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  To a large extent, winning at poker is about taking advantage of others' mistakes and weaknesses. To many, this may seem like a call to prey on weaker players, and to some, it is. After all, it is easier to defeat a weaker opponent, and defeating opponents is how you increase the size of your stack. There is always the chance of worsening your own game if all you do is play against "fish," but that's not what this article is about.



  Instead, this article is about playing against players who do just that. Players who are "sharks." There's a good chance you'll run into a shark on any given night. Almost all sharks play for money, and many are addicted to poker, thus they play a lot of poker in a lot of places, from little tournaments in bars to shady backroom games. There's also a good chance that the shark will be a better player than you, unless their skills have atrophied a great deal.



  Sharks do, however, have a weakness. They're predators at heart, pure savage animals looking for the easiest kill. For thousands of years, mankind has had to deal with predators that were better equipped for survival than we. Still, through intelligence, we rose to the top of the food chain, and now live in very slight fear of the critters who used to haunt us.



  We can beat predators, because we can outwit them, and one of our most time tested tactics is using bait. Whether we do it ourselves, or employ some other, weaker creature, the best way to deal with a predator has always been to bait him into a trap, using his natural aggressiveness against him.



  You can use yourself. Play a bit loose for a couple of hands (but don't go all in of course) to paint yourself as an easy target - that will likely make the shark less attentive. And then you can beat the shark with the actions he doesn't expect from you. For example, a couple of times you can bet with the not-so-strong cards. The shark will remember it and will likely call your all in bet when you hold really nice cards.



  The best way to deal with a shark is to take advantage of his aggressiveness.