Sharkscope - Yeay or nay?

So I'm sure most of you SnG players are aware of sharkscope and I was just wondering what people thought of it.

I don't subscribe but I do buy 200 searches every so often, I used to use it as a way of tracking my own game (mainly because I'm on a Mac and Poker Tracker doesnt work on Mac) Recently I have started scoping all the people at my tables and making player notes on everybody. This really opened my eyes to the large amount of losing players at every table. On average there is only 2 winning players per table - meaning it is helping me catagorise my opponents quickly.

The problem I have is when get carried away against a Fish? For example yesterday I was playing a $10 SnG on FTP and during the first level I picked up AQos in the cut-off and a Fish limped in first. I raised it 3BB's and the fish calls. I by default put him on some kind of PP.

Flop comes A55 - he checks, I bet half pot and he calls, so I figure he has like 88 or something. Turn Comes 2 and fish checks, so I figure I'm probably still good and fire out another half pot bet and he flat pushes. Normally I would give the guy credit and think about passing, but as he is a fish I decided to call. Turns out he had limped UTG with 85os and then called my raise and got lucky. Didn't bust me but did some damage. So the point of the story is was catagorising my opponents by using sharkscope helpful or not?

Discuss!

It can be helpful - when used correctly. It is only one piece of evidence. There is a prevailing school of thought that FISH can't win. This flies in the face of all the bad beat stories where some fish held 2-7o and beats AA with a runner runner flush.

So just because he is a fish shouldn't make you belive that you have a poker-god-given right to win the hand. Fo one thing we know that fish often call with a garbage hand. This one could easily have had a 5 for trips on the flop (which he did).

The problem is you id him as a fish - and then assume he follows the 'rules' of educated players. You assumed he wouldn't call you first raise of 3BB with something as ridiculous as 8-5o.

So if you are playing a fish, you need to change your methods to account for a radomness factor on the part of the fish.

In the long run, be glad there are fish. They are a necessary part of the food chain.

SarasotaJohn said:

It can be helpful - when used correctly. It is only one piece of evidence. There is a prevailing school of thought that FISH can't win. This flies in the face of all the bad beat stories where some fish held 2-7o and beats AA with a runner runner flush.

So just because he is a fish shouldn't make you belive that you have a poker-god-given right to win the hand. Fo one thing we know that fish often call with a garbage hand. This one could easily have had a 5 for trips on the flop (which he did).

The problem is you id him as a fish - and then assume he follows the 'rules' of educated players. You assumed he wouldn't call you first raise of 3BB with something as ridiculous as 8-5o.

So if you are playing a fish, you need to change your methods to account for a radomness factor on the part of the fish.

In the long run, be glad there are fish. They are a necessary part of the food chain.

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As I learned to my distress. I am happy I got him in the pot with such trash, I was annoyed with myself for getting carried away with just top pair, esp so early in a SnG. but you live and learn I suppose.

PS what is with that sexy guy - he just posts "sweet" on random threads?

skd1337 said:

PS what is with that sexy guy - he just posts "sweet" on random threads?

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He either is asking for one or he's trying to get to 15 posts
*not exactley 'quality' though are they

Sharkscope - ive never really played enough sngs to be that bothered - but recentley i have begun to play a few 18, 45 player games and cashed , so now it says my form is 'hot' lol so i think its great lol .

It can be useful for finding out about the donkey who keeps pushing all-in and bragging how great he is - then you can quickly shut him up by talking back about his recent losses

he will inevitably say its not his account - hes using his friends :roll:

The definition of break-even poker

You can search me on pokerstars (zachvac)

games played: 605

total profit: $3

Someone recently said he was moving up levels so he didn't face donks like me (called with top pair and gut shot, he flopped the straight. I turned the straight so we ended up chopping). Look at sharkscope, and although it doesn't have cash games, only sngs, he had lost $300+ lol.

