How would you play if you saw everyone's hole cards?

[A-Baum]

A link in one of the tournament forums about online cheating kinda prompted me to think...

How would you play if you sat at an online table and could somehow see everyones' hole cards? You can't, mind you see the cards that are coming.

Do you see a flop on almost any half-decent hand? Do you chase when you're behind given the proper odds? Do you ever slowplay, or hope an opponent catch up? I think it's interesting and not quite as easy as you'd think off the bat.

[TheShootah]

I think if you have read the TOP it would be quite easy to play if you saw everyones cards. You would know when you had the best hand, and you could decide how to best extract the most money. Surely you would chase when behind given the proper odds. You do that anyway! All these examples are hard to answer because it is situation dependant, i.e. if the pot was small and you had a monster hand compared to everyones, why wouldn't you slowplay? You could never make a mistake mathwise, because you can always see what you are up against and then do the math to see if you can continue.

[Onaflag]

How would I play? I would play until I passed out. When I regained consciencness, I would again play until I passed out. I would repeat this process until I either a) died, or b) made enough money to retire.

Onaflag..........

[onegymrat]

Raise a lot and fold a lot.

[jba]

this is still a game of incomplete information. FOR EXAMPLE:

no limit holdem on the river you have AK villain has AQ board is AT987 pot is $100 stacks are deep villain checks to you, what do you bet??

ah hah no perfect answer, you don't know enough.


this is a sort of corollary to the fundamental theorem of poker. I'm not sure how to say it, but if you bet in a manner that causes your opponent to bet/call/raise in a manner different than if he could see your cards, you win...etc. (hope I'm making sense)



Basically, this does not let you become Poker God. that's my point.

[MooFrog]

I dunno, I'd say that comes pretty damn close to godhood. You could never be bluffed, would know when you're way behind, could steal blinds like crazy...

Also, I don't see how you wouldn't have enough information on your example. From what I see, you know everything about everything (ie. your best hand is AKT98 and his is AQT98, no more cards to come, you win!)

If you mean that I don't know how much he'll call, then I guess I don't know everything. Lets just say that worrying about what to bet when I have the nuts is not my biggest problem in poker...

[Bradyams]

I would limp with anything, and probably call a lot of raises. Any mistakes you make are going to be negligent to the amount of money you'll make.

[InfernoLL]

The important thing to note isn't that you couldn't win the absolute maximum easily, it's that you could win a whole lot more than anyone else very very easily. Is not making the absolute optimum bet against a hand you beat really going to keep you up at night? You might as well agonize about calling one bet on the river in a huge low limit pot against terrible players. It doesn't matter. Just do it. Do it.

[splashpot]

[ QUOTE ]
I would limp with anything, and probably call a lot of raises. Any mistakes you make are going to be negligent to the amount of money you'll make.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is the worst advice you could give. How are you going to make tons of money by limping a lot of hands? You should play all hands that will show a larger return than what you are investing to play. This is not every hand.

About the original question. Can your opponenets see all the cards too? Or just you?

[Bradyams]

You'll make tons of money because you have tons of information. If you play 53o from the BB for free and flop bottom pair on the flop you will normally fold to any aggression at all. However if you know exactly what you're opponents have you may be ahead against a draw or something.

I would play nearly every hand.