Spotting The Fish in Poker is Half The Fun

There is a great line in the movie Rounders where Matt Damon says that if after the first hour at the table you can't spot the sucker, than you are the sucker. It might have been after the first half hour. I'm not sure. In any event, it is still pretty true.

The sucker at a poker game has many different names. Often times they will be called the fish or the bird or a monkey. It is fascinating that they are mostly animal names. At some point I will have to look up the origin of how those names began. As if there was a time that people couldn't find enough other people to play in their poker games and they let their pets sit in. Consequently, the pets played really badly. Hence the origin of the names.

I would imagine that some animal trainers would be quite insulted by the presumption that certain animals are dumb and would make bad card players. I'm sure there are many monkeys that have been trained to do some things that people don't do very well. I understand that some monkeys have even learned how to use modern tools while others have even learned sign language. I guess that is pretty smart.

Regardless of where the name comes from, spotting the sucker or fish or whatever you choose to call them is invaluable. The reason for that is because they will often be the players that you make most of your money from. The better players will take chances from time to time but will not do so if it requires an unreasonable amount of risk. The bad players or fish, can't tell the difference between a bad decision and a good one.

Most of the time it is easy to spot the bad player because they are always taking big chances. They get their money in when they are not favorites to win, or better, they will make moves such as a raise, when they are up against huge hands. You can never get enough of this kind of play. In fact, if I am in a game where there are an abundance of these kinds of players, it is often difficult for me to leave. The reason is obvious. When I win, I will be taking down much larger pots than I should because of my opponents' poor play.

Generally you can't miss the sucker. They go all the way with inside straight draws or they will do the same when they need two perfect running cards to make their hands. They draw to hands that often are not even winners. They will always embrace low percentage possibilities of winning and they make all the classic blunders such as: they call when they should fold or raise, they bet when they should check, they raise when they should fold etc. These are all pretty obvious indicators. This is why it is believed that if you can't spot the sucker at a table, it is probably you.

You should be weary of the fish who is hitting. If the sucker keeps hitting the long shot hands they will start to feel unbeatable. They will inevitably play more hands, they will throw in way more chips than they should and they will act quite often without thinking. This is because they believe they are "on a run" or that "they can't lose". With a player like that there isn't much you can do because they are willing to leave most of the outcome to chance. I would advise you stay clear until they feel their wave has passed. You don't want to start taking consecutive bad beats from a donkey, there's another one of those great names, because it will put you into the wrong frame of mind and you too might start making bad decisions.

Spot the fish and take their money while you can. Stay away while luck is on their side. By making the right decisions in hands with the suckers you will see your bankroll flourish.