Fishiest Poker Rooms
Written by on Saturday, October 16th, 2010

Finding the weak players is one of the most important principles in poker, and will pad your bankroll faster than any new and improved strategy you may have come across. For online poker players finding the fishiest online poker rooms can be a bit difficult since there are so many to choose from, but there are a few online poker rooms that are notorious for having extremely weak players populating their tables.

We’ve selected the fishiest online poker rooms for poker players to choose, and whether it’s because of an advertising campaign, a huge deposit bonus, or simply because they have fun, exciting, software with lots of bells and whistles, the following three sites are a poker shark’s playground.

Fishiest Poker Sites For Players In United States

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Finding the Fishiest Online Poker Room

The goal of all winning poker players is to find the table with the most fish. Finding fish in brick and mortar poker rooms might take hours of playing a few orbits at one table, then moving to the next table. Online poker rooms make it much easier to spot fish.

All online poker lobbies show statistics about the poker tables. These statistics usually include the average pot size, average flop percent and number of hands per hour. While not perfect gauges of a good game, combined these items can help a player compare tables with players that they are not familiar with playing against.

The reason it’s so vital to find fishy poker players is because in poker you make more money from your opponents’ mistakes than you do from your good plays. When your opposition is making mistake after mistake they are in effect throwing their money at you, which means you just have to sit back and play your good hands in a strong manner, while folding all of your weak hands.

Unlike when you play against stiff competition, against weak players there is no need to get tricky and play deceptively, so not only will you profit more, but your decisions will be much easier and you won’t have anywhere near the variance you do in tougher games.

Why Poker Sites With Sportsbooks Normally Have Great Games

Typically online poker rooms that are tied to sportsbooks offer the best games. Sports bettors tend to be gamblers at heart. Sports bettors also tend to play well below their bankrolls as they are just passing time enjoying a game of poker during or in between sporting events. Large online casinos also tend to attract fishy players. When the player’s luck runs out on the slots they try to win it back at poker. As a rule, most winning poker players tend to stay away from negative expectation casino games so any player that plays poker as well as house games is likely to be a player that will give and get action. Often the sites that only offer poker have the toughest, lowest quality online poker games.

Using the Lobby Stats

Some online poker rooms include uncalled bets in their pot sizes. These rooms include Party Poker and Merge Gaming. For those rooms the average pot size displayed in the poker lobby will be higher than they really are at the poker table. The average flop percent is a better gauge of action at the table. The higher the flop percent is, the looser the game is, at least as it pertains to preflop action.

If the flop percent is high it is likely there is little raising before the flop so that more players limp in. The hands per hour statistic is also helpful. The fewer hands played per hour, the more players that are staying in the hands longer. Full ring games will tend to play about 2/3 the hands per hour than shorthanded games so make sure that you compare games with the same number of players. The hands per hour stat by itself is not useful as players could be lagging or playing slow but when combined with the other stats it can help show a player how loose and passive the games are.

How To Spot The Fish At A Poker Table

When playing at a poker table weak players are often easy to spot. A player that talks a lot, either at a brick and mortar table or in an online poker chat box, are typically casual players. The reason for this is that winning players tend to play so many tables that they do not have time to chat. In fact, many professional players turn chat off as it is a distraction. When you sit down at a table say hello and try to strike up a conversation. The players that respond are likely recreational poker players as opposed to professional poker players. Players that openly complain about bad beats or unfair games are almost always losing players.

In addition to the chat, weak players are easy to spot from their play. When you first sit down at the poker table pay attention to other player’s actions. If a player that enters the pot first simply calls the big blind as opposed to raising then they are likely a fish, especially if that is a repeated play. Fishy players will also call a lot after the flop, even if they think they have the best hand. Pay attention to passive plays so that you can separate aggressive players from weak ones. Another sign of a fish poker player is one that shows their losing hand at showdown.

In online poker virtually all winning players will have auto muck checked so that if they lose a hand their hand is automatically folded so that they do not even have the opportunity to show. If you are playing with players that show their losing hands they are giving away information about their play. These players are not only telling the table what they flop and call down but they are showing you that they do not know how important that information is to other players. Even if a player does not show losers pay attention to see if there is a delay at the showdown when they lose. If there is a delay that player as auto much unchecked, something most winnings players do not do.

