Only look at one of your cards?

I'm a newbie to poker so please tell me if this would make any sense:

First my observations:

I've seen a lot of the WSOP and it seems that luck plays a huge roll after all the complicating psychological betting and reading tells is done. You have the flop, turn and river cards which often help the underdog hand as they unfold.

Firstly, don't look at both your hole cards, only look at 1 or none. My thinking here would be that if you don't even know what your other card is, how can anyone read you? once the flop comes look at your remaining card before moving on. If you don't like the first card you see I would still bet to see the flop unless you think its really bad and too expensive. I see so many players hit lucky trips or straights or 2 pairs on the flop with garbage cards, some experts might argue that this happens rarely, but I would think that same garbage is what guys with ACE-KING want when they win with Ace high. Also the read, if you imagine your 'hidden' card to be what you want it to be then I think you are really throwing off the expert readers out there and after the flop you can look and avoid players reading your reaction to the flop. I know this sounds crazy, but I'd even thought of making it a point to not look at either of my cards pre-flop and trying this out with small money live. This would totally throw the other players off and if I hit anything on the flop I can see that after the flop, and If I don't have anything good or any good cards, then I can fold. From the little I know about live casino poker I am told and observe that it is very hard to bluff others out of a pot and often times the pots are won by some lucky player whose good hand beats the other guys good hand on the turn or river.


For those that disagree with me, please humor me by answering the following: "How many times have you folded what you thought was a crap hand, only to have that hand hit big on the flop or win the pot?" Does this even cross your mind? or are you so hell bent on playing the "good" hands and rely on long term %'s that your "good" hand will beat someone else's "good" hand.?

Am I completely out to lunch here? any comments?

i'm sorry, what????
only look at one card, wtf?
sorry, it's early for me, i dont get it?

As you put it--yes sir you are "completely out to lunch"--while being easy to read is a bad thing--playing blind is far less profitable I'd imagine. A much better suggestion would be to vary your play style.

You're not "completely out to lunch". You're a complete newbie to poker (by your own admission) and coming up with dumb strategies that will cost you lots of money is part of that.


This is one of those strategies.

1: "Expert readers" will realise that you're doing this, probably before you even show down your hand (if you're playing live, online I think you might have to show down Ax and Kx a few times before they catch on). They will think that you just over value a high card and will play you as if the other one could be anything.

2: Expert readers can read you for one of two reasons: You're playing your hand optimally or you're playing your hand predictably (can be the same thing).
An example of playing it optimally would be pocket rockets pre-flop, there's a raise before you and two callers, now you raise big here because you have to thin the field and build a pot. This is important because if you don't thin the field, you are likely to lose your stack to someone if you play it strong post-flop or you're going to have to slow down and take only a small pot (or fold). By seeing so much action already pre-flop, you're going to get a caller on just about any bet, so you bet big to build a pot and protect your hand all at once. Any other pro at the table knows what you've got, let them throw away most of their range and pay you off witih whatever they can't get away from, and you'll take most of your money from the fish instead.
It's the optimal play, you don't do it and you lose money. Just do it and let the other guy make a mistake and pay you off every once in a while.


3: Your strategy is based on beating strong players, don't play sub-optimal play in order to beat the experts when there's so much more money in playing near abc poker to beat the fish. Yes, at strong tables you have to play tricky, but when you're playing that tricky you need to know what outs you've got because tricky doesn't always work and you almost always need the added value of some kind of draw.

4: When the other guy absolutely knows what you've got, you can trick him. The other day I all in shoved (about 2x the pot) on the river with 82o for a full house (was in the big blind, hence the 82o) and the other guy who's one of the best players and best readers I've ever seen called me. Just because he believed I had a missed flush.
Similarly, it's a favourite trick of mine to whisper that an opponent has big pockets to the bloke next to me (when we've both already folded, of course), before he even makes a bet, I'm very confident in my hand reading. Not long ago I mucked pocket queens to pocket 8's.
The more certain they are that their information is good, the easier they are to fool.

4: Yeah, from time to time I muck a hand pre-flop that would have won. Try playing poker for a whole session, with the goal of seeing flops because your hand's value is so dependent on the flop. Try it. Watch your stack running away like water in cupped hands. Seriously, try it.

5: Don't deprive yourself of important information. Learn to disguise it and to manipulate those who're trying to read you.

Yes,make this part of your studying

http://www.cardschat.com/f11/my-mtt-...9/#post1302638




Snow

Playing random hands is ok in a few specific situations, but not normally.

Let's say you raise without looking, and have 6/4.
The flop is 6/4/4.

