Card dead with fish at the table

You're card dead with 1-2 fish at your table, with the few playable hands you get, you miss the flop virtually every time. What on earth do you do? Don't say change tables, because at 5NL there's fish at every table! Just spent my evening folding

wide range

Try opening up your range a little bit especially in position. Even if you don't have position and you raise with a decent hand, you are going to miss the flop more often. There is a term c-bet if aren't familiar with it's a continuation bet made on the flop by the initial raiser(you) irrespective of your hand/position.You can use it, will help you pick up the pot a lot of times.

Some people if card dead, wait for any pocket pair and play more aggressively with it and try to pick up the pot. Or instead you can simply try playing another time, take a break, come back and try again.Attempt a few more steals here and there. Basically you have to start thinking of ways to win the pot and not just sit there waiting for cards.Sometimes u don't even need to look at cards to win. It's a game of people, remember. cards are secondary.

akaRobbo said:

You're card dead with 1-2 fish at your table, with the few playable hands you get, you miss the flop virtually every time. What on earth do you do? Don't say change tables, because at 5NL there's fish at every table! Just spent my evening folding

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Take a break have a kit-kat here have these

There's really only 2 things to do...

Either keep your patience & fold or start bluffing w/ a wider range of cards. I miss flops all the time & just bluff w/ a c-bet all the way to triple barrel. It gets your heart racing sometimes when it's a big pot but it's awesome when you see them fold!

Suited Frenzy said:

. I miss flops all the time & just bluff w/ a c-bet all the way to triple barrel. It gets your heart racing sometimes when it's a big pot but it's awesome when you see them fold!

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Yeah the only way to win pots against these fish without showdown is to triple barrel hard, like pot size every time. But they even call you down with as little as bottom pair so its a really risky strategy!

steffdbird said:

Take a break have a kit-kat here have these

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Thanks .I called it a day and stopped playing. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit better

akaRobbo said:

Thanks .I called it a day and stopped playing. Hopefully tomorrow is a bit better

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Sometimes not playing is the best strategy. If you do not feel like playing don't. After all it is a game.

I started winning a lot more when I started c-betting consistently. But I'm still trying to get a feel for when it's a bad idea to c-bet.

Still, sometimes you'll just hit a long dry spell where even the more speculative hands won't come, or only come when you're in EP.

It sucks being at a juicy table while card dead or running bad, but it is going to happen. The key is to not think that you have to or deserve to take the fishes' money. Trying to force a win is rarely going to be good.

Opening up your range a tad if you feel like you can get amazing value when you connect with the flop isn't a terrible idea. But, since most "fish" are loose/passive calling stations, trying to steal pots from them won't be too profitable.

It's important to not leave a session like that believing that you missed some great opportunity to make money. Playing solid poker and remaining focused is making money, even if it means folding for an hour.

I remember being card dead for couple hours playing at the casino. Not much you can really do except break which at that time I didn't do and eventually I dried up and walked off.

The term when players are stuck at the table. I didn't know what it was and until well after that day they are great opponents to play against and it's something you need to avoid. Leaving until your empty is a bad habbit and I was so angry/annoyed at myself.

You get those sessions also where you maybe down a bit but briefly make it back? ... If your stuck u keep playing and lose well below what you originally lost, maybe that's just me but its something to keep in mind for that example.

Fish will come and go you just need to be patient.... I spent 2 hrs chasing the big stack and it never came and I felt tired so I got up and left ahead.. Wasn't willing to giveup my standards for 1 single healthy stack even tho it was 10x the buy-in.

Was gonna reply, but then noticed Sandbag already nailed it.

EDIT: I will add though, you say 1-2 fishes, meaning (presumably) the others are nitregs or something? In which case you can target them wider, while being careful not to spew vs the stations.

Post #9 and 11.... Good points!



The biggest danger with having fish at your table - and I mean all types, like huge stations who will not fold even J-high, or the über agro who bet/raise/raise etc - is (IMHO) tilt. It took me a while to get my head around this concept that Sandbag mentioned about you not deserving to make money. I would lose LOTS of money to megafish, and then realized that there was actually one more mega fish at the table than I initially realized.

It is very easy to think "wow, soooooo much bad play, WHY CANT I HIT?" or something along those lines. If you feel that way, it is a recipe guaranteed to lose you money. Take the strat mentioned in the posts I named, and keep your cool. A simple *sigh* and folding again can even get as normal in your game as calling an all in shove with quads. (Meaning the call when you have quads being normal, not the quads themselves)

All great posts, thanks guys. I ended up leaving 1BI down last night, then made this thread. Twice my 2 pair was called down to the river, where the villains then made trips and hit their gutshot for a straight. I felt myself tilting and just had to leave, even though I maybe could have won it back fairly quickly.

akaRobbo said:

You're card dead with 1-2 fish at your table, with the few playable hands you get, you miss the flop virtually every time. What on earth do you do? Don't say change tables, because at 5NL there's fish at every table! Just spent my evening folding

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This is what I have not figured out yet and no one has a good solution. Sure, someone will say only play good hands and value bet them but that just ignores the important part, YOUR ARE CARD DEAD AND HAVE ZERO FOLD equity!

I think the only way to defeat Lady Luck is to stop playing. Try again the next day. Or at least try rebooting the poker client.

Yeah I know it sounds paranoid, but sitting there just getting junky hands all night and then finally getting KK only to be cracked by 85 isn't working anyway, so try something different.

If you're sitting in a lousy seat and you try to bust through, you will fail.

Just be patient and wait for hands again.

Yep CD is utterly horrible when you have fishies and aggro donks at your table.

Posts #9 #11 and #12 have it nailed

I will go back to my tight playing style in these situations and wait for good - monster hands to play against them.

Change tables or rather leave are the best strategies. Its not our day. There is always another day. Dont fight Mr. Badluck. Save some of your BR while its early.

There's nothing more frustrating about poker than playing properly but still losing to bad players because there is nothing you can do to improve.

If you play poorly you can reassess and fix the leak. If you get outplayed by a better player you can tip your hat. But when it's nothing but dumb luck you simply cannot are shit helpless.

You think you are "due" to win cuz some fishes have taken 5 buy ins from you with suckouts 5 times in a row? That's not how it works.

One thing can make it worse though. If you fold 83 suited from early position only to watch a flop, you know you played "correctly" but you probably missed your chance to take that fish's money. Yet this same fish would play this hand and take some chips from you when you raise him.

Well there is books on this kind of thing.

I've personally been on a boring reg table, everyones yawning no one can be bothered getting up... But you hear laughter and happiness on the other table... Yes you should change and try and get to that table.

The only other bad thing is when you see someone stackup and insult ppl that also tightens up a table so if you do that please stop! and be friendlier.

Friendly + chatter always great around the weaker players and it's a known fact that people in a great mood will be more likely to gamble than upset ones.

akaRobbo said:

All great posts, thanks guys. I ended up leaving 1BI down last night, then made this thread. Twice my 2 pair was called down to the river, where the villains then made trips and hit their gutshot for a straight. I felt myself tilting and just had to leave, even though I maybe could have won it back fairly quickly.

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post the hands , you may have made bet sizing errors that allowed them to continue and suck out on the river.

Good question. I think we've all been there. This video helped me a lot:


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