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

[MooFrog]

Yeah, I think that no matter what you do in this situation you should be +EV. Assuming that you are able to exploit sneaky hands for a decent amount of money, you should be able to get in cheaply for most any hand and still return a profit.

To gain the maximum, I think loosening up slightly from normal standards (or even staying at normal) would work. Hands that can be dominated should gain a lot of EV, since you won't be in any situations where you are playing with second best (at least when the odds to call aren't there). The reason we don't call with everything as it is is not only because domination is so problematic, but because we're just beat more often. For the number of times that your bottom pair is beat, especially when lots of people see the flop, it's still not going to be the best idea to call with everything.

[Zetack]

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously you're going to be the richest Effin bastard to ever play the game.

You will of course be sucked out on and take bad beats and what not, but if you entered all 52 end of the week tourney's on Stars does anybody think you couldn't win at least 10 or 12 of em with that kind of edge?

In ring games you'd clean up too of course, just not as fast.

The interesting problem is the constant recalculating of the odds based on you now only having 29 unknown cards after the flop and a constantly varying number of outs. For example your flush draws will no longer be nine outs they'll be anywhere from 1-9 outs. You might limp in EP with A-x suited when say 8 of your suit are out there, but fold it in late position when 7 people limp in front of you but there are only 3 of your suit left in the deck...etc etc etc.

--Zetack

[splashpot]

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]
This would only work if your opponents can't see your card. If they can see your cards, your implied odds are essentially eliminated. If they can't, then yes, you should play way more hands.

[jba]

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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...

[/ QUOTE ]

okay switch the hands, now you have AQ he has AK, AT987 board, he checks to you, what do you do now??

it seems like it would be pretty easy to make a -EV play here.

this is really my point.


of course I concede that this gives you an unbelievable example, and you're definitely going to have a positive win rate, but you already do don't you? I think the discussion is always about maximizing EV not win or lose.

[Mynok]

Just for fun (and to totally waste time), I played a few hours of turbo texas hold'em with all the hole cards visible to me. I picked a tough line up and set the limits at 40-80. In that time I was up about 1,000 dollars (12.5 Big Bets) per hundred hands. I varied how loosely I would play and, in practice, it seems that an optimal starting hand policy would be looser than you could play without seeing the hole cards, but not by as much as I thought. You'd still make money if you played every hand, and a lot of it, but you'd make even more by playing only better holdings. I'd venture to guess a VP$IP of 30-35 percent rather than the 15-20 percent that works for regular old non-psychic powers poker. If I had QQ and I saw that somebody else had KK or AA, I'd fold preflop unless there were the pot odds to go for the set (with tough line up there usually weren't). On the flop, if one of my rags hit and I was up against overcards I'd bet and raise and immediately fold if they hit an overcard.

This whole experiment was kinda dumb, but it did drive home the point of aggression in poker and not fearing that you're up against the nuts all the time. Pretty funny to see Conan the Librarian betting out his AK on a flop of 4 9 J rainbow and I'm holding 97o.

[Bradyams]

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]
This would only work if your opponents can't see your card. If they can see your cards, your implied odds are essentially eliminated. If they can't, then yes, you should play way more hands.

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I thought that was the point; that only I can see everyone's hole cards. Everyone else is left with only their cards as usual.

[jimymat]

i would take every flop

[pergesu]

Like Phil Helmuth.

Or is that their souls?

[SpeakEasy]

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How would you play if you sat at an online table and could somehow see everyones' hole cards?

[/ QUOTE ]

If your answer is anything other than "Flawlessly," you should stop playing poker.

[poker-penguin]

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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!)

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't know what the suits are in this example. AQT98 spades beats AKT98 of two different suits. Also you don't know exactly how much he'll call, what sized bets will lure a check-raise.

So you don't have PERFECT information.