Looking at your cards

[magiluke]

I was reading another thread that sort of branched off on the topic of when to look at your cards, so I figured I'd make a new thread, raising that very question: When is the best time to look at your cards.
I've heard some argue not to look at them until it is your turn to act, as to not give too much informations about your hand to the opponents. Also, you get to look at all of your opponents before you, and get minor bits of information about their hands.
On the other hand (I guess it's a pun), if you wait until last minute, everyone is there looking at you.
Is the best time when you first get your cards, when it is your turn to act, or somewhere in between?

[Neil Stevens]

You have the possibility of reacting whenever you look at your cards, but if you know the cards you have when people ahead of you act, then you might react to the actions of those earlier players.

So, the earlier you look, the more information you can potentially give away.

[Nougat]

I think also, when you look at your cards once the action is around to you, you know for a fact that there are eyes trained on you. I imagine that would make it a lot easier to concentrate on maintaining a good poker face as you are well aware that you're being watched.

[Cleveland Guy]

I never look at my cards until it's my turn.

I have even figured out a way to try and get this into my online games. I do this for a few reasons.

In a live game, I can see who is thinking of calling/raising both ahead of and behind me, and who has already checked out of the hand.

I also can act more relaxed before others act. In a game last week, a guy was trying to figure out if he should call me from the SB (I was BB). He was afraid I was gonna raise if he just called. He couldn't get a read as I had no idea what I was holding.

I think it also effects your actions. People get a "pretedermined" idea of what they are gonna do when they decide to early. I think people call small raises, or raise hands they shouldn't cause they have seen their cards and their action is made up already.

If I look at my cards the first time when it's my action then I also see how many limpers, raisers, etc are ahead of me.

[dogmeat]

I disagree with not looking at your cards until it is your turn, for several reasons:

1)If you give away so much information when looking at them, and your opponents are so good at obtaining information, you need to quit playing in the game.

2)If you look at them right away, your opponents will be busy looking at their cards, or at most a single opponents will have you singled-out to "spy" on.

3)The earlier you look, the more time you have to watch what is happening and apply what you are seeing to the hand you have. This is (IMHO) much better than watching and then lookinging and trying very quickly to decide what to do now that you know your holdings.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[magiluke]

[ QUOTE ]
I never look at my cards until it's my turn.

I have even figured out a way to try and get this into my online games. I do this for a few reasons.

In a live game, I can see who is thinking of calling/raising both ahead of and behind me, and who has already checked out of the hand.

I also can act more relaxed before others act. In a game last week, a guy was trying to figure out if he should call me from the SB (I was BB). He was afraid I was gonna raise if he just called. He couldn't get a read as I had no idea what I was holding.

I think it also effects your actions. People get a "pretedermined" idea of what they are gonna do when they decide to early. I think people call small raises, or raise hands they shouldn't cause they have seen their cards and their action is made up already.

If I look at my cards the first time when it's my action then I also see how many limpers, raisers, etc are ahead of me.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's very true, I kind of think those are very good reasons not to look at your cards until your turn. Time to adjust my game slightly =/

[deacsoft]

Wait you're turn. Always.

[CarlSpackler]

[ QUOTE ]

I disagree with not looking at your cards until it is your turn, for several reasons:

1)If you give away so much information when looking at them, and your opponents are so good at obtaining information, you need to quit playing in the game.

2)If you look at them right away, your opponents will be busy looking at their cards, or at most a single opponents will have you singled-out to "spy" on.

3)The earlier you look, the more time you have to watch what is happening and apply what you are seeing to the hand you have. This is (IMHO) much better than watching and then lookinging and trying very quickly to decide what to do now that you know your holdings.

[/ QUOTE ]


FWIW, point 2 is obsolete based upon your premise in point 1, which I completely agree with.

I have tried both methods, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is more advantageous for me to wait until it’s my turn to look at my cards. The lone exception to this is when I’m utg, in which case I’m looking at my hand asap, because there isn’t anyone acting in front of me, and I can use the extra time to watch the people behind me, as I decide what to do. By not looking at my hand until it’s my turn, I’m able to maximize the amount of information I’m taking in with regards to other players’ actions and tells. I pay particular attention to the players behind me. I’m able to devote my full concentration, observing my opponents—I’m not consciously or subconsciously distracted by thinking about the hand I hold, because I have no idea what my cards are.

I understand what you’re saying in point 3, with regards to applying your hand to what’s happening in front of you, and because of this it may be advantageous for some players to always look at their hands asap. When I play, however, I already know what hands I’m going to need in order to play, and how I’m going to play them.

Another advantage of waiting to look at your hand, is that it’s not uncommon for the player behind you to be overzealous and act out of turn, thus giving away what he’s going to do. This out of turn play many times starts a chain reaction where the other players behind him also act in error, giving you extra information.

[Jay]

I second Dogmeat's comments.

If you are giving away too much information looking at your cards then you are in the wrong game. If you are a low limit player and probably newer to the game, looking at your cards and giving yourself more time to think clearly and see what plays out is more important that trying to pick up a "tell". If you are trying to pick up a tell, I believe that new players and even some good players have a hard time picking up tells especially in pre-flop situations. Not to say you can't or that there are times when it is easy to spot them. Such as getting ready to muck, or someone looking at their chips, etc. But note that its also easy for someone to spot a tell on you if by chance you wait to look at your cards and noticeably take an extra moment to think about your cards. Again if you're worried about giving off tells then waiting for all eyes on you to look at your cards isn't a good thing.

If you are a mid-higher stakes player then most players are probably pretty good. Now if you're looking for tells, you're dealing with players who hardly give off any tells, or may give off false tells. Now what do you do? And if you're worried about giving off a tell, well what better way for a good player to see a tell when you hold up the game to check your cards and think really quick to make a decision, especially when that decision is marginal.

It is difficult to look at everyone around a full table and note their reactions as players look at their cards at different times and give off different reactions.

As with everything there are times when waiting to look at your cards is good, however I believe most of the time its better to know your cards and start thinking on what to do, and what will need to happen to play your hand.

Originally the poster suggested a situation where they were on the BB and I assume it was checked around to the SB who was deciding to limp but feared a raise. Being in the SB, if you had a decent hand and the BB would fold to a raise then raising would be almost automatic. I couldn't see where seeing a "tell" from the BB would make much of a difference. Is the BB readable as to see Aces and jump up and down at the table? I doubt it, so what information would the SB get. Furthermore, if the BB looked at his cards when he was dealt the SB probably would not catch the reaction of the BB. Again, would the BB tremble in fear holding a poor hand when the action got around to the SB? I doubt it.

I rambled, but for new players I believe looking at the cards and having time enough to think about when and how to play a hand is better than making a split second decision because they saw a player suggesting a muck before the action gets to them. Just my two cents.

j.

[Kerplunk]

From what I've seen on TV, it seems like pros generally wait until action's on them to look at their hole cards, at least most of the time. I've never watched high level poker live, so perhaps someone can confirm/refute this observation.

I prefer to look at my hole cards when it's my turn to act. Besides the reason already mentioned, I feel like the patience and deliberateness in waiting to look carries over to the rest of my play. I am literally and figuratively letting the game come to me. This keeps me from playing over-anxiously or impatiently, which is something I have to work on. My hole cards aren't going anywhere, right?