Common Mistakes a Fish Makes

Big ups to Outlaw who attempted to start a discussion on exploiting opponents. Unfortunately his thread did not turn into anything epic. I believe there are a few reasons why. First is to be able to exploit someone you have to know what you are trying to exploit. Typically at lower levels we're looking to exploit mistakes.

So, I want everyone to list ONE mistake your average fish makes. From the list we generate I will pull 3-4 mistakes and we'll discuss how to exploit these mistakes.

After we do fish, we'll move on to the next player, the TAGGfish.

Chasing draws without proper odds.

Calling preflop with crap.

Limping weak hands out of position preflop.

Overestimating implied odds.

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Originally Posted by mieczkowusc

Overestimating implied odds.

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Do fish even know what implied odds are? But good point seeing as I've been running into alot of 40bb set hunters lately, lol.

Donks small with a weak hand and wont fold to a raise.

Fish do not valuebet. For them betting is for bluffing and checking is for trapping.

Slowplays all flopped sets.

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Originally Posted by bjsaust

Donks small with a weak hand and wont fold to a raise.

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It is so annoying, just gotta fold here without good equity.

They call pre, they call flops, they call turns and they call rivers.

Fish are always trying to bet lots into the pot to make you fold because youre hand isn't good. You can take their money by reriasing them again cos they cant call!!!!

Otter.

At live tables, I notice how they have these attributes. I mean, when I pick up on a fish or donkey, I can't help but see how closely they resemble these creatures!

Fold to cbets too often

Don't understand or use position

Continue after the flop with marginal holdings

Play big pots without a committment plan.

Does not understand why he/she is betting.

I think the biggest mistake fish make is overvaluing their hand. They will often go broke with TPTK and don't get me started on two pair. Generally speaking, they have a tough time getting away from hands when they get a piece.

Playing their own hands instead of villain-relative to the board

Straight all in.......when the board pairs and flush draw complete

Calling with lower equity than pot odds. This applies preflop and post-flop.

overplaying their cards... lack of discipline to fold when they know they're beat...

they don't understand what a check raise is and what threat it poses...

potting river when they missed their draw. Also potting river with nuts on non-drawy boards.

min betting, giving even the slimmer draws expressed odds to draw.

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Originally Posted by kfaess

Don't understand or use position

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Man this thread alone has been so helpful to me. Big props to spenda for creating it.. just reading all of this give me ideas on how to exploit all these mistakes and plugging some of the bad habits I may be falling into (such as not pot committing when I should).

All of the above are correct but the most common one (and this is where we make all of our money) is they limp with mediocre hands oop, then proceed to call a PF raise, and chase the river and turn despite bad pot odds if they hit a pair or flush draw.

Minbetting on the flop or turn as a steal attempt - easy money as they then always fold to a good sized 3bet.

Constantly/aggressivly trying to outplay someone who has taken all or some of their stack(tilt against one person). Note......... im guilty of this on occasion

The are a lot of contradictory replies in this thread. Perhaps that is because there are more than one type of fish. I'll try to pull a few of the best mistakes and starts some threads.

This thread is a great idea. I believe the most common mistake made is betting the wrong amount at the wrong time. I see too many people min-raise with their good hands to not scare away people, and then bet huge with crap.

Your idea to start a thread discussing how to exploit it is fantastic.

How about this epic one.

He limped AA.

always check raises his sets

- calling from the blinds with garbage that looks like a good hand to them (unsuited connectors, A8, etc)
- 3betting steal attempts only with KK/AA/AK

Building big pots with marginal hands, keeping pots small with monsters

It's like you guys are describing my game. Who's been mucking around in my playbook?

Another thing I love to do. Checkraise shove over a c-bet on an uberdry board.

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Originally Posted by Im_new

How about this epic one.

He limped AA.

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You callin Johnny Chan a fish?

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Im_new wrote:
How about this epic one.

He limped AA.


You callin Johnny Chan a fish?

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I think there are plenty of worse traits mentioned than this. While i raise 95% of the time i have limped in a folded pot, let BB hit top pair and stacked him..

i think this is a great thread. all are valid mistakes different fishes make...

over valueing hands, and incorrect bets (sizes) from incorrect positions.

Bluffing in ridiculous spots.