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. Finding the fishiest sites can be a bit difficult since there are so many to choose from, but there are a few  that are notorious for having extremely weak opponents populating their tables. We’ve selected the fishiest rooms on this page, 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 sites are a shark’s playground.

Fishiest Sites For Players In United States

Finding the Fishiest Sites

The goal of all winning poker players is to find the table with the most fish. Finding fish in brick and mortar casino might take hours of grinding a few orbits at one table, then moving to the next table. Online poker rooms make it much easier to spot fish. All online 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 shark compare tables and decide where to sit down. The reason it’s so vital to find fishy poker players is because in this game you make more money from your opponents’ mistakes than you do from your good moves. When your opposition is making mistake after mistake they are in effect throwing their money at you, which means you just have to sit tight and accelerate on your good hands, while folding all of your weak hands. Unlike when you take on 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 Sites With Sportsbooks Normally Have Great Games

Typically sites 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 fish. When the player’s luck runs out on the slots they try to win it back at poker. As a rule, most professionals tend to stay away from negative expectation casino games. Anyone 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 (PokerStars) have the toughest, lowest quality online poker games.

Using the Lobby Stats

Some sites 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 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 work out 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 The Table

In poker the fish 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 professionals tend to grind 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 ones that respond are likely fish as opposed to professionals. Anyone that openly complains about bad beats or unfair games are almost always a losing player.

In addition to the chat, fish are easy to spot from their play. When you first sit down at the table pay attention to other player’s actions. If someone 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. Anyone that knows basic poker strategy will know that this is a -EV decision. 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 is one that shows their losing hand at showdown. In online poker virtually all pros 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 people that show their losing hands they are giving away free information about their hand. They 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 push 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 which they are uncomfortable with. It is easy to exploit these fish. They 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 game.

What Variants Are The Fishiest 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 in their spare time. If you are observant then you can spot them and abuse their weaknesses. There are thousands of  players that do just that every day.