Another sign of a fish is a short stack at no limit and pot limit tables. These players tend to not know how to play correctly after the flop. Since they do not after post flop skills they short buy at the table and play all in or fold. If they double up and do not leave then they are a player that you probably want to challenge while they still have a deeper stack than they know how to play correctly.

It is easy to exploit these fishy poker players. These players do not have any idea about what pot odds are or even what the odds of hitting their hand is. They will chase any draw, even when the pot size does not justify it. There is no reason to slow play these types of players. If you are in first position just bet into them. They will call you with anything and call you down with unimaginably bad hands. In multi way pots you can trap them by making them call raises from behind after they have already called one bet in that round, even if they know that they are beat. Do not forget though that even fish get lucky and can run good. Fish have huge swings. You cannot let their occasional lucky hand get to you. Those lucky hands and huge swings are what keep the fish coming back to the poker table.

What Are The Fishiest Poker Games Online

The fishiest games tend to be Fixed Limit Hold’em and Omaha High/Low. So many professional players specialized in No Limit Hold’em that other games still have a decent fish population. The reason Fixed Limit Hold’em is full of so many fish is because the fish cannot lose their entire stack in one hand. They get more hands to try and draw out and those are the hands that they remember. In No Limit Hold’em these fish would go broke too quickly to play that way but in Limit Hold’em they can chase all that they want to and not lose their entire stack for hours.

Omaha High/Low is a fishy game because it is a perfectionist game. Pot odds are very important in Omaha High/Low whether it is being played no limit, pot limit or fixed limit. Poor players will come in with hands that contain and ace and a wheel card and will often chase low without any other draws. If the player makes their low they will only get half the pot, or less if more than one person makes low. They will also draw to second nut flushes and to straights that are not likely to win. Players that are experts at Omaha High/Low have a huge advantage over poor opponents. This advantage is much higher than that of expert and fish No Limit Hold’em players.

While the poker boom may be over, there are still plenty of fish playing online poker in their spare time. If you are observant then you can spot them and abuse their weaknesses. There are thousands of online poker players that do just that every day.

Overall Fishiest Online Poker Room – 888 Poker

888888 Poker (www.888.com) has long been known as a loose, overly aggressive, online poker room; for whatever reason there are numerous players who are willing to push all-in with marginal hands, or call huge bets with all kinds of draws when they are getting terrible odds.

The 888 Poker mid-stakes Limit and no-limit Games are legendary for their loose and passive fish, meaning there is a lot of profit to be made at the 888 poker tables.

One thing that definitely attracts the fish to 888 Poker is the 100% up to $400 first time deposit bonus the site offers. So not only can you take advantage of the fish at 888, but you can also clear one of the best deposit bonuses in online poker while you do it! For those who don’t wish to deposit, 888 also offers occasional free money offers when you first open an account!

>> Click here to visit 888 Poker <<

Recommended Fishy Online Poker Room – William Hill Poker

williamhillWilliam Hill Poker (www.williamhill.com): When it comes to finding fishy online poker rooms William Hill Poker has long been known as one of the best places to play. With a ton of their traffic coming from the sports-betting side of the site and their online casino, it’s easy to see why the players at the William Hill Poker tables are so willing to gamble!

Players coming from other online poker rooms are often amazed at the poor quality of play at William Hill as most online poker sites these days are usually much tougher with better opponents.

As well as having a high amount of poor players, William Hill also offer excellent software and a generous set of promotions for their players including a signup bonus of up to $600 on your first deposit.

>> Click here to visit William Hill Poker <<

Fishiest European Online Poker Room – Party Poker

partyParty Poker (www.partypoker.com) is one of the biggest European poker networks and as a result has a massive amount of fishy players. The reason Party Poker is ranked slightly below 888 Poker is because their deposit bonus is slightly slower to clear than the one at 888, although they do offer a slightly higher amount at 100% up to $500.

Party has long been one of the biggest names in online poker, attracting huge numbers of recreational poker players from all around the world. Their advertising in big sporting events and other main stream media has ensured that their tables are always filled up by fishy players.

In order to start playing at Party and avail of their special signup bonus, simply follow the link below to get started. Just remember to bring your fishing rod!

>> Click here to visit Party Poker <<

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