Recognizing Your Place in the Poker Food Chain

Poker players recognize the ‘Food Chain’ as the pecking order of skill and knowledge.  Get used to the idea that when you first start playing Texas Hold ‘Em, you are nothing more or less than ‘bait’. 

You are ‘the fish’; the small fry who provides food for the sharks and big fish in the ocean. 

Let’s start with a look at the bottom of the food chain:  The FISH.

The Fish - Eventually, as you get better at the game and at assessing risk and odds, you will become one of those big fish!  In the meantime, accept your position at the table and understand that you will be gobbled up often until you learn the law of the ocean. 

Consider that you will get out of the ‘fish’ zone faster, if you really understand the game and when you are out of your league.  Even really good players can be a fish sometimes. 

When you are under a lot of pressure in a game, or the number of players changes radically in a tournament or other situation, you can sometimes find yourself in panic mode and forget strategy or analysis. 

You will start acting like a fish, staying in the game longer than you should; longer than your hand should allow, and raising when you should not do so.  A fish plays without regard to odds or knowledge. 

When a fish becomes really crazed and forsakes all logic in a frantic effort to win, he/she becomes a ‘maniac’, displaying aggressive player behavior that is not in line with their hand or the scenario playing out in the game.

If you want to survive long enough to learn the game and get better, you (the fish) have to play a tight game.  Stick with the basics and be disciplined. 

Even if you are a fish, if you have one of the top card combinations, you can raise and gain some advantages.  Here are some examples:

If you hold AK in a game where the number of players is reduced after ‘the river’, the AK combination places tenth in the top power plays.

Protecting yourself as a fish means that you must look carefully at the first two-card hand you are dealt.  If you are going to bet on this hand, NEVER bet on anything with less value than the top twenty cards and ALWAYS raise on the top ten cards, unless you think that will scare off other players. 

If the game is very tight, you should only raise on the top five cards before the flop is dealt.   A word of caution about this situation:  If you are a fish and the table is that tight, you would be better served to go someplace else to play rather than to get in over your head. 

The Barracuda – Next up the food chain is the Barracuda.  You have some experience and you have survived to play another day.  You are intrigued and excited by the challenge, and you even make some money when you play, but you are by no means the biggest fish in the ocean. 

You can safely play the top 40 cards and KQ, QJ, JT, T9 in small stakes games as well as off-suit AQ, AJ.   For the Barracuda, the right table will help tremendously in predicting your success or failure. 

Look for a table where people appear to be playing and having a good time (stay away from tables with scowls and serious, furrowed brows), and where at least 50% of the players remain at the table for the flop.

As a Barracuda, you will want to build your confidence and try some more aggressive play so you can get better. 

The difference between a really skilled player and one who knows ‘enough’ but will never be great, is that a skilled player knows when to be aggressive and when to be conservative.

Be more aggressive before the flop using your knowledge and ability to play with a larger spectrum of cards.  Don’t stick to the same betting strategy throughout the game.  Try to mix it up a little so that other players will have more trouble getting a handle on your style and strategy.

If the table is large, do not play as aggressively, unless EVERY player is really conservative and you are trying to bait players to get the betting moving. 

It is important to remember that poker is, first and foremost, a game of perception.  How other players perceive your style and knowledge is important because it drives THEIR decisions when they play. 

If you are someone who is difficult to read and whose behavior is NOT predictable, you will be more successful and have more options as you play the game.  This style of play might be characterized as tight and aggressive. 

When we talk about the specifics and unique character of online poker, you will see that the finer points of behavior and perception become a bit more difficult to assess online.  Therefore, you may have to exaggerate what you are doing so that you can get your STYLE across to the other players at the virtual table.

The Shark – What makes a player a shark?  Quite simply, it is the combination of experience, intuition, perception and strategy.  Like any game of poker, you can bluff your way into a winning situation by making other players believe your position is stronger than it is.  You can also LOSE a lot of money that way.

You must combine aggression and stamina with a healthy dose of strategy and the wisdom to know when to be conservative and when to walk.  A shark watches behavior carefully and forms an opinion of the style and strategy of other players. 

Great players are made, NOT born.  The combination of skills and experience will get you where you want to go if you constantly work on the finer points of the game.  

You must understand odds, the particular mix of players at the table and the game itself.  The shark knows the other players and can analyze their behavior and he gains the advantage as soon as possible.