Something Fishy 2

I witnessed an interesting hand this evening between a tight-solid player and one of the fish at the table. As I always do when not in a hand, I was watching closely trying to put each of the players on a hand.

We were about half way through a single table sit 'n go tournament on Full Tilt. Blinds are 50 and 100. Both the fish and the tight player were still in the green zone. The fish min-raised from middle position. Everyone folded around to the tight-solid player on the big blind who called.

The flop came Qs 7h 5s. The tight player checks and the fish bets half the pot. The tight player thinks for a moment and then calls.

The turn comes a [Qs 7h 5s] 6s, possibly filling flush or straight draws. The tight player checks again and the fish bets about half the pot. The tight player immediately pushes all-in. The fish insta-calls. The fish shows Ah Qh for top pair and the tight-solid player shows 9h Ts for queen high with a flush and gut-shot straight draws. The river is a blank and the fish wins with his pair of queens.

Not really that interesting of a hand. The best hand before the flop and throughout held up. That is the way it should work! However, what is interesting to me was the comment posted by the tight player to the fish after the completion of the hand:

"How can you call a push with a flush and straight on the board?" he asked. The fish typed back, "Oops, I missed that!"

Now, whether the fish actually missed it or not is debatable. However, the point I want to make is regarding the play by the tight-solid player. He set this hand up to tell a perfect story. He was screaming, "I am on a draw" but the fish didn't hear it. When the turn card came he screamed, "I made my draw" but the fish didn't hear it, or didn't care! After he lost the pot the tight player criticized the fish for not getting it. However, that wasn't the actual problem. The problem was this... the tight player was trying to tell a story to someone that was not listening. That was the tight players mistake, not a mistake made by the fish!

I have said this in the past and I will say it again... you can't bluff a fish. If the fish isn't trying to figure out what is in your hand, if they are just playing their own hand, your "story" isn't going to make it to their ears. Even if it does, it might not be interpreted correctly. Bottom line: Don't try to tell stories to those that are not listening. Against bad players, play straight-up poker.