1) You give off "I have a big hand" tells. Your hand shakes a little, you fumble your chips, your heart races causing the vein in your neck to bulge, etc. So your "don't give off tells" reasoning gets invalidated.

2) This miracle flop is unlikely to help anybody but you, so you will win a small pot.

3) Most of the time your 6/4 will be worthless post-flop.

Waaaaaaay fewer times than it ever hits.

I disagree completely...
When i started playing poker, I too thought that luck plays a major role...
Then after some months, i started to feel that skill has equal importance as luck..
But then, after still more months of playing, i began to realize that skill plays a major role than luck..
And now after few years, BELIEVE ME, i have rightly realized that poker is 100% skill game...

If u have 100% luck, u still may win or may not...
But if u have 100% skill, U WILL WIN that damn pot for sure bro.

If u start seeing poker as a luck game, u can never improve...
And if u start seeing it as a skill game, u are bound to become a good player soon...
Its my very own personal experience....

Thanks
Spidy.

I would never follow this strategy. However, a poker player I respect told me to play in a low stakes game and put a sticky note on the monitor over my cards. The purpose was to learn the value of position. He said he did this for three straight sessions and it made him a much better player.

I tried to do it but it didn't last for even one hand. I kept thinking, "I could have rockets right now, or maybe kings".

Annette_15 (winner of 2007 WSOPE ME) actually won an online tournament by doing this, although she did peak at one hand. She bet purely on position and the other players play.
There is a thread about it here somewhere............
Annette_15 playing 180 seater MTT blind and winning! <----that's one of many threads about this subject

umm... I really don't think that would help.. You might not be able to be read but you will lose a lot of chips as a result.
You say you bet most every flop....does that mean you double-barrel on turn too?
It seems like this would be an easy way to lose a lot of chips because you won't know when to slow down. Imagine you get reraised...and you look down at a 2/7. You can never know where you stand in the hand.
I think developing a poker face would be easier and way more profitable because you wouldn't be constantly spewing...

I prefer playing good cards, because, they're well....good. You mostly know where you stand in the hand and won't have to guess.
Sure, the pro's like phil ivey and gus hansen can pull this off because they are just that good.

I can imagine it now "I busted out on a 7 high because i didnt look at my cards but i felt i had a set."-- lol.




p.s. this reminds me of a WPT show where the guy said "if i see an ace, i don't look at the other card" and i lol'd so hard when he busted out after getting A 7(he didnt look at the 7, supposedly) vs. A K on a board that had just 1 ace on it.

This.....for the playing bad hands to flop mosters thing.

You had might as well play while your drunk, blindfolded and have both hands tied behind your back..... Not cool.

I love your strategy. In fact, keep using it. (I, on the other hand will not) It is strategies like this that let the rest of us get your chips. Why even look at the one card, just bet, raise, and maybe everybody will fold. I am sure this will work consistently..... or not. How do you know when to call, raise, or fold if you see an queen. (you other card could be a queen... or a 3 offsuit) Not even sure how serious to take this question. The pros may do this, in late position, or even as a bb with all limpers. More to throw you off than anything cause the players that stayed in are perhaps very predictable and the pro already knows how good of a hand he needs after the flop to stay in.

I have bolded some of your statements and made responses of my own in red ink. I hope this helps you understand a little bit why your idea is not a great one. I do give you an A for effort though of attempting to think about strategy in a game that requires a lot of it.

...welcome to the poker room... the entrance is on the left, so my advice would be take the first right, up the dtairs, keep walking and never look backk..i would nevr ever recommend looking at one card...unless your all in cause of blinds then dont look at alll.seriously...bad idea...terrible idea...as comic book guy says..."worst idea ever"

I saw Scotty Nguyen do this at the NBC Heads Up Championship against Daniel Negreanu. I thought Dan was just irritating him with his Prince of Poker getup but it seems this is actually something people do. It didn't work for Scotty though as he saw an Ace of hearts, went all in, and got busted. Oh well, at least Scotty thought the whole thing was funny. It would have put me on tilt. Someone dressing and acting like me at the table Heads Up.

Some guy jumped off the Goldan gate bridge and survived,I wouldnt recommend that either even though someone else made it work!



Snow

When you have the advantage of looking at both....then why just take a peek.

I simply don't get it. The bridge analogy is awesome.

I wouldn't recommend it either! Not looking at your own cards until later seems extremely stupid, to say the least! You must be rolling in dough if you can afford to bet 'sight unseen'!
I love the analogy too, Snow!

You are out too lunch you have to see you cards to know where you stand, and you have to learn about a lot of things like position. I suggest you read a poker book for dummies first and start to learn about poker!

I Saw that same guy in he WSOP main event a few years back. he was playin against fossil man