Fish on my table, How to act?

Ok, so you’ve been sitting at a table for a while and have noticed that there’s a fish sitting by you. Of course, this is the best possible situation for all poker players but not very many know how to capitalize this blessing. Many try getting themselves involved in all hands as the opponent is, but this doesn’t work out as you will have around 7 other opponents doing the exact same thing. You have to play it smart, find you position and go for the knockout. 

Firstly you need to identify exactly what sort of fish he is and how he plays. There are many types of fish, a few of these include:

The fish  that will raise pretty much anything pre-flop but then turn super tight after the flop and fold to any bet

The fish that will play like the fish above but continue bet all the way to the river even when their hand hasn’t improved

The fish that is so passive he is worried about aces pre flop

We will now go through how to play against those three examples. 

So first of all, how to deal with the common aggressive-passive fish. If you find this type of fish on your table, your in luck, these fish love to donate to your chip stacks. In this instance I would actually recommend getting involved in as many cheap hands as you can with these players, providing there aren’t many opponents already in the pot. Ideally you would like to be on the left side of these players, so you can see their actions before you have to act. Let them bet into you pre-flop, then as they check the flop make a sizeable bet and they will normally fold, leaving you to rake the chips in. But be aware, if they raise or bet out they are likely to be very strong and I would advise you get out of the pot. 

The second type of fish requires more skill and patience. You need to wait for a half decent hand to come your way to challenge the player, as they love going to the showdown and unless you have hit, you can never be sure you are ahead. Once you have picked up a decent hand, let them bet into you. Don’t be too aggressive as they are going to insta-fold more likely then not, but if you just call you can squeeze the most chips out of them. Of course you need to raise on the river, in which you may get a call sometimes.

For the third type of fish, it will be hard to win any pot of a decent size. They are often beginner players who don’t really know the real strength of hands so play it safe and stay away from anything that looks remotely threatening to them. Any big size bet will often scare them off the pot but you can be sure when they raise or bet they have a monster. I would recommend trying to steal their blind and raising any pot in which you are involved with them and no other opponent.