For example, I am about to sit down into a 10-20 or 15-30 5max table with one 70/23/.65 fish and a mix of TAG's, LAGTAG's, and LAG's.

I am a 30/20/2 TAG type of player and normally play 5-10 with at most 2 solid TAG or LAGTAG players and 2 or more fish or semi-fish.

I recently played a few sessions of 15-30 (about 600 hands total) and got rocked for -150 BB's straight! It was one of those runs where not much of my premium hands held up or hit, and when I did pick up big hands, I just stole the blinds or didn't get action after the flop.

So basically, is this table still profitable to play in with only one fish and 3 other solid players?

"70/23/.65"

yes

Just being better than the worst player at the table isn't necessarily good enough to make a game profitable. A lot depends on your abilities compared to the other 3 people at the table.

Obviously, the more shorthanded a game gets, the more profitable it will be to have just one fish in the game

I wouldnt play the table if I didnt have a somewhat decent position on the fish. Jesus seat is about 2-3BB/100 better than the worst I think.

Good grief you non-us guys must roll around in diamonds if you would consider not taking ANY seat in this game. Would be an epic game for stars. This particular fish surely loses 5+bb/100 all on his own.

5-max any 10/20 game with a fish like that is +EV.

Sometimes the other 3 solid players are 5-10 regulars that I'm used to playing, but sometimes they are aggressive LAGTAG or LAG midstakes regulars that I'm not used to dealing with.

Thanks for reassuring me that this game is profitable. I started second guessing myself after playing a few sessions and getting rocked by the fish and some of the other 3. I started thinking to myself "maybe its -EV to have 4 solid'ish players feeding on one fish".

Thanks again, and I appreciate the comments.

I would fist pump before I even sat down if I saw a table with a player like this...

(and then lose 100BB and smash my monitor)

I play on a soft european site and I would join this table in an instant. -150BB streaks happen, but perhaps you need to work on your game if your wanting to step up a level.

But if the rake is 1 BB/100 per player... there goes that 5BB/100. I think a 70/20 is capable of losing more than 5BB/100, but if you are getting pwned by the LAGTAG and LAG regulars, then the table is not profitable, as Boc said. The pressence of one mega fishy surely makes it a game which can be beaten, but whether OP is capable of beating it depends at least somewhat on his ability to deal with the other good players in the game.

btw, wouldn't rolling around in diamonds hurt? (I now have an image of piglet rolling around in diamonds stuck in my head)

duo I've played with you at 10/20 the last couple days and you've always been at good tables in good seats, I'm sure you'll do fine in the long run

right now even you've got the jesus seat on my table

To further clarify my point, I don't think I would be profitable playing 200/400 with OP's described fish on my left, with PapaWarbucks, nimag, AffleckKGB, and KPR16 filling out the rest of the table. When I started playing 30/60 I ran into situations like this, where there was one fish and 4 others who outclassed me. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't winning when I made sure to be sitting in a game with someone clearly worse than me.

None of the 10/20 regulars are as good as any of the guys I mentioned in the hypothetical 2/4 game, but it's all relative. If you're clearly outclassed by your other 4 opponents in a 6 max game, you'd better have good position on the fish

Hmmm, actually those are good points you guys are making. I guess the 70/20 fish lose much more than 5bb/100? Cuz honestly this sounds like a fantastic game to me. Even if it were 3 decent players filling out the rest of the table. If its 3 guys of schneids' caliber I have no idea.

At higher limits you're sometimes lucky to get 1 super fish. I would think having a genuine 70/20 would make any game profitable, but it's all relative. If your EV is too negative against the other 3, then you might not make it up from Mr.70/20. Also, realize that the other 3 (if they are good) are playing everyone else relative to the 70/20. This can make for a pretty complicated game. A lot of isolating the isolator who is isolating. If the other 3 are REALLY good, this is happening on all streets!

All in all, I would say that if you don't feel comfortable playing a particular limit in a 'normal' game, I don't think you should play just because of 1 player. There should be plenty of chances to find bad players at your normal limit.

There are good players who are good for the game though. A lot of times I have sat at a table where each person there is specifically there for the fish and in general people stay in line against you and you all can make $.

Disclaimer: not collusion

Korrupt is right. I have passed on good big games because the only seat was on the fish' right, but I would always always always play a game I was rolled for if I had the best seat no matter who the other players are.

-DeathDonkey

Schneids
Doughnutz
St1ckman
Bryce
HossTBF

so if you were rolled for this game, you would sit where?

jdalla, wtf whos the fish there?

if there was a 70/20 drooler i would sit and even take the worst seat.

whoops, I misread DD's post big time, thought he was saying he would sit in any game if he had the best seat. Silly me.

Yeah as you realized I meant in a game with a big fish, though am I sick for thinking it would be fun to play in that lineup you mentioned if somehow it were lunch money stakes but everyone played seriously?

-DeathDonkey

Position is the answer. If I am to the left of said fish where I can ISO 3 bet him and force the other tags and lagtags to CC 3 then this game is good. If I am in bad position where another tag is 3 betting him constantly and putting me in a situation that I have to fold to many decent hands then the game sucks. I had a table recently with a guy that 70/45 3 to my right, this sounds good but it sucked as the two lagtags to my right constantly 3 bet him and put me in the position to either cap or fold. Hands that I would have liberally 3 bet him with became hands that I folded to the other lagtags 3 bets or capped and hoped that they were just ISO raising.

nobody forced you to fold.

I've thought this through and I know exactly where I would sit. First of all I would want this game to be on fulltilt. I would select the elephant as my icon and make it an angry elephant. Over 100 people per year are attacked by elephants and that is just in Uganda alone. (source: Korrupt Estimation Inc.) They'd be scared since they now know this statistic. I'd make sure st1ckman wasn't on my right at any point, because he likes to 3bet me religiously, and I am FOS all the time and usually have napkins, but they are used napkins since I like to eat when I play (elephants get hungry!). So I think st1ckman would have to be to my immediate right. Bryce has a bit of a lisp so I'm not sure if I'd want to sit next to him because he might overhear me making fun of it to hoss, who loves a good joke, and will sit to my left to hear my fantastic one-liners. Schneids has the same exact name as me, so I would have to have him the furthest away so as not to be accused of collusion. Therefore Schneids would be across the table from me. This means that one of us would have to sit on the left and one on the right since stars 6-max tables are rectangular.

(((Note: the game starts on full tilt but is now on stars since I got distracted while typing this by my douchebag coworker. NO I DONT CARE ABOUT THE BEARSTERNS DEAL YOU LOSER, I'M ON 2+2. )))

We'd be on aim to make sure both of us had clicked the appropriate "Sit Here" button and we weren't sitting in the same spot. Note: schneids loves to lap up. Doughnutz would not actually be sitting at the table. He would just be standing nearby, tossing chips into the pot anytime a turncard came out. From what I have read so far on this site, this is what he does. So as you can see I am well-prepared for this game, and will anxiously await crushing it.

This is the funniest thing I've read on 2p2 in a long time.

imo fish needs to be atleast 80 VPIP+

-truly it all depends on if the others are isolating light and if it is shutting you out or if you have the worst position at the table