Generation Next -- Darryll Fish

Many of the successful online tournament professionals tend to have a robotic, similar style of play. While playing 15-20 tables simultaneously, there’s not much metagame going on. There’s no time for reading table conditions, crazy moves, or subtle mistakes of weaker opponents. A great player should be able to play most any style — tight, loose, crazy, or solid — based on how his opponents are playing.

Darryll Fish, 23, comes from a strong cash-game background. He’s used to playing more flops and finding tricky ways to freeze or confuse opponents. “You need to open your mind and do things that people aren’t expecting,” said Fish. “Most of the good players have the same style of play. If you can do different things that people won’t know how to react to or expect, you’re adjusting and staying one step ahead of the game.”

Fish recently capitalized on the confusion principle by capturing the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker $1,050 no-limit hold’em event. Card Player sat down with him the day after his big win to understand his unique approach to the game.

Craig Tapscott: So, what have you been doing lately to confuse your opponents?

Darryll Fish: One thing I have been experimenting with is overbetting the pot, mainly on the river. It can be done as a bluff or for value in different situations, because when players see it, they don’t know how to react and make a big mistake. Many times if you overbet the river with a big hand, opponents think you’re bluffing them, and they will call.

CT: What else?

DF: It can depend on your history with a player. Sometimes you can call before the flop from the big blind, and then lead out on the flop as a bluff. Players always expect you to check, so it’s another way to confuse your opponent. It especially can be effective if your opponent is playing 12-15 tables and can’t pay full attention.

CT: What have you learned from your friend, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Matt Graham?

DF: A lot about stack-size management and knowing at which point in a tournament to tighten up; then, at which points to take more risks to accumulate chips. But one of the biggest things I’ve learned is how to take the most profitable lines with different hands, because there are so many options.

CT: What do you mean by best lines with different hands?

DF: Well, pot control is one. Another line is three-barrel bluffing in certain situations and your opponent is calling. By the river, his range is reduced to a very small number of hands, and an even smaller number of hands that can call a big bet on the river, because he has shown weakness by just calling all the way.

CT: It seems that online tournaments have gotten even more aggressive lately.

DF: They have. In today’s poker, everyone plays so aggressively that you don’t get much credit, so if you flop a monster, it’s usually better to play it fast, as opponents will assume you’re bluffing or making a move. You want to build pots with your bigger hands, and use pot control with your more marginal, top-pair type of hands. A lot of players will flop top pair, get excited, and put a lot of money in the pot, but that’s usually not going to end up very well.

CT: I was referring mostly to the reraising and re-reraising preflop.

DF: That is pretty much how it has to be, because of the structure of online MTTs [multitable tournaments], other than the big buy-in events. The structure is so shallow that you don’t have a lot of room to play post-flop poker. A lot of the decisions are preflop. So, you’re better off playing a preflop-based style, like players “Shaun Deeb” and “Moorman” tend to do. They put the pressure on their opponents before they get a chance to hit something on the flop.

CT: It seems to have gotten crazy, with all kinds of hands showing up all in.

DF: I know. It’s gotten to the point where players are three-, four-, and five-betting light all the time. That never used to happen. Lately, it’s tough to gauge what is going on preflop, and it’s become a guessing game.

CT: So, what’s the solution?

DF: The key is to guess your situations correctly (laughing).