Are you a Poker Shark or a Poker Fish?

Poker sharks and poker fish are everywhere. Texas hold’em, Omaha and other poker variations are full of sharks and fish, all swimming around together. Of course, we’re not talking about a vast underwater casino (though you’ll be sure to find it on the strip if it exists anywhere!) but actually the respective names given to players who win, and those that don’t win. Simple, really.

So which are you? Obviously you’ll want to be a poker shark – gobbling up the small fry when they dare enter a game. Unfortunately it’s not that simple, and your designation as either a shark or fish is largely down to your appearance to other players rather than personal preference.

To clear things up a little more; when you are a shark you tend to win a lot of poker hands; when you are a fish – well, someone’s got to lose, right? Sharks are perceived to be winners – they move from table to table making few mistakes, and typically leaving with more chips than they bought to the table.

It seems like an obvious poker tip: Be a shark! Everyone knows why you’d want to be a shark, and everyone (who understands, at least) is trying to win each game of poker they enter, unfortunately only a few make it to become sharks.

This leads us to one unhappy conclusion: most poker players are fish, and YOU are likely to be a fish! Well, it’s not my place to make such an assumption, but unless you know better then it’s a safe bet that others see you as a fish! Of course, you can use this to your advantage by luring an overconfident shark into a show-down you’ve got won, but more often than not you’ll be on the wrong end of a shark attack unless you wise up.

So what can you do about it? The same thing those sharks did when they were fish: learn! Study poker strategy and poker tips. Online poker, offline poker, whatever your game, a solid understanding of probability, tells, bluffing strategy, and many other important factors is the only way you’ll turn from a fish into a shark.