What Is A Whale In Poker?
1 minute
Last Updated: December 19, 2023
In poker, the term “whale” refers to a weak poker player that plays a lot of pots and has little regard for their bankroll or the strength of their hands.
Whale players are known for being willing to lose a lot of buy-ins in a single session, which usually creates a lot of action in the games they play and makes them very valuable to casinos and online poker sites.
Since whales are willing to make large bets and usually don’t have any regard for poker strategy, they are much easier to exploit than other player types. These players are considered even weaker than fish in poker ranks, where sharks are professional players.
For this reason, if you want to increase your win rate, you should always try to find games that host at least one player who plays like this.
However, it is worth noting that because these players use large bets and play quite loose, there will be situations in which they will get lucky or on a hot streak and win a lot of money from you. Because of this, you should avoid jumping into higher stakes with whales if you don’t have a sufficient bankroll.
Poker Whale Example:
I was playing in a very loose Texas Holdem $1/$2 cash game where one player raised blind every hand before even seeing what he had and never shied away from moving all in with random hands preflop.
Such a player would be considered a huge whale, and you should be happy to have him on your table.
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