flint
Visionary
Silver Level
I have been thinking about this lately - why do some people call other players fish?
I find that a lot of players will call other players names like fish when they loose against a player when the other player makes an unusual move or a negative EV play.
On the other hand I have heard good players use words such as aggro loose fish, which in my mind is a little better cause it has other words beside the fish.
Still, I think that the word fish should be eliminated from your thinking. The biggest downside is that it just drains energy from the most important tasks at hand which is beating the other player.
This is where the ignorance and simplyfying come in. You are ignorant to see the plays he is making because you have pigeonholed him into being a fish. Even the worst players in the world can make decent moves sometimes so ignoring aspects such as different levels of his game can be quite problematic. The "fishy" player might just be playing bad on that day, but since you were ignorant that he was playing bad, the next time you play against the better game of that player you will have problems adjusting.
Simplyfying goes hand in hand with ignorance. When you pigeon hole a player, there might be trouble later on. Forexample if you don't see that the "fishy" player is playing so loose and aggressive is beacuse he is on a upswing and doesn't normally play that loose then you might have problems adjusting later. And then if your thinking is : "This guy is a fish, I should be able to beat him", you are not seeing things clearly and wasting your energy when your thinking should be "I am loosing money against this guy, how should I adjust?".
Lastly I think this is part of a bigger topic of looking at things objectively. I am a fan of being objective at the poker table. One example of this is note taking, someone might write that a player is a "super fish" when he raises from UTG with 86os, but the thing is that isn't really going to help you as much as just objectively writing in what he did.
I would love to hear some comments on this and I will try to get my 500th post special writing up soon as well.
I find that a lot of players will call other players names like fish when they loose against a player when the other player makes an unusual move or a negative EV play.
On the other hand I have heard good players use words such as aggro loose fish, which in my mind is a little better cause it has other words beside the fish.
Still, I think that the word fish should be eliminated from your thinking. The biggest downside is that it just drains energy from the most important tasks at hand which is beating the other player.
This is where the ignorance and simplyfying come in. You are ignorant to see the plays he is making because you have pigeonholed him into being a fish. Even the worst players in the world can make decent moves sometimes so ignoring aspects such as different levels of his game can be quite problematic. The "fishy" player might just be playing bad on that day, but since you were ignorant that he was playing bad, the next time you play against the better game of that player you will have problems adjusting.
Simplyfying goes hand in hand with ignorance. When you pigeon hole a player, there might be trouble later on. Forexample if you don't see that the "fishy" player is playing so loose and aggressive is beacuse he is on a upswing and doesn't normally play that loose then you might have problems adjusting later. And then if your thinking is : "This guy is a fish, I should be able to beat him", you are not seeing things clearly and wasting your energy when your thinking should be "I am loosing money against this guy, how should I adjust?".
Lastly I think this is part of a bigger topic of looking at things objectively. I am a fan of being objective at the poker table. One example of this is note taking, someone might write that a player is a "super fish" when he raises from UTG with 86os, but the thing is that isn't really going to help you as much as just objectively writing in what he did.
I would love to hear some comments on this and I will try to get my 500th post special writing up soon as well.