With all the basic strategy material out there, identifying the fish these days isn’t quite the same as it was just a few years ago. The all-out balls-to-the-wall calling station mega-fish are far and few between – especially as you move up in stakes. Luckily, it’s not all bad. The only thing these fish are doing is camouflaging themselves better than they used to. They might know how to play tight before the flop but they still have leaks bigger than the Titanic.

I’m not going to go over the super-obvious signs of the fish today because you probably already know what to look for. The mega fish are the ones that call everything, they show down ridiculous hands and basically try to give away free money.

The hidden fish are the ones we want to find today playing at online poker sites. These guys might not look like fish at first but they have certain postflop tendencies that you can exploit all day long. It just takes a little observation and a willingness to try new things that might be uncomfortable at first.

Hidden Tendency #1: Continuation Bets

There are a lot of fish (and even decent players) that don’t know a thing about proper continuation betting. If you find the guy who continuation bets every single time but gives up at the first sign up trouble, you have yourself an easy mark. All you need to do is call every bet he makes on the flop and then bet into him on the turn. You can also raise his flop bets for instant shut downs. If this guy finally resists you, get out of his way and try again on the next hand.

Against opponents like this, you should go out of your way to play pots with them. It really doesn’t matter what you have against them because all you need to do is make that bet.

Hidden Tendency #2: Terrible 3-Bet Ranges
Some of the fish disguise themselves very well as aggressive players by 3-betting a lot. They’ve read a little strategy and they know that 3-bets are “aggressive moves” but they don’t know why or when to 3-bet.

You can abuse these fish all day long by using their wide 3-bet ranges against them. You have to be very careful when making plays against 3-bets because pots that have been re-raised before the flop are a lot bigger than other pots.

There are some fish out there that 3-bet all the time but they only take it to the felt with AA, KK and AK. Against these opponents you have two options: you can push all-in preflop every time they re-raise you or you can call their 3-bets and steal the pot after the flop.

This is a high variance tactic but it’s very profitable against the right opponents. Make a note of how often they 3-bet and use this tactic against only the most liberal of 3-bettors. Eventually these players will start playing back at you with a wider range of hands. If you notice this happening, step back and leave that player alone for a while.

Hidden Tendency #3: Hot or Cold Rocks
This leak is easy to spot but the fish who play hot or cold poker often go unnoticed because they appear look like tags and slip under the radar while we concentrate on all 8 tables we have running at the same time.

Hot or Cold Rocks is a simple way to describe the fish that play ultra tight and only bet when they have strong hands. They might make the occasional preflop raise when their starting hand charts demand it but they don’t know how to play after the flop unless they have a monster.

Against these players, your basic float tactic is an absolute beauty. The float is a move in which you call an opponent’s preflop raise and then call the continuation bet even if you don’t have anything. All you are doing is waiting for your opponent to check to you on the turn so you can place your bet.

This works so well because many fish know how to raise before the flop and continuation bet but they don’t know what to do if they get called. The float works wonders against these players because it throws them off and it nets you a decent pot every time it works.

Every once in a while you’ll try to float a fish when he has something strong. That’s pretty much unavoidable so don’t worry about it unless it starts happening to you on a frequent basis. If that happens, you might be misidentifying solid players as Hot or Cold Rocks.

The float move is just one of many tactics you can use against the Hot or Cold Rocks. These opponents play so straightforward that they basically play their hands face up. You can bet and steal all you want and simply fold when they fight back.



ISOLATING POKER FISH:

There aren’t as many fish around these days as there were when online poker first appeared in the late 90s but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot of money to be made at the tables. Identifying the fish is a great start but actually getting their money is an entirely different matter.

You see, it’s not just the fish you have to worry about. You have to get their money before the other players at the table do. If you spot an obvious fish, you can bet there’s usually at least one other player at the table who would like to take that fish’s money. Your job is to get that money first.

First of all, let me make it clear that sometimes there’s nothing you can do to get to the fish first. Sometimes the fish will hit a hot run of cards, other times the fish will lose his money too quickly for you to do anything about it. There will even be times when the fish just gets up and leaves before you have a chance to play against him. That’s how poker goes.

But the thing is if you do your job of isolating the fish every time, more money will come your way over time. That is, of course, unless you try too hard and start making wild, unprofitable plays. But we’ll get to that later.

Isolation raises work so well in isolating the fish because your raises will usually push the smart players out of the pot but the unknowing fish will stick around. When the isolation raise works, you have the fish all to yourself. All you have to do from that point on is play smart poker.

You just have to be careful that you don’t raise with garbage hands because in that case you would just be putting more money in the pot with inferior hands – an activity you should leave to the very fish you’re hunting!

The Preflop Isolation Raise
One of the easiest ways to get the fish all to yourself is to use the simple preflop raise. You have to time these raises carefully, however, because if three people have already limped in and you try to pull an isolation raise with a fish to your left, he’ll probably call and then everyone else will call as well.

The optimal time to raise the fish is when you are in late position, the table has folded around to you and the fish is sitting in one of the blinds. You already have most of the table out of your way and if the fish calls your raise, you’ll have position on him. This is a great place to make money.

Another decent time to raise is when you have position on the fish, he has limped in already and there is 1 limper or less in front of him. You’ll have to experiment with the optimal raise size but the best scenario is that you get that limper to fold but the fish stays in. If everyone folds, that’s not such a bad thing after all because you just picked up a pot for free.

One thing you don’t want to do when making these preflop isolation raises is go raising with just any trashy hand. There’s a sort of conflicting interest in this because you want to get the fish heads up as often as possible but you don’t want to face him with a bunch of garbage in your hand. Fish are hard to bluff so if you keep raising with 7-8 offsuit, you’re going to have a heck of a time winning pots.

Choosing your hands depends largely on the type of fish you’re up against. If you have a fish who literally calls with any two cards, you can raise with any two cards and rely on your stronger postflop skills to win out in the long run.

If you’re up against a fish who does not call everything but still calls a little too often, you will want to push every preflop edge you can. You’ll have to judge his range for yourself but pocket pairs, suited aces and big card hands are usually stronger than the average fish’s range.

After you get the fish all to yourself, strong postflop play is absolutely essential. Some fish can actually be bluffed but those are far and few between. For the most part you will want to play your hands straight-forward after the flop with the very occasional steal mixed in.

The Postflop Isolation Raise
Isolating the fish after the flop is a little bit trickier but it’s a more powerful move when you have other people in the pot and your hand has a chance of actually winning. Let’s say you have a decent hand – something like top pair good kicker and that you also believe the fish has something but it’s weaker. It could be a draw or some small piece of the board that the fish is hoping to improve.

That’s a great scenario to be in but the problem comes when there are other people in the hand. It’s even worse when one of your other opponents has you beat. If you have a strong read that your non-fishy opponent has something stronger than you but nothing invincible, all may not be lost.

A strong checkraise is sometimes enough to push that opponent out of the pot but keep the fish in the pot with you. But be warned – this is a risky move! It relies on all of your reads being correct and your opponents reacting how you want them to.

Postflop isolation raises work the best when you think you have the strongest hand but you need to shut the action down because there is either a dangerous board or other people are going after draws. In all actuality, however, you should be raising in this situation regardless of the fish. Strong but vulnerable hands need to be protected.