I almost never use it unless I'm doing a HU. The one time there was actually an icon of a fish swimming around and jumping out of a fish bowl on sharkscope .

accordint to a blog source i read this morning, Pokerstars have banned sharkscope from accessing there results. pretty gay really.

skd1337 said:

accordint to a blog source i read this morning, Pokerstars have banned sharkscope from accessing there results. pretty gay really.

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What I think is gay is that you can go to a site and get data on another player for free. That's not how it's supposed to be, you're supposed to make observations yourself. PokerAce is not banned because it simply keeps the stats of what you've already seen. Poker-edge however is banned at stars because it gets data not seen by you. I don't think it's fair that people can have a read on you before you've played one hand against them.

ok, but due to the large amount of people you play against day in day out makes it almost impossible to keep track of the players you have picked up tells on. I wouldn't have a problem with people sharkscoping me, so I find it hard to believe that other people would.

Also I feel it is unfair for all the stars users that sharkscope themselves for their own records. It means they have to track their games in other ways.

I really have no problem with it, I have more of a problem with stuff like poker-edge (look it up, it tracks more than just winnings). If you use pokertracker, you can keep stats on everyone you play against. I realize it costs money, but it's definitely worth it, and it keeps legitimate records of stuff you've observed, not a huge database of everyone's records. Note that record-sharing is also illegal, you cannot combine pokertracker stats between multiple people (although that's pretty much impossible to enforce).

can u even call him a fish? dik the terminology too well but i always thought that was someone with some decent possibility, even like 85suited and hopin for the flush...well i guess he had a shot for a striaght, but that was a retarded play haha...how do u get this sharkscope stuff?

ok i found the website, but does it only find players who have played in real money games?

I use Sharkscope for one thing, and one thing only:
When somebody makes a bad play against me and somehow still manages to bust me, I will usually look them up on Sharkscope.

In general, there will be a picture of a fish bowl next to the player's name, and once I see that the guy is down $10,000 or whatever the amount I shrug the bad beat off with a big smile and start the next tournament.

i've been using sharkscope to track my ROI. i play on stars only and it's keeping right up with me.

"I don't subscribe but I do buy 200 searches every so often, I used to use it as a way of tracking my own game (mainly because I'm on a Mac and Poker Tracker doesnt work on Mac) Recently I have started scoping all the people at my tables and making player notes on everybody. This really opened my eyes to the large amount of losing players at every table. On average there is only 2 winning players per table - meaning it is helping me catagorise my opponents quickly."

I don't know if you have tried it or not but google mac poker pro, it is supposed to work on the mac like poker tracker does, I can't vouch for its usefulness (haven't tried it yet) but they offer a 1000 hand demo
Open End Software - MacPoker Pro - Mac Poker Online Tracking Software

skd1337 said:

Also I feel it is unfair for all the stars users that sharkscope themselves for their own records. It means they have to track their games in other ways.

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^^^ This is why I would only recommend sharkscope to those who play do not play the majority of their SNGs at PS. What you have been doing is exactly what I do... buy 200 instead of the monthly (at the rate I use them it's cheaper) and mainly use it as a tool to supplement PT to track my SNGs. If you a predominately SNG player this is a great tool and I highly recommend it.

If one only dabbles in SNGs once in a while then just don't bother.

Actually, I'm pretty sure Sharkscope is still collecting data from Stars, becuase I use it to track my own play and my stats are updated still from S-N-Gs I play on Stars. My understanding was that Stars wasn't stopping SS from collecting its data, it was stopping players from running it's software and searching sharkscope at the same time - although they aren't aggressively enforcing that yet.

ss is the only source of collecting data on stars for sng what do you mean its not working on stars anymore get info str8 then post

Well, whatever they're doing they haven't done it yet. Like I said, my Stars info. gets update on Sharkscope everytime I play in a sit-n-go. Not to mention the fact I had in running the other night while I was playing. I have to say that according to this
Update: PokerStars indicates they will aggressively pursue Sharkscope users : Poker News
PS might be crossing the line as far as invading the privacy of its users. I have no problem with them making sure I'm not running a program that interacts with their software (like a bot) but monitoring what web sites I'm using while I'm running PS is a bit much.