You need to be able to identify the weaker players quickly in poker. Otherwise, the strong players will take their chips before you know it. Fishy poker players have common traits that separates them from intermediate or advanced poker players. If you look out for these five signs, you too can exploit the poor poker playing at your tables.

1) Flat calling before the flop 

Weak poker players love to just call before the flop. They don’t want to put in a raise and risk more chips than necessary. This limping poker style is designed to take lots of flops cheaply. It doesn’t work very well in the long run because passive poker doesn’t win. This doesn’t stop the fishes from hoping it pays off. They think if they can just get to the flop, maybe, just maybe, they’ll hit their hand.

2) Inconsistent bet sizing

A weak poker player doesn’t have a thorough appreciation and understanding of bet sizing. They don’t realise that their bets convey information or accomplish mistakes and extract value. Therefore, they make inconsistent bet sizing, often based on their strength of this hand. This is a common mistake among new players and can take some time to develop. An expert knows that bet sizing needs to be consistent and balanced to avoid giving away tells.

3) Lots of misclicking

I don’t know why fishes misclick so much but they definitely do! They’re obvious because they either min re-raise or accidentally call with nothing. It’s clearly a misclick as nobody would call a river bet with jack high. I think this is because an experienced player is used to the fast nature of online poker and less prone to misclicks. A new player is more likely to rush decisions and click by accident.

4) No tournament strategy

If you play the low stakes tournaments, you’ll quickly notice the weak poker players have no poker tournament strategy. They’re just going through the motions not really sure of what to do. They have no plan for the different stages, when to attack, how to play the bubble or how to adapt to increasing blinds. It’s great for seasoned tournament players but these players may aswell carry a sign saying “new to tournaments”.

5) Plenty of chat

The chat feature is a nice little addition to the online poker games but it’s not exactly necessary. Most players in 2021 do not care for it. By using it, you are only likely to give away information, not extract it. This is a concept lost on weak poker players who love to use the chat box. They’ll ask you questions, insult you, tell you what they folded and even rail you if you’ve irritated them. If you move to a table and see a player filling up the chat box, it’s a good sign he/she is a weak player.