What are some of the general qualities of a TAGfish?

I'd like to know to make sure I'm not one and exploit the ones who are

A few

Bad at hand reading

Uncreative and predictable

Poor adjusting skills

Too aggro, i.e fit or foldish

Too tight

Easy to tilt

Bad seat/table selection

Passive on the river


There are prolly a lot more

Not all of them are exploitable. But against tightish fit or fold guys you need to take a lot of shots on them. You should also 3-bet them liberally preflop until they adjust. Be careful with calling the river with A high vs a predictable uncreative guy if he 3 barrels. When they start tilting you should obviously pound on them.

This is my #1. The TAGfish does not three-barrel.

Well Oink just about covered all of them. But I'll try.

Calls too many turns and folds way too many rivers against loose, bluffing players.

Complete inability to exploit fish, which is the only way to make money in poker. Stems from unwillingness to deviate from their starting hands chart. Further evidenced postflop by inability to ever take a shot at a fish.

Has an image so nitty that the biggest maniac in the world *only* folds when they bet. God forbid they raise.

So bad at value betting that you start to keep a mental tally of bets he has saved you by not betting the river.

Gives free cards at all the wrong times.

Horrible at identifying steal situations. Worse in execution.

Good stuff.

I think passivity on the river is the deepest ***** in my game right now.

My river AF is around 1.50. I don't bet/fold enough and find myself giving way too many free SDs to players who would've paid off.

This is the first indication that I'm running bad, and consequently playing worse.

When I can't pull the trigger on the river, I'm starting to end my sessions since that means I'm reading hands like [censored].

But, when running good or playing well, it's magnificent to be reminded of the crap people will call down with.

I know plnety of winning players with river AF's of around 1.5

Thats not a sign of you being too passive on the river.

True, maybe it's a case of selective memory, remembering the times I should've bet.

1.5 is actually fine, if you're much more aggressive it means you're not check/calling enough. Value comes not only from you betting, but also from him bluffing. If you only ever bet/fold everything, it becomes a very easy bet with air if you check the river. And maybe even shots at raising rivers. I see a lot of players who should learn to call: checking and/or calling can at times be superior to betting. I really feel that one of the few here who know when to call is Oink. Others only play to get their aggression numbers up as high as possible. You know, there's even another metagame reason: if you can get those numbers down your bluffs will be more succesful because you'll be read as passive. Similar things go on the turn, so that's an immediate indication of a flaw in your "tagfish": they are too aggressive and don't know how to call.

LOL, when I'm playing bad my river AF is around 1.

When I'm tagfish'ing (which I tend to do near the end of my sessions), I find myself not adjusting at all preflopwise. This means stuff like opening 76s OTB vs 2 loose passive blinds, 3 balling AJo vs utg raises from the nitty nits. And then you see a flop and are like "oh, that was kinda dumb"

Why wouldnt you?

With loose passive bad players you want to loosen up OTB, not tighten up. This is a misperception you see a lot for some reason

Isn't the thinking (which I'm borrowing from HEPFAP), that you should just call more on the button against loose, bad players.

You have little if any edge to push w/ 76s, and you hardly fear a raise from the blinds. There is little value in trying to steal, since they never fold.

Now, if they are pushed around very easily postflop, then I understand. But if they're going to the river with any pair, then I don't see much value in raising.

This is not true. Even loose passive fish will fold their SB to a steal quite a lot. A lot of 50/5 guys will fold their SB around 30-40%

I still think its a raise because you want folding equity - even if its slim and because you want SB out if possible.

But the points you make are valid.

Here I'm assuming both blinds are bad.

I guess I prefer the implied odds of having two weak players in a hand, and I hold a strong multiway holding.

Bets are always best when my equity's 100%.

If you don't raise you'll have a hard time representing that flopped ace on your c-bet... that combined with the times they do fold (don't be mistaken, if they fold you make a huge profit. You'll win 0.75 BB on a 76s hand, that's probably more than average, close to hands like KQ) makes raising a good play.