you persist in sitting at a game with the other nine players in the world who are better than you then you are going to be a losing player”. This last quote highlights something very important whenever we are on the subject of “fish”. A “fish” or “live one” does not have to be a weak or unskilled player. It is entirely relative to the game that a player is in. No top pro would knowingly sit down in a game with nine other players of superior ability, so the famous quote above is somewhat academic. No top player would ever allow himself to be a “fish”.

Someone could actually have very poor poker skills and be somewhat of a “shark” in their game simply because the other players were worse than them. The conclusion to this is that a lack of grounding in poker theory and knowledge does not necessarily make someone a fish, the flip side to this is that any player can suddenly become one even if they have a long history of winning. It is not necessarily how much poker wisdom you have but how much you have in relation to your opponents that is the important issue here.

This series of articles will help you identify two very important key areas. Firstly, how to spot a fish and secondly, realising if you yourself  fall into this category. I am going to concentrate on visual and audible information given to us by observing and listening to our opponents in this article. The second part will concentrate on how to spot a fish based on their quality of play. There is simply too much information on this subject for it to be fitted into a single article.

You may or may not see the same faces whenever or wherever you play poker. Obviously on the internet, there are large volumes of players  and many will be unknown to you. It is vitally important to be able to classify your opponents very quickly wherever you happen to play. Nearly all of what I will be talking about here will not apply to internet poker simply because you cannot see your opponents.

Whenever you sit down in any poker game be it private or casino, you will or at least should be watching your opponents. Weak inexperienced players tend to stand out. You do not need an advanced qualification in psychology to be able to spot a new player. Any player who looks in awe, wonder or perhaps excitement at a poker table as they approach it may be playing poker for the first time. They could be playing live poker for the first time in this era of internet poker or they could simply be playing in a casino for the first time.  They might even be in awe of a certain location (i.e Vegas) and be feeling very nervous or excited.

However, this look can be misleading and is certainly not proof of low skill level. This is simply because many internet players have good technical skills at certain forms of poker that may be superior to many of their live opponents. Therefore you will have to accumulate more data either based on the quality of their play or other factors that will be discussed shortly.

Another sign of lack of experience in either live poker or poker in general is poor chip handling. Fumbling and dropping chips is a sure sign that a player is not used to handling them. Although once again you have to be careful with this because skilled internet players would not have this ability if they didn’t have much live game experience.

Anyone who is ignorant of the rules of the game is likely to be a “fish” although beware of the actor who is trying to throw a smoke screen by pretending that they don’t know. Anyone who is unaware of poker etiquette is likely to be playing poker for the first time or at least is inexperienced. Notice here that I said “unaware”, this is because there are many players out there who simply do not care about poker etiquette. If you do not know poker rules and procedures and do not know what I am talking about when I talk about etiquette, better look out for those gills because I am referring to you.

If you see a player show no interest whatsoever in the game after they have folded, this may be a sign. Many experienced players do this simply because they are playing poker for reasons other than trying to win. Remember one very important thing and I have argued this many times with people, experience can be a very bad thing if all you have done is practiced doing something incorrectly. The amount of time that someone has played poker or anything else for that matter is not an indication of skill.

I play poker with several players who are such action junkies that after they have folded a hand, they go and play a hand of blackjack or place a bet on roulette simply because they cannot wait for the next hand to be dealt before they see action. These people crave action like a drug addict craves his next fix. They are loose and aggressive and can be dangerous to your bankroll because these players will put beats on you constantly. However, if you can handle that, stay with them for these people are some of the juiciest fish in the sea.

Another classic sign is a player who is unaware of poker terminology, this is a very good sign and is certain to reveal a player who has not played much.  When trying to categorise players, I urge you to use what I call “life skills”. Every day of our lives, our eyes receive billions of pieces of information which in turn is sent to our brain. The brain, the most complex computer system of all analyses this information very rapidly. We are constantly making judgements about people in everyday life without even realising it . Try to use these skills at the poker table if you are not doing it already.

The conclusion to all this is that player identification is critical but is also very difficult. Remember that the most important player of all to classify is you. If anything of what you have read applies to you, then you had better be careful. I have often thought that the major reason why I have been successful in poker was that once upon a time, I had the courage to take a good long hard look at myself.  I came to the conclusion that I was not as good as I thought I was and decided to seriously do something about it.

It is a great big poker playing ocean out there and the “fish” come in many shapes and sizes. Many types of “fish” evolve and become almost different animals. Just because you have identified a “fish” does not mean that they will continue to be fishy. Player identification needs constant practice and refinement. I hope that this article has gone some way in not only helping you identify your opponents but also more importantly, yourself. In the next article, we will take a look at identifying “fish” through their quality of play. In the meantime, happy fish’in!

This article was written for BLUFF EUROPE poker magazine and has been reproduced here with their kind permission.