All I know about this player is he has 40% VP$IP and 3% PFR.

Ultimate Bet 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with , .
1 fold, Hero calls, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (6 SB) , , (7 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn: (4.50 BB) (4 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks, CO bets, Hero calls, MP2 folds.

River: (6.50 BB) (3 players)
Hero bets, CO raises, Hero 3-bets, CO caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 14.50 BB

This is the prime example of fishes only paying attention to their cards: "I have a set (He had TT)! I'll cap the river against 4-to-a-straight!"

I think he expected me to bet the turn so he could throw in a re-raise there. I actually wish I bet the turn as a semi-bluff.

Funny thing... I forgot I had a gutshot along with my flush draw on the turn. I completely misread the board there. I was paying so much attention to my flush draw I forgot about the gutshot! Thankfully I realized I had the straight on the river!

Lately I've been fond of check-raising my strong draws but here I was in a later position and afraid no one would bet. Also, I should still be betting out my strong draws sometimes to make me more difficult to read.

Another fish! The particular fish here had a 60% VP$IP.

Ultimate Bet 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: Hero is CO with , .
UTG calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, 1 fold, MP3 calls, Hero calls, Button calls, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (7 SB) , , (7 players)
SB bets, BB calls, UTG calls, MP1 raises, MP3 folds, Hero 3-bets, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG folds, MP1 calls.

Turn: (11.50 BB) (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets, Button calls, SB calls, BB calls, MP1 calls.

River: (16.50 BB) (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 bets, Hero raises, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 3-bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 22.50 BB

Once again, a fish re-raising against 4-to-a-straight! This time with a two-pair he made on the river. (He had 96.)

PF: This was a loose table and I could tell a multi-way pot was coming up. 55 is a mighty fine hand here.

Flop: I wasn't sure if re-raising or calling would be the better play here. It was a large pot and I had a small edge, so I really think calling would have been better. If a five came on the turn, I'd be fucked. Still, the table was loose enough to call my re-raise, so my mistake paid off nicely.

Turn and River: Value betting. I made two possible errors here. I could have called the raise to induce overcalls (and I'd be beat if someone held 75 anyway). And I could have capped the betting on the river against the fish. I should have realized 75 would have probably been far more aggressive on the flop and turn and not given him credit for it.

Thankfully the player was fishy enough where I actually made more money by re-raising instead of calling.

Hand 1 i fold preflop or I open raise in LP but not in MP. You don't know what kind of pot it will be as you don't want a raise. Unless the table is VERY loose passive preflop, don't play it. I like how you played it postflop.

Hand 2. that flop 3 bet is only good if you think you can get a lot of them to call you. Otherwise, i just call to hope to keep people in to make the pot large. Caopping the river is read dependent.

With Hand 1... UB told me the table had an average of over 45% of players seeing the flop. Before I joined the table I watched how most of the hands play out. This clearly was an extremely loose table and there was little PF raising. A9s technically was a loose limp, even by Miller and Sklansky's standards. ATs would have been "okay" since it fits the ten-plus suited cards criteria.

I'm very picky with the tables I play on and switch tables at the end of the orbit if the dynamic changes (i.e. two or more fish leave). I know this is more time-consuming, but I profit more in the end.

Hand 2... I agree I probably should have just called the flop. As I mentioned, a five would make my hand worthless unless I get lucky on the river giving me a full house. Also, seeing another club would force me to slow-down.

The flop raising would never eliminate someone else with a five, but it might eliminate people holding a 7 or 2 for a gutshot incase that five did fall. Then my trips might be good at showdown. Hmm... looks like I threw myself in a circle here. From how many people called the raises, I assume some people stuck around with just a gutshot anyway. I might as well have waited for the turn and slowed down. Thankfully here I got lucky and things worked out.

A fish (literally) is someone who "fishes" for cards--draws without odds. It has been permuted to mean anyone who is generally a poor player--does not make correct plays, loses frequently, wins only by sucking out, etc.

In Poker Tracker (see forum)--it is someone who is Loose pre-flop and Passive post-flop.

Sharks are solid players, i.e., those players that populate these forums. Ever notice that these guys don't frequently play cash games with each other? There's a reason--those cash games are -EV.

To summarize, you want to play with fish. You want to avoid sharks.

Do a google search for "poker dictionary" and get more answers!

Thanks and welcome!